[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 82 (Wednesday, May 12, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S2464]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            REPUBLICAN PARTY

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on a final topic, I am not in the habit 
of commenting on the House Republican minority, but today they have 
reached a new and very dangerous low point. Earlier this morning, the 
House GOP ousted Liz Cheney from the party's leadership. Her crime? 
Telling the truth--telling the truth that Joe Biden is the legitimate 
President of the United States and Donald Trump is lying when he says 
the election is stolen.
  Congresswoman Cheney spoke truth to power, and for that she has been 
fired. Make no mistake, the Congresswoman and I disagree on so many 
policy issues, but we both agree that truth matters. And she, like so 
many characters in history--I am just thinking now of Sir Thomas More--
had the courage to tell the truth and paid a big price for it.
  So this is sad--a very dark moment for the Republican Party. 
Republicans are seeking to perpetuate and act upon the big lie that the 
election was stolen, simply to placate the most dishonest President in 
American history. This President lies at will. He doesn't care of the 
consequences for the future of grand, great, and wonderful democracy. 
He only cares about himself and feeding his ego, and truth has nothing 
do with that. It mattered--what happened matters a great deal, and what 
the former President is trying to do hurts our country dramatically. 
The former President's lies, right now, are poisoning our democracy, 
eroding our faith in government, and exciting a plague--often nasty, 
sometimes racist--of voter suppression laws.

  I had thought that January 6 revealed the devastating consequences of 
the big lie. I thought that the invasion of our Capitol by an armed 
mob--a mob that sought to delay the peaceful transfer of power; a mob 
that I was within 15, 20 feet of at one moment--would demonstrate to 
all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, both ends of the 
Capitol, the awful price of Donald Trump's lies. But after a brief and 
all-too-short period of introspection, it appears that the big lie is 
no longer on the retreat among Republicans but, instead, is spreading 
like a cancer.
  Far be it for me to tell House Republicans who should lead them, but 
it is truly a dangerous--dangerous--sign of our times that the price of 
admission in today's Republican Party is silence in the face of 
provable lies.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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