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Floor Speech

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Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, we all know that today is the anniversary of what actually I consider to be one of the worst days in my 11 years in the U.S. Senate. I think it will probably be that through my final year. And I think there are going to be some speeches later on today that may talk on the subject.

I came here mainly to thank the parliamentary staff, the Sergeant at Arms, and the Capitol Police officers who got us all into a safe environment within literally minutes of the Capitol being breached and our safety being threatened here. I am going to come back to that a little bit later.

But I think it is important for anybody who speaks this afternoon to not just talk about the moments of January 6, but let's at least talk about the months leading up to January 6. Let's talk about the ``defund the police'' effort that was building steam for a couple of years before January 6, 2021. Let's talk about the images on TV when Kenosha--a building was burning. I think it was about August timeframe when the riots were happening. I think it was Kenosha. A building is burning, and I think it was CNN that said: Mostly peaceful protest in Kenosha--but there is a building burning in the background; people have been hospitalized, right?

Let's talk about ActBlue, which is the Democrats' equivalent--we have a fundraising engine too. I am not saying they have something we don't. But they actually allowed Black Lives Matter, in the years leading up to January 6, to raise money on their website for the 13.12-mile race because 1-3-1-2 translates into A-C-A-B, which translates into ``all cops are bastards,'' a fundraising effort by the Democrats on the very site that my colleagues use to raise money. I have got no problem with that. I used the Republican equivalent. I am a Republican.

But I also think it is important--everybody around here has the clarity of their being in the right and the other side being in the wrong. But if anybody thinks that January 6 was just about what happened on that day, then I would encourage you to do your research and see all of the things that we were saying about law enforcement long before January 6. Right?

It is very important for us to understand: January 6 didn't happen because of a single event or a single set of attitudes on that day. It happened because of an attitude around here that law enforcement is bad; that they risk their life every day, but all cops are bastards, according to the ActBlue website which, to their credit, finally was taken down after I continued to make it an issue for them--long after January 6, by the way, only about 2 years ago. So we had been demonizing police officers.

And then we lead up to January 6, and they breached this building. I have got to tell you, as a Member, the last Member that left this Senate Chamber--because I was standing right there--and so angry that I didn't want to leave and we left. We were spirited away, just about a few blocks away, and we were safe. Actually, within an hour of the Capitol being breached--this part of the Capitol--we were being served a warm meal.

Now, let's back up, though, back to that time. I used to sit right there. I was sitting in that chair when I heard the doors being slammed. I heard--I think it was the Sergeant at Arms saying: Shut the door because we see shadows here. We see people running all around this building. We heard things breaking. We heard people knocking on the door.

And then it happened. We had somebody die on the House side because they tried to jump through an area that was only about from me to the President right here, the Presiding Officer of House Members. Sadly, she lost her life, but she put herself in that situation, like everybody else that breached this building and destroyed this institution of democracy.

So I am here to thank the staff. I remember the staff being so focused on the event that day that they made sure that those ballots were carried with us offsite. They were so focused on the task at hand, they weren't thinking about their personal safety; they were thinking about their role in certifying the election.

Now, we had the Democrats saying that January 6 was a horrible day for democracy and that it was a true threat to democracy.

I would submit to anyone who has paid attention to say it was a wonderful stress test for democracy because what happened is, courageous parliamentary staff, Sergeant at Arms staff, police officers, got us off to safety; they stabilized the security of this building; we came back before ever leaving this complex; and we certified the election. That doesn't sound like a weak institution to me; it sounds like an institution that withstood one of the most significant stress tests in the history of this country, and it prevailed. And the reason it prevailed is because of the staff and the law enforcement officers that kept every single one of us safe--not a scratch on any of us.

Now, I would note that some of the first people out of this Chamber-- I won't name names--the people being escorted by police happened to be OK or sympathetic with the ``defund the police'' message. But they were the first ones, when there was a moment of crisis, to look to them to get them to safety.

And we should look at every police officer and every Sergeant at Arms' officer and every Capitol Police officer and thank them every single day for their part in making sure that this democratic institution withstood the stress test.

So the last thing I want to leave you with is, I think there is a lot of confusion about the reason why this day is dark to me. Quite honestly, I found, actually, inspiration in what law enforcement did that day. What made it a dark day for me is when we had blanket pardons for the people who did damage to this building.

Now, once again, let's look on a balanced basis. There may be people coming to the floor today saying that these pardons were awful. Shame on the President for doing it.

The fact of the matter is, the Biden administration ended up going overboard with prosecuting people who were dumb enough to walk into the building, but they weren't the leaders. And they were absolutely submitted to prosecutions and costs and things that they probably shouldn't have. They should have probably gotten a fine, and most likely they never would have done it again.

But the President, on the advice of somebody in the White House--and I hope I find out the name of that person--also pardoned criminals who injured police officers, who destroyed this building.

Is there anybody listening to me today--all 30 of them that are listening--is there anybody here, if you had that happen to your office or your business, would you think, Well, they were just a little hotheaded, let them go and not prosecute them or would you hold them accountable for destroying the citadel of democracy?

So I believe that there were many people that should have been pardoned. The people who just came in; they didn't understand what was happening. The people that led the vanguard, the people that were waving through, the people that burned the buildings, the people that injured a police officer, leading to the death of an officer, should go to prison for as long as the law allows. And yet they got loose, including the QAnon Shaman.

Now, people from my side of the aisle said: What a terrible thing we are doing to these people, imprisoning them. Do you all know this guy-- I forget his name, but we all know the dude with the horns and no shirt. Do you know--everybody is talking about these horrible conditions that these people were in when they were in jail or prison. This man got transferred from a DC prison to another prison because the prison he was originally incarcerated in did not satisfy his organic diet. I am not kidding you.

So I think a lot of people are overblowing, as we oftentimes do here. We have some Democrats today say it was all about January 6. It was about the complacency and the onslaught against law enforcement for years before January 6. That, I give to my Democratic colleagues.

And then after January 6, I look to my Republican colleagues and say: Don't take the bait. People that harm police officers and destroy Federal buildings should go to prison, and it is a damn shame they are out because nearly three dozen of them have actually been arrested for another crime since they were pardoned.

And, here, we have to speak truth to power. I support President Trump. I campaigned for President Trump. I would support him again if he ran for reelection, which is not going to happen. However, we acted on bad advice. We let bad people go, and we sent the message that if you come to this Capitol and you got the right President in office, he is going to let you get past things that not any one of us would get away with if we did it in our home State.

OK. I vented a little bit. But I want to let everybody know that comes to the floor: Don't come to this floor with some righteous indignation that you think one party or the other is responsible. We are both responsible. We should own it because this Capitol and this democracy deserves better.

The last thing I will leave you with is, we actually passed a law that was to allow a plaque to be mounted thanking the law enforcement officers who actually helped us that day, responded to the call of Washington. It was a horrible scene.

I find out and I heard from Speaker Johnson that it is unimplementable. And I found out the reason why this plaque cannot be placed on a wall anywhere is because the letter of the legislation says that it would list the law enforcement officers who responded that day.

Well, this plaque that is ready to be installed actually lists every law enforcement agency that responded that day because there were hundreds, if not thousands, of people who responded to the call.

So later this week I am going to help the Speaker with his ability to implement the installation of this plaque by coming to the floor and seeking unanimous consent to simply say: We won't list the individuals, but we will list their agencies. And I look forward to the opportunity to do that later this week.

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