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Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, there are so many challenges facing us as a nation today, as we all know, but there is one overriding concern that I have. If we want our country to thrive and grow and be strong and be a democracy far into the future so we can solve the problems and challenges we face, then we must protect our democracy.

Democracy. It is the core principle of America, the idea that we are a country where we can debate and can have free speech and where our voices matter. Americans must be able to trust and believe that all of us here, no matter our opinions or our beliefs, have a shared view that our democracy is sacred, that we understand what that means, and that we have a responsibility as leaders to preserve it; a democracy where we make decisions, we use our voices, we debate, we vote, but we never use brute force to get what we want. If we allow brute force to win the day, that would be the end of our democracy.

Look, we agree and we disagree. We use our words to debate policy. We are passionate about what we believe in. But we also understand that not everything is debatable, that there is a reality in our world that we must understand and acknowledge and learn from so we can move forward as a country and make sure we never repeat the mistakes of the past. And I am talking about what happened on January 6, 2021.

On that day, an attempt was made to overthrow an election, to use brute force and violence to change the outcome. We must agree as a country that using brute force to overturn this democracy is something we can never allow. In fact, if we want to solve any of those challenges in front of us, we need to have a strong democracy--period.

That is why I have to speak out today about what is happening with the release of the January 6 tapes and the total misuse by a FOX News personality to distort and change the truth of what happened that day.

As my colleagues know, I was here during the worst of the January 6 insurrection, and when I say ``here,'' I mean here in the Capitol Building. I didn't happen to be on the floor when most Senators were evacuated; instead, I had to lock down in a room feet from here. I heard the crashes as those insurrectionists stormed this building. I heard their explicit calls for violence. I heard them banging on my door, trying to get in, trying to get me so they could do harm. I know firsthand that January 6 was a dark, violent chapter in our Nation's history. So imagine my shock and my anger to hear a prime time FOX News host trying to downplay this horrific event, trying to say this was just people on a sightseeing tour.

I have taken constituents on a tour of the Capitol. I am sure the Presiding Officer has. I think we all know that you don't bring gas masks on a tour. You don't bring pepper spray on a tour. You do not bring bats or knives or tasers. They actually had zip-tie handcuffs in their possession.

Tourists don't leave broken glass in the windows. They don't leave the blood of our Capitol Police officers on the floor. Tourists don't leave with stolen documents and laptops. They don't smear feces on the wall, and they don't put up gallows outside.

For FOX News to let Tucker Carlson try and paper over this by showing a few minutes of footage--which, by the way, to be clear, even that footage is showing people who walked past gates, barricades, blaring alarms, and police lines, in total disregard of the law, to go somewhere it is abundantly clear that they should not. But to show that footage and pretend that it shows the full story, while ignoring the reality of the footage of offices being ransacked, equipment being stolen, windows broken, ignoring the footage of White supremacists parading these halls with Confederate flags and zip-tie handcuffs, ignoring the footage of Capitol Police being swarmed and beaten and battered--officers suffered cracked ribs and severe brain injuries. One officer lost an eye. Other officers took their lives in the aftermath. To try and paper over all of this as a ``sightseeing tour''--there just aren't words that do my anger justice, and the ones that get close are simply not suitable for this Senate floor.

I am glad some Republican Senators have joined Democrats in calling out how dangerous and disingenuous this kind of coverage--or, perhaps more appropriately, coverup--is. But, honestly, there is a lot more that needs to be said about how we got here. New documents from the Dominion lawsuit made clear FOX News knowingly let hosts spread lies about the election and let them inflame the public with baseless conspiracies.

I think my colleagues and reporters who cover me know I am not one to criticize the media lightly. I do not cry foul or bias or fake news at coverage that I don't like. We live in a country with free speech and free press--thank goodness. We have many different points of view, and that all informs a robust debate in our democracy so people can effect change with their voices and their votes, not violence.

But there is a basic premise that debate rests on, a basic responsibility inherent in these important rights: honesty. For our democracy to work, for our great debates to guide it effectively, the people who inform our public--the free press that we so rightly cherish and protect--need honest brokers.

Let me be clear. When I say ``honest,'' I am not saying reporters have to be utterly objective or neutral or impersonal. I am not even saying they have to be 100 percent right all the time. No one is. But they have to tell the truth. They have to at least try to tell the truth. They owe that to the people whom they cover and the viewers who trust them. That shouldn't be too much to ask. Truly, it is the barest of minimums. It is the lowest bar.

Yet, as the Dominion lawsuit is showing, FOX News has been utterly failing to meet it. In fact, they have been actively pushing lies and disinformation in the most cynical way possible.

The depositions and discovery have shown plain as day, FOX News personalities were spreading dangerous lies, promoting shameless liars, and what is more, FOX knew it. We aren't talking about a difference of an opinion or an honest mistake. We are talking about fraud in prime time.

They repeatedly brought on Sidney Powell to spout baseless conspiracies about Dominion voting machines. All the while, Tucker Carlson told his producer that Powell was lying. He told his colleague Laura Ingraham that Powell was lying. Ingraham's producer texted a FOX executive that he had told her the Dominion conspiracy was ``BS.'' Ingraham herself said Powell was a ``complete nut.'' Senior Vice President Shah said Powell was ``clearly full of it.'' Lou Dobbs' producer told him it was ``complete BS,'' only for the show to have Powell on 3 days later.

I mean, the list of people at FOX News who knew President Biden fairly won that election and knew these fraud claims were baseless goes on and on, and, in fact, it goes straight to the top.

Rupert Murdoch, owner of FOX News, called Rudy Giuliani's lies about the election ``really crazy stuff.'' Yet, as he admitted under oath, FOX News hosts endorsed those conspiracies, and he let it happen, even though he could have done more to step in and stop it.

Instead of putting the Big Lie under scrutiny, FOX put it in prime time. And when reporters with the network tried to be accurate, tried to tell the truth, tried to set straight the lies their own network was spreading, they were reprimanded.

Carlson, who told his colleagues Powell is lying, called for a FOX reporter to be fired for fact-checking a tweet about the Dominion conspiracy. Shah, the senior vice president who said Powell was full of it, labeled an anchor a ``brand threat'' for cutting away from an accurate Trump White House press conference. Another reporter was scolded for fact-checking the Powell-Giuliani press conference, which leaders at FOX acknowledged was rife with dangerous conspiracies.

Let's be clear. This was the No. 1 cable news outlet in America stifling the truth. This is so dangerous, and we cannot--we absolutely cannot--accept this.

Let's not forget the nature of those lies. They weren't just small white lies or debatable points. These were wild, sprawling conspiracies which were repeatedly debunked, including by FOX's own fact checkers and which were actually designed to disrupt the peaceful transition of power, designed to undermine the cornerstone of our democracy, the public's faith in our free and fair elections.

And they did.

On January 6, a violent mob, spurred by the lies that FOX spread, stormed this Capitol. And, now, as I detailed earlier, FOX hosts are lying about that. FOX News is discoloring our past when we should be learning from it--when we should be learning from it.

It is important to consider the scope of those lies as well. This wasn't one anchor saying something dubious and network executives looking the other way. FOX engaged in a top-down, deliberate, and coordinated effort to push out lies to its viewers. We cannot ignore that.

Tucker Carlson can selectively edit as much footage as he wants, but I refuse to let him succeed in rewriting history and lying to the American people about the January 6 insurrection.

America has already seen what Tucker Carlson failed to show: windows being smashed in, officers being pushed and beaten and battered and pepper-sprayed, the floor of the House and Senate overrun by White supremacists in tactical gear, a gallows on the Hill, a mob chanting ``Hang Mike Pence.''

I was here with one locked door between me and the violent mob shouting ``Kill the infidels.'' And when the dust settled, I walked with my colleagues through the halls, littered with broken glass, the offices that had been ransacked, and I stood here with my colleagues to cast a vote insurrectionists had stormed the building to stop. I will never forget that. Who could?

And I will never forget, and I will never let our country forget it, either, despite what FOX News has done and is doing to try and rewrite this chapter of our Nation's history.

This is not how legitimate news organizations behave. How are viewers supposed to trust them? How am I supposed to trust that they will represent my positions fairly?

Now, I will say, there are reporters at FOX who are committed to the basic principles of objective journalism and the truth, and I respect them. And many reporters at local FOX affiliates are doing their best to report the honest truth to viewers in my home State of Washington and around the country. But do you know what? Even if I trust them to try and work in good faith, how do I trust they will not get overruled by the same executives who oversaw this election disinformation operation?

I think it is important to say, and it is also worth noting, that the lies about the election and insurrection may be the most egregious and dangerous examples right now, but there are many other ways the dishonesty at FOX News is poisoning the debate for important conversations and debate.

How are we supposed to debate climate change when half the conversation is fact-free denialism? How are we supposed to discuss public health when deadly vaccine misinformation is given one of the world's biggest megaphones?

Here is the honest truth. Public figures and other media outlets need to grapple with this: Tucker Carlson is determined to make sure FOX News is not news at all.

FOX is a political vehicle for Rupert Murdoch and his rightwing causes. It is a political entity that will gladly push disinformation and lies if it means profits and political gain. Let's just call it what it is.

So until FOX does a complete 180 to fix this, until Tucker Carlson apologizes and issues a comprehensive correction, until Mr. Murdoch and his executives stop with the lies and election conspiracy theories-- and, by the way, they will have to give a real reason if they want us to believe them--until that happens, we should not pretend that Murdoch and Carlson are going to allow FOX News to be news at all. I certainly won't. And I don't say this lightly, but I encourage my colleagues to do the same.

The essence of our democracy is at stake, because what I was reminded, on January 6, is that democracy doesn't happen just because we have it. Our democracy is only as strong as our commitment to it. We have to work for it. We have to make sure that it remains with us, and that is why I am on the floor speaking out today, because I will fight for our democracy.

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