Anniversary of January 6

Floor Speech

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Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, thank you for that recognition, and it is great to see you safe and secure, out of your vehicle, presiding over the Senate.

It is a great honor for me to follow my friend the Senator from Michigan on this important day, and I want to start by thanking my friend and chairperson of the Rules Committee, the Senator from Minnesota, for organizing us to come together today to commemorate or acknowledge what was a dark, dark day in American history, what happened a year ago.

I want to thank--and I will do this in a more formal way in a moment--all the folks who helped protect us on January 6, a year ago. And I want to commend an organization that I know the Presiding Officer is aware of, as is the Senator from Minnesota and the Senator from Colorado--the World Central Kitchen, led by Jose Andres, who is right now downstairs--Jose is not, but the organization is--serving Capitol Police and other Capitol personnel free meals today.

It is a wonderful organization that supports those in need all across the world and all across the country, and the fact that they are here today saying ``thank you'' to our Capitol Police and others is appropriate.

Mr. President, I rise today to mark the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection in which a mob broke into this Capitol, broke onto the floor of the Senate, in an effort to overturn the 2020 Presidential election. This was an effort to undermine democracy, plain and simple.

In the last year, I think most of us have reflected a lot on the effort by our U.S. Capitol Police, the DC Metropolitan Police, the Virginia State Police, and the Maryland State Police that day. They quite literally held the line to protect our democracy. I am personally indebted to those individuals who saved so many lives and some of whom lost their own.

And while others, I know, have already come before me and talked about the incredible role of the Capitol Police and other allies--the Metropolitan Police--as the Presiding Officer knows, the first State police to arrive on the scene were Maryland and Virginia. They actually got here quicker than the National Guard.

But I would like to highlight in my comments today another group of people who helped quell the insurrection, and that was the Virginia National Guard, a group of men and women that I and the Presiding Officer have great pride in. We both have served as Governors of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and one of the most important roles in being Governor--beyond the fact of the incredibly important title you carry when you are Governor--is the fact that we served during those each of our 4 years, the Presiding Officer and I, as the commander in chief of the Guard.

One of the most meaningful parts I recall was seeing off those Guard members, young and old--these are folks who have day jobs and lives and studies and work--seeing them off, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and to respond in the aftermath of hurricanes and floods and welcoming back these citizen soldiers in a way that oftentimes doesn't get the recognition that they deserve.

But I, again, think back to January 6. As the crowds grew here on Capitol grounds and steadily advanced their positions, eventually into this building itself--and, again, so many of us were here. And I think the Senator from Oklahoma was speaking as we heard the glass break and people shouting, ``Quick, let's secure the doors.''

I think all of us who work here, our pages, the great members of the floor staff, with particular recognition of the Parliamentarian staff-- we come racing in, and we think about those doors upstairs, which are, frankly, pretty flimsy. We all remember that day and those moments. It was obvious pretty quickly that we were going to need additional force to augment the Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police.

Now, a year ago, it took much too long than was needed to get the National Guard to provide that assistance. We had, at that point, a convoluted system in place that resulted in delays in getting the Guard to the Capitol. I am proud to say that since then Congress--again, under the leadership of our chair of the Rules Committee, Senator Klobuchar--has passed on a bipartisan basis and the President has signed into law the Capitol Police Emergency Assistance Act, which empowers the Capitol Police chief to request the assistance of the DC Guard or other Federal law enforcement agencies in emergencies without the prior approval process that was used in the past: the Capitol Police Board and the kind of bureaucratic hurdles that, frankly, didn't allow the Guard to get called in a year ago.

When the decision was finally made to utilize National Guard personnel, men and women from the DC National Guard, the Maryland National Guard, and the Virginia Guard were literally the first ones to be called up. Within hours of the riot and the Capitol being stormed, while personnel here on the ground were still working to secure and fully regain control of the Capitol Complex, men and women in the Virginia National Guard were ready for deployment

(Mr. KING assumed the Chair.)

As I mentioned earlier, those of us--and I see now the Presiding Officer is the former Governor of Maine. He had that same responsibility that I had and the previous Presiding Officer had as Governors to be commander in chief of our Guards.

We know firsthand that the National Guard in each of our respective States is a civilian force. These men and women who were called up on January 6 and 7 were called from their jobs, their studies, and most importantly, their families. They were called from cities and towns and big cities and small farming communities all across the Commonwealth. Within hours, they mobilized for a domestic deployment to our National Capitol.

I remember one Guard member I met, who lived in Arlington--he was working, got the deployment call, rushed back home to pick up some clothes, take a shower, and had, frankly, to drive all the way down--I think they were mustering in Newport News at that point and then were redeployed up here at the Capitol the next morning.

On January 7, the morning following the riot, the first National Guard personnel arrived on the scene to support the ongoing security effort and to protect against the possibility of future threats.

Folks in this room remember how uncertain the immediate aftermath was. The men and women of the Guard arrived in DC fully armed and had been told to prepare for the possibility of confronting heavily armed rioters and protesters--not tourists; heavily armed rioters and protesters--and even the possibility that some of those rioters and protesters might bring bombs or IEDs that could have been placed in the vicinity of the Capitol. We still haven't found the source of those bombs that were placed at the Democratic and Republican National Committees.

The weeks leading up to the inauguration, after the 7th and before the 21st, even more National Guard personnel poured into DC from across the country. The Virginia National Guard continued to perform a critical and outsized role in this response, with nearly 2,500 men and women--close to 10 percent of the total Guard presence in DC--securing the Capitol grounds and Library of Congress, providing quick-reaction capabilities to Capitol, Metropolitan, and Park Police, and adding critical communications, medical, logistical, and chaplain support.

I want to specifically highlight the Virginia National Guard's 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, which played a leading role in protecting our Capitol in the weeks following January 6.

The IBCT, under the command of COL Chris Samulski, led a task force of more than 7,400 airmen and soldiers from 12 different States and was responsible for maintaining the physical security of the Capitol grounds leading up to the inauguration.

Twice during their mission here at the Capitol, I had the privilege of meeting with the Virginia Guard. What I heard time and again was the great mix of emotion that came with this deployment. These women and men had volunteered for duty to serve the United States and protect our Constitution, but what they normally expect that duty to ensue was protecting us against our foreign enemies.

I see my friend, my colleague from Virginia. I know he visited with the Guard as well.

Many of these men and women had been deployed--in some cases, multiple times--to Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of these soldiers and airmen had been deployed in the aftermath of hurricanes and storms and natural disasters. None of them, not only from Virginia but from any other State that was mustered here, had ever been deployed when the frontline against people who wanted to overthrow our government was not abroad but right here in our Nation's Capital. They were as shocked as all of us that this very building where we work every day needed National Guard protection.

The truth was, they would spend weeks on duty, camped out in our Capitol and around the congressional office buildings. Again, I thank the chairman of the Rules Committee. When sometimes they didn't get a fair shake or tried to get pushed aside, many of us, under her leadership, said: No, these folks should not be pushed out in the cold because somebody wants their parking space back.

I remember their kind of uncertainty. They were kind of saying: Senator, we didn't think we would ever be here. But I also remember their pride in serving as part of this historic mission and their direct role in safeguarding our democracy. Their presence during that time, all the way through the inauguration when there were still concerns that the mobs might be back, I think helped calm the Capitol, not just Members but those who were pages at that point and the many, many staff. They helped calm the Capitol and our country.

While we faced and still face unprecedented challenges as a nation, the work and dedication of the men and women of the Guard demonstrated that our democracy is stronger than the destructive behavior of any mob.

This is important because the events of January 6 were not an isolated event. What happened that day was the product of the Big Lie, perpetrated by a former President and cultivated by those who wished to chip away at the sacred values upon which our Nation was founded. Those same individuals--those same individuals--in many instances continue to stoke that lie that our elections are not secure and that they are better off in the hands of partisan officials with the authority to overturn the results if somehow those partisan officials don't like the results of the people.

Fueled by the Big Lie, a number of States across the country are changing laws to undermine the right to vote in free and fair elections. The rights of all Americans but especially minority Americans--people of color, young Americans--are being attacked, and the basic tenets of our democracy are under siege.

These changes to voting laws are un-American; for example, what happened on Wednesday, where, as we heard yesterday--oftentimes in precincts of color, particularly precincts with a heavy concentration of African Americans, you wait not an hour or 10 minutes in line; you wait 2, 5, 8, 10 hours in line. So the idea that we can't give you any water or food while you are waiting that 10 hours in line, who is going to vote? In States like Texas, where they are saying a local government can overturn the results of a local election--that is not democracy. It is despicable that some people want to make it harder for eligible Americans to participate in our democracy.

One of the things that we saw and that I am very proud of in the Commonwealth of Virginia is that we dramatically expanded our voting rights this year. We had an unprecedented turnout. It resulted in favor of one party. Our candidate of choice didn't win. The Republican candidate won because he helped turn out the early vote.

The notion--I don't understand those who are trying to restrict. What are people afraid of when more people participate? Consequently, that is why we need to act now to protect our democracy by passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. Since the Senate has shown it cannot do this basic duty and find 60 Senators to support basic voting rights, it is time to change the Senate rules so the filibuster can't be abused to continue blocking vital voting rights legislation.

I can think of no better way to honor the sacrifices that were made in defense of our democracy last year than by passing these bills to prevent further subversion of our electoral system and safeguard our democracy for future generations.

I note my former colleague passed today. I wish many of my Republican colleagues were here so they, too, could stand up and express their views and thoughts on what happened a year ago. I hope, even if they are not here today or tomorrow, that next week, they will come to the floor as well. Let their voices be heard. What do they think a year after on January 6? Is that acceptable behavior? What do they think about the efforts to try to restrict voting all across many places of the South? But that is going to change as more and more State legislatures come in this year. What are their views on these critical issues? Where do they stand on protecting Americans' right to vote and preserving our democracy, which was under assault a year ago?

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