January 6 Commission

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHUMER. On another matter, the January 6 Commission. Last night, I filed cloture on the House-passed legislation to create an independent Commission and report on the events of January 6.

There is an obvious and urgent need to establish such a Commission. What happened on January 6 was a travesty, the culmination of months of deliberate lies about our elections, propagated by the former President, a dishonest man, and his allies.

The Capitol was breached for the first time since the War of 1812. Capitol Police officers were brutalized. One was killed in the attack. I shouldn't need to remind this Chamber of the scene on January 6. We were all there. At one point, I was within 20 feet of these White supremacist hooligans.

That day continues to haunt us. Faith in our elections, in our democracy has nosedived. Listen to this. In a variety of polls, more than half of the Republican Party believes the election was rigged and Joe Biden isn't the real President. That is a flashing red warning sign for our democracy. If the American people, if a large chunk of them believe the Big Lie, if the majority of Americans believe that our elections are not on the level, we are on the road to ruin. This grand, beautiful, wonderful, several-century-old democracy could teeter when people don't believe it is fair, when people don't believe the elections are on the level.

All the fighting in the past, all the internecine fighting--I can't remember a moment in history where people doubted the veracity of our elections. They may not have liked the outcome, but they believed they were on the level. We stop believing that and, believe me, it will spread. One side will feel that way one day and then the other side will feel that way the next day, and then nobody will believe in this democracy.

But right now, unfortunately, there is a lack of courage from the other side when it comes to defeating these lies. Down the hall, House Republicans have started to make ridiculous claims about January 6-- defending the mob, blaming antifa for the attack, pretending the entire event was just a peaceful protest.

Congresswoman Cheney, a brave woman, was literally fired for saying that Joe Biden is President--for just saying the simple fact that Joe Biden is President.

We need an independent, trusted, bipartisan Commission now more than ever. It is critically important to establish a trusted record of events and begin to restore faith in our democracy. And I think our Republican colleagues know it or at least they used to because over the last few months, a funny thing has happened. Our Senate Republican colleagues have gone from mostly supporting the idea of an independent Commission to mostly opposing one. And they can't seem to get their story straight.

Over the weekend, one Senate Republican told a national news program that it was ``too early'' to establish a Commission on January 6, even though more than 5 months have gone by. Another Republican Senator worried the Commission's work would end up ``dragging on indefinitely.''

Which is it, too early, too late? Of course, both concerns are silly. There is no justification for a waiting period, and the legislation itself includes a firm deadline for the Commission to issue a report no later than December 31 of this year.

One Republican said that he wouldn't vote for a January 6 Commission ``until it was bipartisan.'' Of course, the legislation we are talking about was negotiated by the Republican ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, the committee of jurisdiction; House Democrats accepted every change requested by the House Republican leadership; and the bill received 35 votes in the House and, likely, a lot more if House leadership didn't flip their position at the last minute.

Despite the pressure of Donald Trump to go along with his Big Lie, 35--35--House Republicans voted to go forward. They are brave, should be commended, and it shows that this truly is a national need, a bipartisan national need.

Another Republican Senator, in worried tones, said the January 6 Commission should be more like the 9/11 Commission and be chaired by outside independent investigators appointed by both parties. Hello. I hate to break it to my Republican colleagues, but the legislation passed by the House is modeled after the 9/11 Commission and, you guessed it, would be chaired by outside independent personnel appointed by both parties. They say they want that in the bill. It is in the bill.

So what is really going on here? Why the various, shifting reasons why Republicans can't support a simple bipartisan, down-the-middle, 50- 50 Commission to report on a very serious event in our Nation's history?

Well, it seems the real reason has nothing to do with the structure of the Commission, nothing to do with the details of the bill. It all has to do with politics. According to POLITICO this morning, the Republican leader, Senator McConnell, told his Members behind closed doors that ``regardless of tweaks to the bill . . . approving the Commission could hurt the party's midterm election message.''

Again, that is a quote from a report in POLITICO magazine or POLITICO newsletter--whatever POLITICO is. Let me repeat that. According to this report, the Republican leader of the Senate opposes any independent inquiry into the January 6 insurrection because he is worried the truth could hurt the Republicans politically.

Look, I am sorry if an independent Commission to study an attack on our democracy isn't the Republican ad maker's idea of a good time. This is too important--too important.

We cannot let the Big Lie fester. We cannot let faith in our elections continue to erode. We must get at the truth and restore Americans' confidence in this beautiful, noble, ongoing experiment in democracy.

The Senate will vote on the Commission. I hope our Republican colleagues rise to the occasion.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source