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Floor Speech
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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I am really pleased and honored to follow my colleague from Ohio and to join in supporting the resolution that he is offering to pay homage and to express gratitude to the essential workers in this building, in the Capitol Complex, in this temple of democracy, for all they have done, not only on January 6 but in the aftermath of that brutal assault on our democracy.
We talk in abstract now about the institution and the assault on this institution, but the lasting and enduring trauma for those workers that we will recognize in this resolution is tremendously important. It is important to them, but it is important to us as well that we recognize our duty and our obligation to them for the dignity of their work and what they did to enable us to come back on that evening, January 6, and do our duty--and do it in a bipartisan way, coming together on that day.
We were all witnesses to a brutal crime. We were all witnesses to an insurrection and a riot that stands as a dark and terrible milestone-- the anniversary tomorrow of probably the most abhorrent attack on our democratic institutions. And all of us who were witnesses can never forget the horror of that day--the sheer physicality of the attack, the blood in the hallways, the sights and sounds of rioters with bats and pipes bearing Trump banners and Confederate flags and seeking to do physical harm to us and to kill the Vice President. That kind of physical, brutal, cruel attack, with the hope--in fact, intent--of killing and injuring, had its effect. In fact, people died.
Our Capitol Police bravely defended us, with determination and courage, and so did many other heroes that day--the National Guard and the DC Police. But let us never forget that mob was called here to this very Chamber by the former President in a cynical bid to keep himself in power through a coup that would subvert the will of the people on election day. And we were here--we were all standing and then sitting at our desks when we were rushed from the Chamber because of the threat of physical assault on us.
In the end, their efforts were thwarted. Congress certified the election result that night as planned. We were undeterred, undaunted by the violent and deadly attack on the Capitol and our democracy.
But that day was not a one-off. It was not an isolated or aberrant incident. In fact, it was a symptom and a symbol of a deeper, destructive violence of violent extremism--a virus of domestic terrorism that continues to infect our Nation; in fact, the most persistent and lethal threat to our national internal security.
According to the intelligence community and the FBI, it is violent extremism and White supremacy. That attack left scars and wounds that remain unhealed, the lives that were lost, and many of our staff, many of those maintenance workers, many of the cafeteria and janitorial staff struggle with lingering trauma from the violence that they faced on that day.
The attack reminded us of how fragile and in danger our democratic institutions are when our leaders, when we as leaders, fail to protect them. The mob that assaulted our Capitol was fueled by the Big Lie--the baseless falsehood that massive fraud occurred during the 2020 election.
That Big Lie was propagated and supported by the President and his enablers, and they have continued to fuel those delusions. Donald Trump has incited continually the kind of falsehoods that lead to a sharp rise in threats against lawmakers in the Capitol here and a higher comfort level with violence at every level--in school boards, in statehouses.
The Big Lie has now become a pretense. It has become a pretense for some Republican leaders and State governments across the country to pass legislation making it harder to vote--meaning that fewer people have fewer times and fewer places to cast their vote.
At least 19 States have passed 34 new laws that restrict voting rights based on that Big Lie--the bogus, false claim of fraud. And Republicans in a number of States are vesting the power to overturn election results--literally, to deny the results of the vote count rather than respecting the will of the people, whether it is the vote canvass boards or legislative committees or other State officials having the power to strike down and overturn the results by refusing to certify them or literally disregarding them.
All of this voter suppression is poisonous. It is toxic to our democracy. And we have an obligation, on this solemn anniversary of that horrific attack, to recommit ourselves to holding accountable those domestic terrorists and violent extremists who stormed the Capitol and hunted us--lawmakers and others--ransacked the halls that we regard with so much reverence, defaced and debased not just the building but the concept of democracy. And we should pursue not only prosecutions against the 700 or 1,000 people who can be held criminally responsible for defacing the Capitol or illegally entering or other acts of violence but everyone who aided and abetted them. They must be held accountable, no matter what their rank or their office, no matter how high the facts and the law will go. I urge the Department of Justice to pursue them, to prosecute them, to make sure that they are held accountable.
We also need to fortify those institutions. And that is why passing the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act have to be among our priorities and changing the rules to make that possible.
My colleagues and I will bring to the Senate floor for a vote in the coming weeks, no later than January 17, those measures in an effort to change the rules to enable their passage. We need to do whatever is necessary to pass those measures, including limiting the filibuster.
There is a direct through line from the Big Lie in the January 6 assault, incited by Donald Trump, to violent extremism and domestic terrorism, to voter suppression and the overturning of elections, eventually to the destruction of our democracy. During the peaceful transition of power that eventually did take place last January, President Biden reminded us that a better world is not something that is given to us; it requires hard work. Unity is not inevitable; it is achievable through what we do to make it possible. Democracy is not a spectator sport.
The values and norms and institutions of our democracy are fragile, as threatened now as they are precious, and they depend on people fighting for them in times of adversity. And truly now we are in a time of adversity.
What haunts me, as I think back on January 6, is how close we came to losing our democracy, how close we came to shattering the traditions and norms--much as the windows of this building were shattered--and how a few people continue to believe they could demagogue and enable Trump to stage that coup.
There is no forgetting what some of our colleagues did. There is no denying it. But we have sought to work together because we come here and we are sent here for a common purpose, which is to meet the needs of Americans, especially in a time of pandemic and economic hardship.
This past year has truly been one of hardship and heartbreak for so many. And as we think back to that day, a year ago, we need to redouble our determination to hold dear the democratic values and institutions that mean elected representatives truly represent the people. That is what elections do. That is why every vote should count and every vote must count. And that is the purpose of the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
We have our part to do. We need to do it. And I hope my colleagues will not only relive and remember but act on it--the common purpose of that day when we came back to count the vote--to make sure that we can come together again not just to honor the people who enable us to do it but also to honor the people of America who elect us to do it.
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