Photo: Choir | By Melissa Goldin, Associated Press / Yahoo | Video of a children’s choir singing the national anthem in the U.S. Capitol, only to be unceremoniously cut off by police, spread across social media on Friday. Capitol Police say singers from Rushingbrook Children’s Choir from Greenville, South Carolina, were stopped May 26 because of a miscommunication. Musical performances in the hallowed seat of Congress require permission, and police said officers had been unaware that the choir had approval from the House speaker. Capitol Police denied choir leaders’ claims that the performance was stopped because it might be found offensive.
Choir director David Rasbach and Micah Rea, a choir leader who helped organize the trip, told The Associated Press that they worked with the offices of Reps. William Timmons, Joe Wilson and Russell Fry, all Republicans from South Carolina, to get permission for the performance. They said they were informed the visit was approved by the office of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
After stopping by Wilson’s office for photos, the group went on a tour of the Capitol that ended in Statuary Hall, famous for housing a collection of statues donated by each of the 50 states, where the choir began to perform. A visitor guide asked if they had permission for the show, Rasbach and Rea said, and told them they could start singing once he conferred with someone else.
Video shows the children concluding the first verse of the anthem as onlookers applauded. But as they started another verse, an officer can be seen talking with Rea and another man. About a minute later, a man identified as a staffer for Wilson approached Rasbach to stop the singing.
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Read the whole lame excuse here:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/led-capitol-police-stop-youth-231932968.html
Associated Press writer Philip Marcelo contributed to this report.
Photo: Rushingbrook Children’s Choir
Capitol Childrens Choir Fact Focus
In this image taken from a video, the Rushingbrook Children’s Choir sings the “Star-Spangled Banner” in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall on Friday, May 26, 2023, in Washington. Social media users are claiming the Greenville, South Carolina, group was cut off as it was singing the national anthem because it could be deemed “offensive.” But Capitol Police say that such public displays aren’t allowed in the hallowed seat of Congress without proper approval and that the show in National Statuary Hall was stopped because there was a miscommunication about whether the choir had permission to be there. (AP Photo/Farnoush Amiri)
What Led Capitol Police to Stop a Youth Performance of the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’
