Murphy Marks January 6 Anniversary: The New Republican Mainstream Cares More About Preserving Power, Not Democracy

Press Release

On the eve of the January 6th insurrection at the United States Capitol, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Wednesday took to the U.S. Senate floor to highlight the ongoing efforts across the country to subvert future elections. Murphy specifically argued the new Republican mainstream cares more about preserving power over democracy, and sounded the alarm that the future of our democracy is at stake if the Senate does not act to protect the right to vote.

"[H]ere in the Senate, we often get lulled into a little bit of a sense of complacency because the last vestiges of the pre-Trump era Republican Party still exist here in the Senate. In the Senate, only seven Republicans voted for Senator[s] Cruz and Hawley's attempt to void Joe Biden's victory. And Senator McConnell, and some others here, said the right things that day and in the days after January 6. Behind closed doors, many of our veteran Republican colleagues often whisper to us how awful and vulgar the Trump rioters are and how dearly they support the rule of law," said Murphy. "But almost never do those Republican colleagues say those things out loud. Because the new mainstream of the Republican Party--the Trump Republican party--does not believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 election."

Murphy continued: "Defeating Democrats is, for the Trump Republican Party, more important than maintaining democracy. We know this because some of the most popular and revered national Republicans are calling, openly, for the suspension of democracy, if democracy keeps electing Democrats. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene called for states with Republican governors to disallow people from voting if they showed an inclination to support Democrats. Senator Rand Paul said efforts to convince people to vote--if those votes resulted in Democrats winning--should be illegal."

"Sensible Senate Republicans -- the ones that whisper the sensible things quietly to us here on the floor of the Senate chamber -- they'll claim that Marjorie Taylor Greene is an outlier, that she's a fringe character. But she's exactly the opposite. She is the mainstream. She doesn't believe Joe Biden won the 2020 election, just like seven out of ten Republican voters. The fact that she's willing to say the quiet things out loud doesn't make her fringe, it makes her royalty. The best attended Republican event in my state since the 2020 election was an event headlined by Marjorie Taylor Greene. She and Rand Paul and their ilk are the Republican Party right now," Murphy continued.

Murphy concluded: "At the heart of their plan is an attempt to just make it whole lot harder for Democrats to vote, by eliminating voting sites in Democratic neighborhoods or eliminating days to vote, days that typically Democrats vote on. But Republicans are also preparing a secret weapon. A back up plan, if on election night, their attempts to depress Democratic turnout don't work out and a Democratic candidate for Governor or Senate or for President still wins. And this back up plan is all about changing who counts the votes."

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