[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 3 (Tuesday, January 6, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S53-S55]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ANNIVERSARY OF JANUARY 6
Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER. Mr. President, today is January 6, 2026. We are
6 days into what will surely be a defining year for our Nation. We will
celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of our country. We will
hold midterm elections. Americans will determine the control of
Congress.
But while there is much to look forward to on this cold winter night,
I find myself transported back 5 years ago to January 6, 2021.
Over the last 5 years, a lot has been shared about the events of that
day. It has been distorted, romanticized, even downplayed. But as they
say in the play ``Hamilton,'' ``It matters who lives, who dies, who
tells your story.''
For me, a lot has changed since 2021. Five years ago, I didn't carry
the title I proudly carry today. No, not Senator, although, I am proud.
It is grandmother.
Today, I rise here on the Senate floor to tell my story, not just for
the history books but for my granddaughter Lennox and all of the young
people of this country. It is a story of sorrow, fear, and loss, love,
hate, and betrayal. But it is also a story of redemption, bravery, and
resilience.
On January 6, I was a Member of the House of Representatives. Joe
Biden had just been elected. Kamala Harris was just about to become the
first woman and first person of color to serve as our Vice President. I
was ready to watch history.
Because we were in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, only a
few Members of the States contesting the election results could be on
the House floor. The rest of us were able to sign up for 1-hour shifts
in the House Gallery.
I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember that night choosing
what outfit to wear. I remember taking two pairs of boots with me to
work. I ended up wearing the more comfortable ones, not knowing I would
soon be running, ducking, and crawling on my hands and knees for
safety.
I remember signing up for the first shift to watch from the Gallery.
There was never a second shift. Not long into the proceedings, I saw
the leadership and my colleagues whisked off the House floor. An
announcement was made that the Capitol had been breached.
I sat stunned. And as they were taken to safety, I realized they
forgot about us trapped up in the Gallery. We could hear the sounds of
yelling and banging on the Chamber doors. We ducked for cover and were
instructed to get the gas masks out from under our seats--gas masks
that we didn't even know existed, that we did not know how to open or
use.
And I remember my friend, former Congresswoman Val Demings of Florida
grabbing my arm and locking eyes with me and saying: Lisa, there is
only one who can get us out of this.
And I began to pray.
People say that right before you die, your life flashes right before
your eyes. In that moment, I saw history flash before mine. I saw the
peaks and valleys of our American story. I saw slavery, reconstruction,
Jim Crow. I saw a Trail of Tears, women locking arms marching for the
right to vote, two World Wars, 9/11, the murder of George Floyd, and a
global pandemic.
I saw the history of our Nation and the path that we had traveled to
get us to this moment, and I prayed.
I recalled a piece of Scripture that tells us ``all things work
together for the good,'' even the bad, because despite the violence,
despite the trauma, despite how close we were to losing our democracy,
brave men and women stood up to protect this institution, and we will
never ever, ever forget them.
We, the Congress, came back in the wee hours of the morning to do our
jobs, to certify the results of a free and fair election. It was a
moment of redemption. And redemption is part of what makes America
America because whenever we falter, there are ``shoulders to the till''
who push us forward, who remind us of the values upon which our Nation
was founded so that we can ``come back stronger.''
I find myself thinking about those foundational values a lot these
days, and a specific phrase from the preamble has risen above the rest,
that we are to ``secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our
Posterity.''
The Founders used the common phrasing of the time where churches
spoke of bestowing blessings of knowledge or faith. We, the United
States, would bestow the ``Blessings of Liberty'' and not just for
ourselves but for our posterity for future generations, for our
children and our children's children, for my granddaughter Lennox.
But ``securing the Blessings of Liberty'' isn't just a promise, it is
a call to action because while liberty is a blessing, it requires work
to maintain, work that we have strayed away from many times in our
history.
Five years after January 6, we are faltering once again. From efforts
to dismantle the Department of Education and the EPA to the
weaponization of the Department of Justice, to active efforts to strip
birthright citizenship, the Federal Government is losing its ability to
protect many of the blessings of liberties we have come to expect as
Americans.
But this isn't new. We have seen this before. In the late 1800s,
formerly enslaved people gained new rights--many Americans did. The 13,
14, 15 Amendments enumerated these rights. But without enforcement,
they became no more than ink on paper.
I believe we are repeating history. There are some more focused on
tearing down than building up. But here is the thing, you can tear down
the East Wing of the White House, you can put your name on buildings,
or try to tear down this very Capitol Building itself like was done 5
years ago, but our democracy is built on more than just bricks and
marble. Ours is a democracy built on the values of liberty and justice
for all, on the premise of freedom, on the ideals of equality and
independence, and on our pioneering spirit of innovation.
Ours is a story of redemption. This very room that I am standing in
is a testament to our system of governance, a room built by enslaved
people where Lennox's grandmother now has the privilege to serve as a
duly elected Senator.
When our democracy expands, when it breathes, we inch closer to those
divinely inspired ideals of our founding documents and to truly
securing the ``Blessings of Liberty.''
This is the story of America I want to pass on to my granddaughter, a
story of courage and bright hope for a democracy that endures. But
again progress isn't inevitable. It is a choice, and it requires
effort.
In 2025, we let the aisle between our parties stretch to a chasm, but
it is a new year and it is a new day and we must come together to
choose progress to move forward to protect our democracy and patch the
holes in our Republic, punctured by the few to spite the many.
[[Page S54]]
As I close, I stand here today as a Senator with gratitude to those
who protected us and even gave their lives on that day. And I stand
here as Lennox's grandmother with words of wisdom from the late, great
Justice Thurgood Marshall, who said:
This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on.
To our posterity, to Lennox, to the pages in this room, to the
interns in our office, to the young people inspired to save the world
that work on our staff, and to each and every young person in this
Nation, I would add two more words to Justice Marshall's quote.
This democracy is yours. Make it ``your own'' because this democracy
belongs to you too. So make it your own. Protect it like we did on
January 6 and pass it on.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
ANNIVERSARY OF JANUARY 6
Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, first of all, I want to acknowledge the
wonderful comments by my colleague the Senator from Delaware.
There are three reasons why it is very important we have this
discussion:
No. 1, we have got to honor the Capitol Police who were on the
receiving end of violent conduct by citizens who stormed the Capitol.
No. 2, it is important that we have accountability for who caused
this and to be explicit about who caused this and who was the primary
motivator.
And 3, it is extremely important for us not to allow history to be
rewritten so what happened then will happen again.
So I want to start most directly with what we all share, and that is
an incredible appreciation for the Capitol Police. They showed up that
day. These are folks who oftentimes have to commute an hour and a half.
The person who was guarding us--I was in the Gallery of the House of
Representatives--had an hour and a half commute each day--to and from
work. He had two young kids. And the last thing in the world he wanted
to do was to have to use his firearm in order to protect us. But it was
clear he was going to do his duty.
We saw so many officers who were in the same place, where they were
actually being assaulted by American citizens whose democracy was under
assault by American citizens.
I want to express today what I think all of us feel and that is a
deep appreciation for the men and women who serve on the Capitol Police
force, the Metropolitan Police force, and other authorities who came to
the assistance.
Second, it is important for us to be explicit about what happened
here and who is accountable. We are having a debate about it. There is
an effort to rewrite the history of what happened on January 6, but the
fact is indisputable that the primary instigator of January 6 was the
President of the United States then and who is the President of the
United States now, and that is Donald Trump.
Why do I say that?
He is the one who lost the election. He is the one who created the
narrative that it was a stolen election, despite the fact that of all
of the challenges, they were largely dismissed by the courts. There was
never evidence. There was the use of the Presidential power that he had
because he did have and does have many American citizens who believe in
him.
With the trust that he had with those everyday Americans, when they
heard their leader say that the election was stolen, understandably,
they believed him. When he said: Come to Washington; it will be wild,
they came to Washington.
When he made his speech at the Ellipse and he said: We will march
down to the Capitol, they marched down to the Capitol. When the whole
place was falling apart here and he was getting urgent calls from
the then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, when he was hearing from others, he
was going on to tweet against Mike Pence for not abusing the authority
of the Vice President of the United States--by the way, it is not even
authority. It is a ceremonial function to certify the election.
It was Donald Trump, who was, in the beginning, the instigator of the
lie, the instigator of the call to people around the country who did
believe in him to come here and stop the steal and who culminated his
efforts with his speech at the Ellipse, telling people to march on the
Capitol.
Now, the third reason it is absolutely so important is that history
can't just be written, in this case, by the winner. And that is, Donald
Trump did win the election. It was a fair-and-square election, despite
all those things I just said that are true--not just that I believe are
true.
But what happened on that day was shocking to me, and it was shocking
to all Americans. Here is why: It is not just--when this happened, I
was in the Gallery in the House. I was 30 feet from where the shot was
fired. I was standing there witnessing the mob trying to break down the
doors that the President enters to give the State of the Union Address
and saw the glass and heard the glass shatter.
Even as that was happening, and all of us in the Chamber were
bewildered as to what was going to happen, fearful of the violence that
was occurring now and how that could escalate, I didn't believe it was
happening. I didn't believe it was happening.
I was seeing it. I was hearing it. I was witnessing officers with
their guns drawn, but I said to myself: Peter, this is the United
States of America. We have a peaceful transfer of power. We win
elections. We lose elections, but it is the people of this country who
decide who the winner is--not politicians, not a mob attacking the
Capitol.
This is a blessing that all of us have been bequeathed by those who
came before us, the peaceful transfer of power.
The other aspect of this I couldn't believe was I was witnessing
violence--and we have never had violence in the Capitol--in an effort
to overturn an election. So two things happened that have never
happened: an assault on the Capitol in the effort to overturn the
results of an election and thwart the peaceful transfer of power.
That is on Donald Trump. I want to say that explicitly, as
uncomfortable as that may be, and whatever policy positions he may have
and others and many people may agree with, that attack on the Capitol
was inspired, instigated, and accelerated by the explicit actions of
the then-President of the United States.
We have to go back to where America began, and that is: We have
elections; we do all we can to encourage people to vote; we count the
votes; and we accept the outcome as decided by the people of this
country.
That is what a democracy has to be about, where the competition is
about ideas. It is about aspirational connection to the wonderful
Americans that we represent and their confidence that we will serve
with the honor, the integrity, and the commitment to their needs, not
our preferences, that makes us all so proud to be representatives of
the people who sent us here.
So this day is a day of commemoration for those who served us. But it
has also got to be a day of accountability and assessment about what
happened and how. It can't be whitewashed because the current President
has support and was elected. He does. We have accepted that--those of
us who didn't vote for him. But that does not whitewash, it doesn't
exonerate, it doesn't erase what he did to cause this insurrection. He
played the major role in this, and it is forever going to be a stain on
that President.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
ANNIVERSARY OF JANUARY 6
Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, 5 years ago, Donald Trump incited a
vicious MAGA mob to storm the U.S. Capitol with one goal: to overturn
the results of the 2020 Presidential election.
Fortunately, Trump and his gang of violent extremists failed in their
mission to undermine our democracy that day, but make no mistake,
Donald Trump continues to bear direct responsibility for this
disgraceful attack, an attack that forever scarred our political system
and scarred our Nation.
We cannot, and we must not forget, what happened on January 6, 2021.
That morning, my colleagues and I started the day in this Chamber,
ready to fulfill our constitutional duty to ratify the electoral
college votes that would elect Joe Biden as the 46th President of the
United States, a peaceful duty undertaken by Congress after every
Presidential election since 1789.
[[Page S55]]
But by the afternoon, the peaceful transition of power was obstructed
by armed rioters sent to us by Donald Trump. Trump's vicious mob forced
its way into the Capitol Building armed with firearms, bear spray, and
baseball bats. The rioters beat U.S. Capitol Police officers with
flagpoles bearing the American flag itself.
They blinded officers with chemical sprays. They smashed windows and
caused millions of dollars in damage to our temple of democracy. They
hunted for lawmakers in the Halls of this building. They called for the
hanging of Vice President Mike Pence. For several hours, American
democracy hung by a thread.
Those people came into this Chamber. They desecrated this Chamber.
They went through the desks of the Members of the Senate here. They
hung from the walls of this Chamber. They did the same thing to the
House of Representatives. They were looking for House and Senate
Members that they could capture.
And our Parliamentarians, they actually took the electoral college
votes out of the well of the Senate and whisked them off to safety, and
we thank the Parliamentarians for their courage that day.
The insurrection, however, resulted in the deaths of several of our
officers here and injuries to more than 140 members of law enforcement,
who were here trying to protect the Members, trying to protect the
building, trying to protect the electoral college votes.
Just this morning, I spoke to a Capitol Police officer who stood
shoulder to shoulder with Officer Brian Sicknick on January 6. He was
with Officer Sicknick who collapsed in the Capitol after being
assaulted by insurrectionists and, tragically, passed away the next
day, trying to protect this institution, trying to protect democracy.
And to this day, the brave officers who defended Congress bear the
scars, physical and mental, of that dark day. And thanks to these brave
officers, the rioters were ultimately pushed out and lawmakers returned
that night, as I could sit at this desk after 9 p.m. that night to
return so that we could, in fact, ensure that Joe Biden was certified
as the President of the United States, as the winner of the 2020
election. And democracy, though bent and battered and bruised, was not
broken. That is what we are remembering here this evening.
But today, we confront something that perhaps is even more sinister
than the heinous violence that occurred that day. Today, we face the
systemic attempt by supposed leaders, by Trump and rightwing MAGA
Republicans, to erase and rewrite the truth of January 6, whitewashing
the violence of the riot and calling it a ``day of love.''
I invite everyone in this Chamber and across the country to watch the
footage of that day, to ask the colleagues and families of those law
enforcement officers who were hurt and killed that day if they see
January 6, 2021, as a ``day of love.''
On his first day back in office, Trump pardoned the January 6
criminals en masse. He gave amnesty to the insurrectionists, rightfully
charged with and legitimately convicted of assaulting law enforcement
with dangerous weapons in this building as they protected democracy.
And as one of the first official acts of President Trump, as he came
back into power in January of 2025, President Trump chose not to lower
costs for the American people or to end Putin's war in Ukraine in 1
day, as he promised, and instead on his first day in office, Donald
Trump chose to betray the brave law enforcement officers who protect us
day in and day out. He chose to erase the crimes committed that day for
his personal political benefit.
He chose to send the chilling message that political violence in his
name would not only be condoned, it would be rewarded. Trump and his
rightwing MAGA supporters hailed those who carried Confederate flags
and symbols of White supremacy as patriots. That is gaslighting on
steroids. The true patriots are our brave Capitol Police officers who
fought on the frontline and held the line for as long as they possibly
could. The true patriots are the Americans that stand up for democracy
and speak out against authoritarianism. The true patriots are Americans
who refused to bend the knee to wannabe Kings.
Trump will continue to lie about what happened here on January 6,
2021, but the video, the texts, the personal messages from that day do
not. We all saw what happened that day. We all heard what happened that
day. We cannot and we must never forget what happened that day.
January 6 was not an isolated incident. It was the first page in
Trump's authoritarian playbook. It marked the start of Trump's
sustained attack on our democracy, on the legitimacy of our elections,
on our government institutions. In just the last year, Trump has
unlawfully imprisoned international students for their speech. He has
exacted revenge on his political rivals. He has deployed troops in our
cities to do his bidding. He has ignored court orders. He has engaged
in unauthorized and illegal acts of war. And now, Trump and MAGA
Republicans have set their sights on the 2026 election.
They are rigging the system in their favor by peddling lies and
misinformation, by enacting partisan gerrymandering schemes and by
restricting access to the ballot for millions of Americans. Five years
later, Donald Trump remains laser focused on sabotaging our free and
fair elections in the United States of America. This President has no
regard or respect for the Constitution. This President has no regard or
respect for the rule of law. This President has no regard or respect
for our most sacred values as a nation. He is testing our democracy day
in and day out.
And in the face of this historic test, every American must denounce
the actions of those who chose to subvert our Constitution on January
6. Every American must condemn those who continue to side with
lawlessness and authoritarianism over the basic principles of American
democracy, equality, freedom, and the peaceful transfer of power.
Every American must stand up and say no to this wannabe King. On the
250th anniversary of our country's founding, a founding that began in
Massachusetts, on Lexington Green and in Concord with ``the shot heard
round the world,'' we are once again saying we will stand up for
democracy. Our future demands it. We ourselves must summon the courage
to fight to protect a democracy that began 250 years ago. We must show
the same courage to take on a king, a dictator, a despot in the same
way that those minutemen and women 250 years ago displayed their
courage.
Those great patriots, they did create a Constitution under which we
live here, but that is now under assault. So it is up to us to stand
up--and by the way, to redeem the courage of all of those police
officers, all those law enforcement officers who gave their lives and
their own personal health in order to protect this institution. That is
what we remember today, and we must never forget it.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
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