[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 8 (Wednesday, January 12, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S169]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               January 6

  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, I wish it were the case that everyone 
agrees that what happened here on January 6 was an abomination, but 
that is simply not true. That is simply not true. Many of my Republican 
colleagues will say the right things on the Senate floor--occasionally 
will whisper the right things to us when the cameras aren't watching. 
But a recent poll--a nonpartisan Monmouth University poll--asked 
Republican voters whether or not they thought January 6 was a 
legitimate protest. And guess what. Half of Republican voters in this 
country say that the invasion of this Capitol that involved chants for 
the death of the Vice President, a gallows outside the U.S. Capitol--
half of Republicans believe that that was a legitimate protest. Seven 
out of ten Republicans today don't believe that Joe Biden is the 
legitimate President. They believe that Donald Trump won the election, 
despite the fact that he lost by 7 million votes.
  And the reason for that is mostly that the leader of the Republican 
Party, Donald Trump, has been legitimizing violence, urged those 
protests and that insurrection attempt, cheered them at the end of the 
day on January 6, and also because we have seen mostly silence from 
mainstream Republicans who know better but don't want to pick a fight 
with President Trump.
  So, yes, we are worried about the future of our Republic. We are 
worried about the future of our Republic because a mainstream political 
party has gotten behind the idea that power matters more than 
elections; that violence is a legitimate means of protest.
  So this idea that everybody agrees that January 6 was an abomination 
just isn't true. It is not true, and that is, in part, why we are so 
worried.