[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 2 (Tuesday, January 4, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12-S13]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                     EXECUTIVE CALENDAR--Continued

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.


                        Anniversary of January 6

  Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, a year ago, there was an attempted 
overthrow of American democracy right here in this building. You know, 
we spend so much time here arguing about things that are unknowable--
about the future, about our ideology, about opinions--that we have 
become accustomed to treating floor speeches in the Senate as not 
primarily about facts.
  But I was here. And by ``I was here,'' I don't mean I was here in the 
Capitol. I mean, I was right here at this desk. And so no one needs to 
characterize it

[[Page S13]]

for me or pontificate about it or tell me what I think happened. I was 
right here. It wasn't theoretical. It wasn't a debate. It was a 
physical siege on the U.S. Capitol.
  I was already angry that day. The idea that American--American--
democratically elected politicians would participate in a process so 
foul as to be worthy of our most autocratic adversaries had me in a 
sour mood. The electoral college certification is supposed to be the 
functional equivalent of a swearing-in. It is where the thing gets made 
official, but it is not like any decisions are supposed to be made that 
day. But Senators Hawley and Cruz and others, with their unlimited 
ambition, their big brains, and their supposed expertise in the 
Constitution, were dancing on the edge of overturning democracy itself.
  But I actually had no idea how bad it was, that there was an ongoing 
organized conspiracy to steal the election for real, not in a ``Russian 
hacking'' kind of a way or not in a ``too many of the people I don't 
agree with voted'' kind of way--actually overturning the whole thing.
  So no one needs to tell me how to interpret this. I was there when 
they yelled: ``Lock down, lock down.'' I was here when Mike Pence was 
ushered off the floor. I was here when Chuck Grassley and anyone else 
with a personal protection detail was rushed to safety, and the rest of 
us were just locked in here and told to stay in our seats.
  I was here when Senator Todd Young made himself ready to physically 
confront the violent traitors. I was here when we were finally moved to 
an undisclosed location and Lindsey Graham yelled at the Capitol Police 
leadership for not having a plan to handle such a moment.
  And I was here when Reverend Black pulled us together in unity. And I 
was here when all but a few of us decided enough is enough, and we were 
collectively determined to finish our work and finish the count that 
evening.
  We were perilously close to losing everything that night. And some 
did. Police officers were maimed and killed. Custodial workers and 
Senate staffers were hiding, with zero protection.
  The insurrectionists were explicit. They wanted to kill the Speaker 
of the House.
  One year later should be a simple, solemn commemoration of what 
happened and a collective, unified determination to never let anything 
like that ever happen again.
  But I am even more worried now because that moment of unity is gone, 
and, most importantly, that moment of moral clarity of collective, 
patriotic outrage is fading. It went from Republicans being apologetic 
about their President to voting to exonerate him. It went from 
Republicans being angry at him and denouncing him to voting against 
putting a bipartisan commission together to get all of the facts out.
  It went from 99 percent of the public being crystal clear about the 
moral threat to the right rewriting history and, in some cases, the 
left going along with it by telling us that some issues poll better.
  To be clear, the litmus test for both political parties is, to 
greater or lesser degrees, the extent to which one is loyal to the 
President--fair enough. That is how the modern two-party system works, 
for better or worse.
  But Donald Trump is now defining fealty to him by one thing and one 
thing only: Are you willing to install him into power regardless of the 
vote count?
  And so now every Republican politician and elected official--
secretaries of state, county election commissioners, U.S. Senate 
candidates--have to promise to put Trump above democracy itself. And 
many are doing it. They are now organizing the next coup in plain 
sight.
  Now, I don't know the economics or the psychology behind it. Maybe, 
it is ratings. Maybe, it is just the natural tendency among the 
chattering class to not want to sound too wild-eyed--that being 
unworried is what passes for savvy in this town. But everyone, 
including those who consider themselves patriots, seem so chill about 
what is going on that I am genuinely alarmed. They are installing 
loyalists across the country in order to cheat, and they are not being 
subtle about it.
  Meanwhile, the cocktail set in Washington is busy policing our tone 
and talking about Democratic overreach, and so the defining question 
this week and this year is this: Are we willing to face the challenge 
in front of us?
  Yes, there is COVID. Yes, there is climate. But democracy itself is 
at risk in a way that we haven't seen in centuries, and we are standing 
around as a country arguing about mostly nonsense.
  And I think here is the problem for all of us, and here is why this 
is so hard emotionally: If we take a moment to realize what is at 
stake, we might realize what is required. It will require Republicans 
to stand up to an autocrat. It will require Democrats to stop arguing 
amongst themselves. It will require reporters to write stories that get 
fewer clicks than whatever BS is driving the news of the day. It will 
require citizens to understand that democracy in this country is not 
what we have. It is what we do, and it is never guaranteed.
  So, this week, we commemorate the fallen. We thank everyone who came 
to democracy's defense across the country and in our great Capital 
City. But we know that this was round 1. We know that authoritarians 
rarely give up, and we know that they aren't doing their preparation 
for the next coup in hiding. They are doing it all in plain sight, and 
they must be stopped.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.