On Jan. 6, Josh Gottheimer was among the lawmakers forced to scramble to safety behind locked office doors right before rioters smashed their way into the interior of the U.S. Capital.

Now the Democrat from North Jersey is pushing to crack down on several of the violent extremist groups that were behind the failed insurrection.

U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J. 5th District, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, is calling on the U.S. Department of State to officially designate the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and other groups as domestic terrorist organizations.

Of the 22 suspects charged with conspiracy crimes connected to the U.S. Capitol attack, 18 were known to have ties to either the Oath Keepers or the Proud Boys.

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Gottheimer said kind of designation “prevents fundraising and deters contributions to these groups, it brings awareness and knowledge of those linked in terror.”

He said it also serves as a warning to the private sector to not do business with these organizations.

“It disrupts their networks by cutting off access to financial and other resources from those who sympathize, and encourages those targeted to end their support for terrorism," he said.

Gottheimer said we need to take a strong stand against hate groups “to make sure that law enforcement and our intelligence community has every tool at their resource to prevent these thugs from killing law enforcement officers.”

Capital police officer and New Jersey native Brian Sicknick died after physically engaging with the rioters on Jan. 6.

Gottheimer pointed out hate crimes have surged in recent years and everything must be done so “these lawless thugs, these violent extremists, these domestic terror groups aren’t allowed to once again wreak havoc, to attempt to tear apart our democracy."

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Stacker used data from the 2020 County Health Rankings to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest. The 2020 County Health Rankings values were calculated using mortality counts from the 2016-2018 National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey and America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2019 data were also used to provide demographics on the senior population of each state and the state's rank on senior health care, respectively.

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