January 6 Commission
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. SCHUMER. Now, Madam President, on another matter that should also be just as bipartisan in the Senate: the Commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
We all know that January 6 was one of the lowest moments in our democracy and one of the lowest moments in the grand, grand history of our 200-and-some-odd-year experiment--noble experiment--in democracy. An outgoing President of the United States, fresh off an electoral defeat--a significant electoral defeat--did something that no other President in recent history has done. Rather than accept the results of the election and support the peaceful transfer of power--a hallmark of our democracy that has inspired democracies all over the world--former President Trump unabashedly lied, repeatedly, about the results of the election and fomented an armed rebellion at the U.S. Capitol.
We are all witnesses to those events. We all heard the lies. We lived through their terrible consequences. Lest we forget, 140 police officers were injured in the attack, and 5 Americans would eventually lose their lives.
In the weeks since, faith in our elections has plummeted. More than half of the Republican Party now believes that the 2020 elections were rigged and that Joe Biden isn't the actual President of the United States. Republican State legislatures across the country, captured by Donald Trump's Big Lie, are tripping over themselves to restrict access to the ballot box. Arizona Republicans, in an ``election audit,'' have been searching for traces of bamboo fibers in the 2020 ballots--chasing a bananas-crazy, rightwing internet conspiracy that China had ballots imported to tip the scales for Biden. That is how insane this has become--hunting for bamboo in ballots.
We need to put a stop to this cancer in the Republican Party. We need to stand up to the Big Lie. We must get at the truth and do everything in our power to restore Americans' faith in our elections and this grand, ongoing, noble experiment of democracy.
In that light, a national, bipartisan, independent Commission to report on the events of January 6 is exactly what the doctor ordered. We have to investigate, expose, and report on the truth. We need to establish a trusted record of what really transpired on January 6 and the events that preceded it. That is what this Commission is designed to do in a bipartisan, straight-down-the-middle manner.
Now, I have gone through all the silly excuses that we have heard from our Republican colleagues about why the Commission isn't needed or is too early or will go on for too long or needs to be modeled after the 9/11 Commission, even though it already is. The truth of the matter seems to be that Senate Republicans oppose the Commission because they fear that it might upset Donald Trump and their party's midterm messaging.
I am not speculating. It was reported in POLITICO yesterday that the Senate Republican leader warned his Conference that a January 6 Commission could hurt the Republicans politically.
Well, too bad. This is too important.
For the sake of Americans' faith in our democracy, there must be a full, thorough, and trusted account of what happened on January 6. Senate Republicans must decide if they are on the side of truth or on the side of Donald Trump's Big Lie.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source