Anniversary of January 6

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, a year ago, there was an attempted overthrow of American democracy right here in this building. You know, we spend so much time here arguing about things that are unknowable-- about the future, about our ideology, about opinions--that we have become accustomed to treating floor speeches in the Senate as not primarily about facts.

But I was here. And by ``I was here,'' I don't mean I was here in the Capitol. I mean, I was right here at this desk. And so no one needs to characterize it for me or pontificate about it or tell me what I think happened. I was right here. It wasn't theoretical. It wasn't a debate. It was a physical siege on the U.S. Capitol.

I was already angry that day. The idea that American--American-- democratically elected politicians would participate in a process so foul as to be worthy of our most autocratic adversaries had me in a sour mood. The electoral college certification is supposed to be the functional equivalent of a swearing-in. It is where the thing gets made official, but it is not like any decisions are supposed to be made that day. But Senators Hawley and Cruz and others, with their unlimited ambition, their big brains, and their supposed expertise in the Constitution, were dancing on the edge of overturning democracy itself.

But I actually had no idea how bad it was, that there was an ongoing organized conspiracy to steal the election for real, not in a ``Russian hacking'' kind of a way or not in a ``too many of the people I don't agree with voted'' kind of way--actually overturning the whole thing.

So no one needs to tell me how to interpret this. I was there when they yelled: ``Lock down, lock down.'' I was here when Mike Pence was ushered off the floor. I was here when Chuck Grassley and anyone else with a personal protection detail was rushed to safety, and the rest of us were just locked in here and told to stay in our seats.

I was here when Senator Todd Young made himself ready to physically confront the violent traitors. I was here when we were finally moved to an undisclosed location and Lindsey Graham yelled at the Capitol Police leadership for not having a plan to handle such a moment.

And I was here when Reverend Black pulled us together in unity. And I was here when all but a few of us decided enough is enough, and we were collectively determined to finish our work and finish the count that evening.

We were perilously close to losing everything that night. And some did. Police officers were maimed and killed. Custodial workers and Senate staffers were hiding, with zero protection.

The insurrectionists were explicit. They wanted to kill the Speaker of the House.

One year later should be a simple, solemn commemoration of what happened and a collective, unified determination to never let anything like that ever happen again.

But I am even more worried now because that moment of unity is gone, and, most importantly, that moment of moral clarity of collective, patriotic outrage is fading. It went from Republicans being apologetic about their President to voting to exonerate him. It went from Republicans being angry at him and denouncing him to voting against putting a bipartisan commission together to get all of the facts out.

It went from 99 percent of the public being crystal clear about the moral threat to the right rewriting history and, in some cases, the left going along with it by telling us that some issues poll better.

To be clear, the litmus test for both political parties is, to greater or lesser degrees, the extent to which one is loyal to the President--fair enough. That is how the modern two-party system works, for better or worse.

But Donald Trump is now defining fealty to him by one thing and one thing only: Are you willing to install him into power regardless of the vote count?

And so now every Republican politician and elected official-- secretaries of state, county election commissioners, U.S. Senate candidates--have to promise to put Trump above democracy itself. And many are doing it. They are now organizing the next coup in plain sight.

Now, I don't know the economics or the psychology behind it. Maybe, it is ratings. Maybe, it is just the natural tendency among the chattering class to not want to sound too wild-eyed--that being unworried is what passes for savvy in this town. But everyone, including those who consider themselves patriots, seem so chill about what is going on that I am genuinely alarmed. They are installing loyalists across the country in order to cheat, and they are not being subtle about it.

Meanwhile, the cocktail set in Washington is busy policing our tone and talking about Democratic overreach, and so the defining question this week and this year is this: Are we willing to face the challenge in front of us?

Yes, there is COVID. Yes, there is climate. But democracy itself is at risk in a way that we haven't seen in centuries, and we are standing around as a country arguing about mostly nonsense.

And I think here is the problem for all of us, and here is why this is so hard emotionally: If we take a moment to realize what is at stake, we might realize what is required. It will require Republicans to stand up to an autocrat. It will require Democrats to stop arguing amongst themselves. It will require reporters to write stories that get fewer clicks than whatever BS is driving the news of the day. It will require citizens to understand that democracy in this country is not what we have. It is what we do, and it is never guaranteed.

So, this week, we commemorate the fallen. We thank everyone who came to democracy's defense across the country and in our great Capital City. But we know that this was round 1. We know that authoritarians rarely give up, and we know that they aren't doing their preparation for the next coup in hiding. They are doing it all in plain sight, and they must be stopped.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source