[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 3 (Wednesday, January 5, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S40-S42]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Anniversary of January 6

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, tomorrow will mark the first anniversary 
of one of the darkest moments in our Nation's history. One year ago 
tomorrow, a mob attacked this building. A mob of Americans, incited by 
a sitting U.S. President, was determined to prevent the peaceful 
transition of power that is the hallmark of our representative 
democracy. A mob of Americans savagely attacked and overwhelmed the men 
and women of the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police 
departments, smashed their way into this sacred space, and disrupted 
the joint session of Congress fulfilling its constitutional duty to 
count the electoral college ballots awarding the Presidency to Joe 
Biden.
  January 6, like December 7 and September 11, is a date which will 
live in infamy.
  I refer to the U.S. Capitol as a sacred space because it is so much 
more than a building where the Senate and House of Representatives meet 
and conduct business. It is the embodiment of our ideals, our 
aspirations and hopes, not just to Americans but also to all of 
humanity.
  In the 1960 essay on ``national purpose'' for the New York Times and 
LIFE magazine, Archibald MacLeish wrote:

       There are those who will say that the liberation of 
     humanity, the freedom of man and mind is nothing but a dream. 
     They are right. It is the American Dream.

  Insurrectionists desecrated this sacred space and everything it 
stands for, including liberty, self-government and the rule of law. The 
Architect of the Capitol can measure the damage they did to this 
building in millions of dollars. The damage they did to our moral 
standing in the world is inestimable.
  I want to take this moment to acknowledge and pay tribute to the 
thousands of people who work in Congress or cover it for the press and 
continue to suffer from the trauma of January the 6th. I am talking 
about the brave police officers who protected us. They engaged in a 
battle that one officer described as ``medieval.''
  And 140 of them, including Metropolitan Police Department officers, 
suffered physical injuries. One of them, Officer Brian Sicknick, died. 
I imagine all the officers who defended the Capitol bear the 
psychological scars of the attack.
  Four officers--Howard Liebengood, Jeffrey Smith, Gunther Hashida, and 
Kyle DeFreytag committed suicide in the aftermath. But I am also 
talking about the staff who work here in the Capitol, in the Senate and 
House Chambers: the doorkeepers, the Parliamentarian's office, the bill 
clerk, the Congressional Record staff, the floor and cloakroom staff, 
and so many others. Many of them had to shelter in place. They had to 
barricade themselves in offices, hoping the police would get to them 
before the insurrectionists did.
  I am talking about the committee and legislative staff in our DC 
offices and back in our State and district offices, who watched the 
attack in horror and disbelief and feared for the safety of their 
friends and colleagues, who answer the phones and hear death threats 
and obscenities.
  I am talking about the food service workers, custodial staff, and 
other Architect of the Capitol and Sergeant at Arms employees who were 
caught in the mayhem and then immediately went to work cleaning up the 
mess, repairing the damage, and providing other essential services, all 
in the midst of a raging pandemic.
  I am talking about those reporters who documented the insurrection at 
great personal peril after Donald Trump spent the previous 4 years 
calling them the enemies of the people and openly encouraged his 
supporters to attack them at his rallies.
  Congress could not function without this community of patriotic and 
hard-working Americans. This community is hurting. On New Year's Day, 
the Washington Post ran an article entitled ``Shaken by the Jan. 6 
attack, Capitol workers quit jobs that once made them proud.'' ``Quit 
jobs that once made them proud''--what a terrible thing, what a loss to 
our Nation.
  The danger our Nation faced on January 6 has not dissipated. As the 
New York Times editorial board stated a few days ago, ``the Republic 
faces an existential threat from a movement that is openly contemptuous 
of democracy and has shown that it is willing to use violence to 
achieve its ends.''
  The leader of this movement, of course, is Donald Trump. The 
organizing principle is the Big Lie that Democrats ``stole'' the 
election. The mindset is what historian Richard Hofstadter called ``the 
paranoid style in American politics,'' which ``produces . . . strivings 
for evidence to prove that the unbelievable is the only thing that can 
be believed.''
  The response to nearly nonexistent voter fraud is to engage in 
massive voter suppression. The objective is not election reform; it is 
election repeal.
  It is important to understand that the insurrection on January 6 was 
not a spontaneous event. As Ed Kilgore wrote in a New York magazine 
article entitled ``Trump's Long Campaign to Steal the Presidency: A 
timeline,'' ``The insurrection was a complex, years-long plot, not a 
one-day event. And it isn't over.''
  Rightwing media personalities and QAnon conspiracy followers 
feverishly and cynically stoke the movement for their own gain. Elected 
Republican officials, fearful of Donald Trump's wrath or eager to curry 
favor with him, enable it.

[[Page S41]]

  In 1950, Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine issued her 
``Declaration of Conscience'' in response to another authoritarian 
bully, fellow Republican Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin. Senator 
Smith was no fan of the Truman administration, but she said the 
following:
  [T]o displace it with a Republican regime embracing a philosophy that 
lacks political integrity or intellectual honesty would prove equally 
disastrous to the nation. . . . I do not want to see the Republican 
party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny--Fear, 
Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear. I doubt if the Republican party could do 
so, simply because I do not believe the American people will uphold any 
political party that puts political exploitation above national 
interest. Surely we Republicans are not that desperate for victory.

       I do not want to see the Republican party win that way. 
     While it might be a fleeting victory for the Republican 
     party, it would be a more lasting defeat for the American 
     people. Surely it would ultimately be suicide for the 
     Republican party and the two-party system that has protected 
     our American liberties from the dictatorship of a one-party 
     system.

  I urge my Republican colleagues to follow the example of Margaret 
Chase Smith. There is nothing conservative about advocating force over 
the rule of law. There is nothing conservative about pledging loyalty 
to a man over upholding the U.S. Constitution.
  I understand that many Americans are disinclined to believe that the 
President of the United States would blatantly lie to them, but it is 
exactly what Donald Trump has been doing since he claimed that millions 
of people who voted illegally cost him the popular vote majority in the 
2016 election. In fact, his lies go back even further, to his vile 
birther claims about President Obama.
  We have the opportunity and the imperative for a course correction to 
save our Republic, and that is to restore, expand, and protect voting 
rights.
  The Senate must consider S. 2747, the Freedom to Vote Act, and S. 4, 
the bipartisan John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
  On multiple occasions, Senate Democrats voted unanimously just to 
begin considering these bills to protect people's right to vote, which 
has come under sustained assault. Each time we have tried to proceed to 
these measures, every Republican Senator has voted to sustain a 
filibuster. Senate Republicans put gridlock and partisanship before the 
rights of voters. They are blocking the Senate from having a chance to 
consider options and amendments and do what the Founding Fathers 
intended us to do: debate and legislate.
  Within the next few days, our Republican colleagues in the Senate 
will have yet another opportunity, a chance to do the right thing. Many 
Senators have worked diligently to come up with compromise legislation 
that still preserves the essential elements of S. 1, For the People 
Act, that the House of Representatives has already passed.
  And President Biden is absolutely correct that we need to enact 
voting rights legislation to repair the damage the Supreme Court did to 
the Voting Rights Act. President Biden rightly calls efforts to limit 
ballot access across the country as a 21st century Jim Crow assault. He 
warned Americans that the Republican efforts to restrict voting rights 
as a result of their selfish challenge of the 2020 election results 
represent ``the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil 
War.''
  In many States, Republican legislatures and Governors have responded 
to the falsehoods of the 2020 election by restricting voting 
accessibility. Donald Trump's Big Lie has directly led to 
disenfranchisement and suppression of the right to vote of millions of 
Americans.
  I urge my colleagues and my fellow American citizens to reflect on 
the state of our democracy and the rights we hold so dear. A blatant 
attempt to falsify an election and persistent efforts to deny the 
American people access to the ballot box has eroded American democracy 
to a dangerous level and undermined the freedom and liberty that so 
many Americans have fought to defend and advance.
  After elections are over and we win, we celebrate. We celebrate the 
fact that we have garnered the support of the majority of the voters. 
If we don't win--I think many of us have been involved in campaigns 
where our candidates have not been successful--we go to work and try to 
attract more voters in the next election so we can celebrate a victory. 
That is what participation in a free society is all about. That is what 
democracies are about.
  And repressive, autocratic regimes never accept the will of the 
people so they look at ways in which they can undermine the voting 
record, what the voters want, and the voters' will.
  We should all celebrate the record number of people who cast their 
ballots in the 2020 Presidential election. More Americans cast their 
votes for the Presidential candidate than ever before.
  After the election, both Democrats and Republicans conducted numerous 
reviews at the Federal, State, and local levels. Those reviews verified 
the simple fact that there was no widespread corruption or election 
fraud; that the will of the people prevailed; and Joe Biden and Kamala 
Harris were duly elected.
  Congress and Vice President Pence counted the electoral votes for 
President and Vice President and did their duty under the Constitution 
on January 6, notwithstanding the armed insurrection at the Capitol.
  But that did not stop Donald Trump from promoting the Big Lie, and 
that, in turn, has prompted Republican-led States to make it harder for 
people to cast their votes. The Brennan Center has pointed out that we 
are in the middle of the worst assault on voting rights since Jim Crow.
  So what are these laws doing? They are making it more difficult for 
people to register to vote. They are making it more difficult to vote 
by mail. They are making it more difficult to vote in person. 
Republicans apparently believe that demographic trends will prevent 
them from winning elections so they are surgically attacking the voting 
rights of people--mostly people of color--they believe will not vote 
for them.
  We have States that have 100 percent voting by mail. There has been 
no indication of fraud in voting by mail. But now, some States have 
shortened the time for requesting mail-in ballots, making it more 
difficult for individuals to vote by mail. They are making it more 
difficult for people to deliver their ballots by limiting the 
availability of ballot drop boxes, all because they think that will be 
utilized more by people who will not vote for them.
  The Republicans in charge of these States want to make it harder for 
people to vote in person too--stricter signature requirements, reducing 
the number of places where people can vote, purging voter rolls simply 
because a person didn't vote, and the list goes on and on and on; all 
of these making it more difficult for people to register to vote or be 
eligible to vote who are more likely to vote for their opponents. Some 
of these States are even opening up the possibility that election 
officials can substitute their judgment for the will of the people.
  The Freedom to Vote Act provides a basic Federal floor on protecting 
the right to vote. The legislation includes commonsense items such as 
automatic and online voter registration, uniform early voting, same-day 
voter registration, voting by mail and drop box standards and uniform 
national standards for voter identification.
  The Freedom to Vote Act ends political gerrymandering by creating 
nonpartisan redistricting commissions, requires voter-verified paper 
ballots and reliable audits, and ends the dominance of Big Money in 
political systems by increasing disclosure and transparency.
  S. 2747 includes two provisions I authored: First, it includes the 
Democracy Restoration Act, which deals with laws that many States 
passed at the end of the Civil War that are still on the books that 
disqualify a person convicted of a felony from voting for the rest of 
his or her life. The definition of ``felony'' can be quite general in 
many States so the impact of these laws fall disproportionately on 
people of color, which was its intent. There are States where one out 
of five Black Americans have been disqualified from voting because of a 
felony conviction, even when that individual has served his or her 
sentence and has returned to society. We need to remove that 
disqualification on voting.

[[Page S42]]

  I am proud that S. 2747 also includes my Deceptive Practices and 
Voter Intimidation Prevention Act. Spreading false or misleading 
information or intimidating the electorate remain regularly employed 
and effective methods to keep individuals, particularly Black Americans 
and racial minorities, from voting. Advancements in communications, 
including the rise of social media platforms, have made it easier for 
bad actors to use these strategies. My provisions prohibit individuals 
from knowingly deceiving voters about the time, place, eligibility or 
procedures of participating in a Federal election. It criminalizes 
intentional efforts to hinder, interfere with, or prevent another 
person from voting, registering to vote, or aiding another person to 
vote or register to vote.
  The late John Lewis of Georgia was a dear friend and a former 
colleague. We first won election to the U.S. House of Representatives 
on the same day. Representative Lewis recalled an important lesson that 
he learned from the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when he said 
that ``each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up, and 
speak out. When you see something that is not right, you must say 
something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an 
act. And each generation must do its part.''
  Well, we need to follow Congressman Lewis' admonition. We can do our 
part by passing the bipartisan John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement 
Act, S. 4. Congress has a historic and bipartisan tradition of coming 
together across party lines to safeguard and strengthen the right to 
vote, which is the bedrock of our democracy.
  Congress passed and the States ratified the 15th Amendment after the 
Civil War, which declared that ``the rights of citizens of the United 
States to vote should not be denied or abridged by the United States or 
by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of 
servitude.''
  The 15th Amendment also states that Congress--Congress--has the power 
to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
  That is exactly what the Senate is trying to do with the John Lewis 
legislation. The bill would restore key provisions of the Voting Rights 
Act of 1965 that the Supreme Court severely weakened in its Shelby 
County v. Holder decision.
  Fifty-seven years ago, Congress designed the Voting Rights Act to 
protect equal access to elections for all eligible Americans and passed 
the measure to respond to widespread disenfranchisement--particularly 
of racial and language minorities--between the post-Civil War period 
and the 1960s.
  S. 4 would require the Federal pre-clearance for certain changes to 
voting laws and procedures. It would block changes that restrict the 
right to vote, particularly changes that disproportionately 
disenfranchise minority communities. The bill would allow plaintiffs 
and the Justice Department to bring lawsuits that deny or abridge the 
voting rights of minority voters and restore legal tools needed to 
enforce nationwide, permanent Federal bans on voter suppression efforts 
targeting minorities.
  We cannot pass voting rights legislation as long as the Senate 
Republicans continue to filibuster even just to proceed to S. 2747 and 
S. 4. Inaction on voting rights is not an option as we prepare for our 
2022 elections, which must be free and fair so that the American people 
have faith in our elections and their outcomes, particularly after the 
insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
  We need to change the filibuster rule. As President Biden just said 
before the holidays, ``If the only thing standing between getting 
voting rights legislation passed and not getting it passed is the 
filibuster, I support making the exception of voting rights for the 
filibuster.''
  I agree with President Biden. We cannot take action to safeguard 
voting rights if we don't start right now. States are already drawing 
their 2022 political boundaries to comply with population changes from 
the 2020 census, and we cannot start our work unless my colleagues 
allow us to proceed to this issue on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
  I urge my colleagues not to filibuster the right of the U.S. Senate 
to start the debate on protecting voter integrity, where each Member 
will have the opportunity to debate the issue and offer amendments. 
Many Senators have offered suggestions about how we can improve these 
two voting rights bills. Collectively, we have a chance to come 
together for the American people, something they elected us to do.
  We will not reach a consensus if we cannot even proceed to the bills. 
I will support changing the Senate rules, returning the Senate to its 
historic role of debating and voting on critical issues.
  Voting rights legislation needs to be debated in the Senate and voted 
upon by a majority vote in the U.S. Senate.
  Our noble experiment representing democracy is in grave danger. Let 
us come together and protect the integrity of the Senate, respond to 
the threat we saw on January 6 of last year, and take up and pass 
voting rights legislation.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.