[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 3 (Tuesday, January 6, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S37-S39]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Anniversary of January 6

  Mr. KIM. Mr. President, today is the fifth anniversary of the attack 
on this Capitol, on this extraordinary building that we love so dearly.
  I personally believe that the Capitol Building is the most beautiful 
building in this country. It is the physical manifestation of article I 
of our Constitution, and I believe that to defile and disgrace this 
building is tantamount to defiling and disgracing our Constitution.
  It should be the easiest thing for all of us across the political 
spectrum to say that this building is sacred ground. And I am speaking 
here in the Senate Chamber where rioters broke into. Look, regardless 
of our political affiliation, we should be able to say what happened, 
that it was wrong, and that it should never happen again.
  Five years does not seem like a lot of time, but as anyone with young 
kids knows all too well, time moves quickly. I remember 2 days after 
January 6, I drove back home from the Capitol, back home to New Jersey. 
And I drove actually straight to my kids' daycare to be able to pick 
them up. My 2 boys were only 3 years old and 5 years old at the time. 
My older son usually bounds out and runs up to me, but this time, he 
walked out slowly, and he came up to me, and he asked me: Are you OK?
  And I glanced towards my wife, who shrugged her shoulders, because we 
had specifically agreed that we would not mention anything to the kids 
at this point about what happened on January 6. So I looked back at my 
boy, and I asked him: What do you mean?
  And he looked right back at me, and he said: Did something bad happen 
at work?
  Now, he didn't know exactly what had happened, but he knew something 
did. He knew something not right happened. A 5-year-old child can grasp 
that fundamental fact about January 6, that we don't use the means of 
violence against one another, especially in determining the results of 
our democracy.
  Now, if a 5-year-old can grasp that, why is it so difficult for so 
many, including some here at the Capitol, to be able to do the same? 
Why do so many pretend like nothing happened or seek to downplay the 
events of that day? I call this a purposeful amnesia. Five years out, 
it is so much more damaging to our democracy than the shattered windows 
of 5 years ago. This is the storm after the storm.
  Now, here is an example to the extent with which congressional 
Republicans are trying to erase the history. In 2022, the year after 
the January 6 attack, Congress passed a law that mandated a plaque be 
placed on the western front of the Capitol to allow visitors to this 
building to remember.
  Now, the plaque itself, pretty simple, an image of the Capitol with a 
few lines of text: ``On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque 
honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended 
this symbol of democracy on January 6, 2021. Their heroism will never 
be forgotten.''
  And beneath the text, various law enforcement entities are listed. A 
simple message of remembrance for those brave individuals who acted and 
for the democracy they defended. Now, we should be able to walk out of 
this Chamber today and view that plaque. In fact, it was supposed to be 
installed by March of 2023.
  But instead, nearly 3 years after it was mandated to be made public, 
5 years after the event it was meant to commemorate, the plaque is 
missing, is absent at the direction of Speaker Johnson. As of last 
night, it is not just absent; it is being explicitly denied because of 
Speaker Johnson, who is still refusing to do the simple thing, the 
right thing, and displaying it for the American people to see.
  Now, that absence and denial is part of a broader effort by Speaker 
Johnson, President Trump, and so many others to prevent us from 
remembering, to encourage us to forget--the purposeful amnesia. Now, 
they have done this by gaslighting us, downplaying the events of that 
day. Speaker Johnson directed his conference to blur the face of 
rioters in publicly released images so they couldn't be ``charged by 
the Department of Justice.''
  A member of his House conference referred to January 6 as resembling 
a ``normal tourist visit.'' President Trump called that day a ``day of 
love.'' He called the rioters patriots, and he pardoned more than 1,500 
rioters on his first day in office last year, signing an Executive 
order directing the Department of Justice to drop pending cases against 
those suspected of taking part in this attack.
  But we know better. We know the truth. Now, 5 years out, I still 
haven't found the words yet to fully tell my boys what happened then. I 
never fully answered my older son's questions: Are you OK? Did 
something bad happen at work?
  I have avoided it for 5 years, and I have been wondering why. Why is 
it that I have been unable to be able to find the words to be able to 
talk to my child? And what I have come to understand today as I have 
been thinking about it is I have not talked to them about this because 
I have wanted to hold off on confronting the full implications of that 
day.
  I think what I have been waiting for is some moment where I can say 
with assurance that things are better now, where I could tell them 
about what happened on January 6, but immediately say: That was a 
horrible thing in the past, but we are beyond it now. Things aren't 
going to be bad again.
  But 5 years on, I am still waiting for that day, but it hasn't come--
not yet. Now, 5 years in, I am faced with the reality that I don't 
actually know when that day will come. I don't actually even know if 
that day will come. I can't say for certain that we will get there.
  When I look at today compared to 5 years ago, yes, our Capitol is 
secure today. Yes, our own security here is more assured. But I can't 
say that about our country. Sadly, when I reflect back on 5 years ago 
compared to today, I actually believe we are more divided now than we 
were 5 years ago.
  I believe our democracy is even more fragile now than it was 5 years 
ago. And I believe that our future as a nation is more perilous than it 
was 5 years ago. The future threats to our democracy may not come in 
the form of

[[Page S38]]

rioters storming our Halls, but that doesn't mean that the threat isn't 
present.
  So after I am done here, I will go home and try to have a 
conversation with my boys. And I will tell them about the divisions we 
faced 5 years ago and that we continue to face as a nation. I will talk 
to them about the meaning of cowardice, of those hiding the truth from 
the American people to try to erase from our memories with that 
purposeful amnesia.
  But I will also tell my boys it is not just about the broken windows 
and the fighting that occurred here on the Capitol Grounds, but I will 
tell them about the courage of those who kept us safe, of the Capitol 
Police officers, many who still serve and protect us to this day, who 
deserve better than how they have been treated, that they continue with 
their mission of keeping us safe, even if we are ones that deny what 
happened on that day and deny the injuries and the harm that they 
faced.
  I will tell my boys growing up in New Jersey about a man from New 
Jersey named Brian Sicknick, someone whose name should never dissipate 
from the Halls of this building that he sought to protect. I will tell 
them about those willing to stand up for our Capitol and our democracy, 
whose example we should seek to replicate, not just on the 
anniversaries of January 6, but every day.
  I hope to be able to tell my boys that we can heal this country. I 
hope that we can tell them that we are taking steps to mend the wounds 
of that day and of the days since that have driven us further apart as 
Americans.
  I should not hold off on having this conversation, hoping and wishing 
for a day where I can tell them that the threat is passed and gone. We 
as Americans should confront the problems that we face full on, to not 
hide from the fact of how fragile our democracy is now. We see it for 
what it is, but the fragility of our democracy should renew our purpose 
and our conviction to stand up and do everything we can to make sure 
days like January 6 never happen again.
  And that is my promise to you, to this country, to my State, and to 
my little boys, that the work can start right here, right now. I stand 
ready to heal this country and ready to make it OK for my boys, for 
your kids and your grandkids; let us keep fighting every day.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, as we all remember if we were here 5 
years ago, this building was attacked. The Capitol was stormed. 
Democracy was under siege, not just the physical structure, but our 
lives, literally. Each of us had a memory of that moment.
  And I will never forget, I am sure most of my colleagues won't 
either, how we left this Chamber, without panic, but certainly in a 
surge of emotion as we heard the pounding at the doors as we were told 
to move quickly.
  Senators were ordered to move out of harm's way, and we saw through 
the windows or the doors--or face-to-face some of us--the pipes and 
baseball bats. It was a moment that nobody who went through it can ever 
forget because insurrectionists scaled the walls; they smashed windows; 
they forced their way through the doors into this Chamber and the 
House. They broke into the legislative branch of government.
  And it wasn't simply a symbolic move; it was literally to stop the 
counting of the electoral votes, to halt the peaceful transition of 
power, which is the trademark of our democracy.
  Five years ago, Capitol Police and other law enforcement stood 
between these attackers and ourselves, Members of this body. They 
resisted the insurrectionists trying to scale these walls with their 
own bodies, and they were hurt. One hundred forty officers were 
injured, several died--five perished.
  And in that terrible moment, one of the darkest times in the history 
of our democracy, we came together. We joined arms, maybe not 
literally, but we were together in that undisclosed location--
Republicans and Democrats--who had walked at a pretty good pace through 
the halls and then confined together, guarded by members of law 
enforcement as well as the military.
  We were together, and we felt under threat together, but we decided, 
when we were asked, that we would stay. We would not go home for the 
night, as some of the security wanted us to do. We would stay to count 
the votes. As dark as that moment was in the history of the United 
States of America, we can be proud, as a body, of that decision to 
count the votes and do our duty, rather than shirk it in the midst of 
that continuing unknown and potential danger as the security literally 
went through the broken glass and the desecrated offices and this very 
Chamber to make sure that there were no bombs or rioters left and we 
could come back with some assurance of safety. That moment, we came 
together, 5 years ago--5 years ago.
  And what a difference 5 years makes. In the past 5 years, segments of 
society have latched onto baseless and harmful conspiracy theories 
about the attack. There are January 6 deniers, just as there are 
election deniers and there are Holocaust deniers. We live in an era 
when conspiracy theorists can spread falsehoods through social media 
and other means around the globe, certainly around our country.
  And these baseless and harmful conspiracy theories are, by now, in a 
book by the current FBI Director, Kash Patel, who claims that the 
January 6 attack was ``the insurrection that never was'' and was 
encouraged by ``deep state'' agitators as a pretext to persecute Trump 
supporters.
  Well, we know who incited the January 6 insurrection. It is on tape. 
It can be seen. In a speech outside the White House on January 6, 
Donald J. Trump claimed to a crowd of thousands of Trump supporters 
that ``we won this election and we won it by a landslide.''
  He promised to ``stop the steal.'' He vowed that ``we will never give 
up, we will never concede.''
  And, most damningly, he told that crowd:

       [I]f you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a 
     country anymore.

  And that is when the crowd marched down the National Mall to this 
building, which they stormed, to the police officers whom they 
attacked, and the doors that they knocked down.
  They entered the Capitol at 2 p.m. Not until 4:17 p.m. did Donald 
Trump call those supporters to go home--2 hours after people were 
injured and some died.
  So we shouldn't be surprised, perhaps, that Donald Trump, in one of 
his first acts of office, pardoned all of those rioters--blanket 
pardon, even the ones who hit and caused the deaths of the Capitol 
Police.
  And maybe we shouldn't be surprised that just several weeks ago, when 
I asked three judicial nominees--three lawyers nominated to be Federal 
district judges by Donald Trump--``Was the Capitol attacked on January 
6,'' they refused to answer, each of them parroting a standard remark 
to the effect of: President Biden was certified as the winner.
  They refused to tell the truth about January 6. That is how history 
is degraded. That is how history is rewritten. That is how the truth is 
suppressed. That is why we are here today. That is why I am standing 
here to make sure that history is preserved.
  You know, we say often we want to speak truth to power. We need to 
speak history to authority. We need to speak the truth to America about 
what happened on January 6.
  Notwithstanding all of those conspiracy theorists, the Department of 
Justice inspector general reported there is ``no evidence . . . that 
the FBI had undercover employees in the various protest crowds, or at 
the Capitol, on January 6. No FBI CHS [confidential human source] was 
authorized to enter the Capitol or restricted area, or to otherwise 
break the law on January 6.''
  I am under no illusion. I know this speech is not going to talk any 
of those conspiracy theorists out of their deep-seated beliefs, but we 
owe it to our children--and I owe it to two grandchildren born within 
the last 6 months--that we preserve history, despite the blanket 
pardon, despite the distortion of history that has occurred.
  So we are here today to say to our Republican colleagues: Join us in 
preserving that history. Join us in making sure the truth is told from 
this Chamber to America, to all of our country.

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Do not forget, 5 years ago, rioters, incited by President Trump, tried 
to destroy our democracy.
  Trump pardoned, glorified them, even empowering some of them in key 
administration offices. We cannot allow him to rewrite history.
  Do not forget. Police were brutally attacked, injured, and killed for 
doing their job to enable a peaceful democratic transition of power. 
They still bear the scars. So does our democracy.
  Do not forget democracy is not guaranteed. It cannot be taken for 
granted. Do not forget it is our duty to remember the truth.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise today with so many of my 
colleagues to recognize the anniversary of one of the hardest days our 
democracy has faced, and I also want to focus on some of the work that 
we have done to respond and the work we still must do.
  Five years ago, insurrectionists--they tried to overturn an election. 
They assaulted our heroic Capital Police officers and attacked not only 
this building but American democracy itself.
  The President wants to rewrite the story of what happened that day, 
but he wasn't at that Capitol when the violent mob attacked. I was 
there.
  As the incoming chair of the Rules Committee, it was my job and Roy 
Blunt's job to make sure all of the electoral ballots were counted. 
That morning began with pomp and circumstance. Senator Blunt and I and 
the Vice President led a train of elected officials from the Senate to 
the House to start the ceremony.
  Three pairs of young women held the mahogany boxes with the electoral 
ballots for the entire country and then came the insurrection. We got 
back here. I remember speaking--my desk was up there. I remember the 
police telling me that this was happening, and I had to, in my role, 
tell the Senators to get away from the windows, and we were brought to 
an undisclosed location.
  Capitol Police officers were attacked, pepper-sprayed, clubbed, and 
trampled. We were in that room together. I remember praying. I remember 
incoming President Biden on the TV. I remember the Senators trying to 
call the National Guard to see if anyone could help.
  I remember in there coordinating, talking to Senator Schumer while 
Senator Blunt talked to Senator McConnell about what we were going to 
do. And we vowed that morning, whatever happened, we were going to come 
back, and we were going to finish our job, no matter what time it was.
  So Senator Blunt negotiated the negotiations about the number of 
objections. I worked on keeping everyone in that room and other things, 
and then, together, we got it done.
  And at 3:30 in the morning, the only Senators left were Senator Blunt 
and myself and Vice President Pence, along with those same six women 
carrying those mahogany boxes from this Chamber to the other. But this 
time, it wasn't pageantry. It wasn't a parade. It was just the Vice 
President, Senator Blunt and myself and those boxes. But this time we 
were walking over broken glass. We were walking past marble pillars 
spray-painted with racist vulgarities.
  But we made the walk. We got to the House. The House Members were 
there. Speaker Pelosi, at the time, was there waiting for us, and we 
did our jobs. That was January 6.
  Tragically, five brave officers who reported for duty that day 
ultimately passed away, and the courage of these officers will be 
remembered forever.
  And rewriting of history cannot stand. As we know today, the White 
House released a web page that described the day as ``patriots march to 
the Capitol'' and blamed the Capitol Police, and it doesn't even 
mention the injuries and the over 100 officers injured.
  I remember them in the room protecting the Senators with scratches on 
their faces.
  It was clear that this can never happen again.
  Then, as I chaired the Rules Committee, Ranking Member Blunt and I, 
along with Chair Gary Peters and Ranking Member Portman from the 
Homeland Security Committee, immediately launched a bipartisan 
investigation of what the failures were with security, planning, and 
response. We had a number of bipartisan hearings that stretched on for 
just a few months, and then we came out with major recommendations with 
then-Police Chief Manger, who implemented nearly every single one of 
them. Hundreds of changes were made.

  Never again will police officers who are meant to guard us have worse 
equipment than people who are trying to invade the Capitol. Never again 
will they go to a bus and have their gear, their riot gear, locked in 
the bus. Never again will you hear the haunting words of an officer on 
the police radio say: ``Does anyone have a plan?''
  We also had to help protect our democracy against future assaults. I 
worked on a bipartisan basis to update the antiquated Electoral Count 
Act in the Senate and helped usher that through, along, again, with 
Senator Blunt. We worked with the House Members to improve what the 
insurrectionists thought was some kind of a loophole that they could 
use to stop the will of the people. That law has now been changed. We 
worked to get better benefits for our officers, and we worked to change 
the number of officers to make sure that this wouldn't happen again.
  Despite our bipartisan efforts after January 6 to protect this 
Capitol and our democracy, 5 years later, President Trump and his 
allies continue, sadly, to spread a false narrative. He has called 
January 6 a ``day of love.'' He has described the prosecutions of 
people for crimes related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol and on 
law enforcement as a ``grave national injustice.'' He has pardoned more 
than 1,500 criminals.
  For this administration, it is the very heroes who defended our 
Capitol--our democracy--on January 6 whom they now consider a threat. I 
don't think career Federal prosecutors are terrorists or despicable 
people, as they have called them. I think they are public servants, and 
I think they are patriots.
  We have seen repeated attacks on access to the ballot box from this 
administration. We must pass the Freedom to Vote Act, which would 
guarantee access to the ballot. As we mark the somber fifth anniversary 
of January 6, we know that democracy only held then because of those 
who defended the peaceful transfer of power. Those are the people whom 
we honor today: the Republican Senators who were willing to uphold that 
vote even though the candidate they supported did not win; the 
Republican Senators who actually, in this Chamber, spoke out and 
condemned the coup; the officers who protected us that day from 
something much worse than the fright that people experienced; and those 
who ended up dying and those who were injured. Those are the ones whom 
we honor today, not the insurrectionists.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

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