[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 79 (Monday, May 11, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2191-S2192]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          NATIONAL POLICE WEEK

  Mr. DURBIN. This is Police Week. We are remembering John Bartholomew 
and hundreds of others who lost their lives in the line of duty to 
protect us and their families and neighborhoods. We take them for 
granted until these terrible tragedies occur, and then we come to 
realize how much is on the line every single day they put the badge on.
  I listened earlier when the Republican leader Senator Thune said this 
Police Week should be a reminder to Democrats to take police seriously. 
We do. I trust that both political parties do.
  When I was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I looked 
forward to this week to pass bipartisan--bipartisan--legislation to 
help our policemen. Under Chairman Grassley in my service as a ranking 
member, I will join that bipartisan effort again. But I do have to tell 
you I am disappointed that during Police Week we would consider on the 
floor of the U.S. Senate nominations for U.S. attorneys who have 
testified before our committee and said things which I believe do not 
reflect respect for the law as it should be--particularly when it comes 
to the January 6 insurrection in the Capitol.
  I remember that day. It was one of the most noteworthy days of my 
service in the Senate. When Vice President Pence was presiding, we were 
counting the electoral ballots for the 2020 Presidential election. At 
about 2:10 p.m. in the afternoon, someone came in and pulled Vice 
President Pence out of that chair out that door. People couldn't 
understand why. There was a demonstration outside--a political 
demonstration--but we went about our business, and yet something had 
happened.
  At that point someone from the Capitol Police came and stood before 
us and said: You can continue what you are doing, but stay in this 
room. We are going to make this a safe room in the U.S. Capitol--a safe 
room.
  It wasn't 10 minutes later until the same Capitol policeman came 
before us and said: Change of plans. We are evacuating the Senate 
Chamber, and we all filed out the door to another adjourning building 
where we were protected.
  These Capitol policemen and -women risked their lives for us on that 
day. I think it was nothing less than an act of heroism and courage for 
them to defy this Trump crowd that was sent to disrupt the proceedings.
  Unfortunately, the mob took over the Senate Chamber. C-SPAN broadcast 
as they took pictures and photos for one another, went rifling through 
our desks, and tried to take over the Capitol--we saw that later on. 
What an embarrassing chapter in the history of the United States.
  What is even more embarrassing is the fact that there have been 
people who have come before us seeking Federal positions since who 
don't take that seriously--what happened on January 6. Let me give you 
an example--and this individual is going to come up for a vote this 
week in the Senate--Police Week.
  His name is Phillip Williams. He is from Alabama. Phillip Williams is 
seeking the U.S. attorney spot in Alabama. He argued that January 6 
rioters were ``Hunted down by Federal law enforcement,'' whom he 
accused of prosecutorial abuse many, many times over.
  Williams equated these prosecutions to the Salem witch trials on a 
national scale. He minimized the attack on the Capitol stating: It 
certainly was not an insurrection because there was no attempt to 
overthrow the government.
  He criticized the 87-month prison sentence imposed on a rioter named 
Guy Reffitt because he was nonviolent according to Williams and did not 
step into the Capitol.
  Let me tell you the rest of the story about Reffitt that Mr. 
Williams, who seeks to represent the Department of Justice in the State 
of Alabama had to say.
  Reffitt traveled to the Capitol on January 6 wearing body armor, 
carrying handguns, flex cuffs, and radios for communication. Prior to 
his arrest, Reffitt threatened his own minor children telling them: If 
you turn me in, you are traitors, and traitors get shot.

[[Page S2192]]

  Williams contended, without evidence, that Federal judges ruling 
against President Trump were setting Trump up.
  This man who dismissed Mr. Reffitt as a threat on January 6 wants to 
represent the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Department of Justice, in the 
State of Alabama. He has no place doing that. And for the Senate to 
vote for confirmation of this nomination on Police Week is, to my mind, 
a travesty.
  He is not the only one in this group. I want to note one or two 
others. Darin Smith of Wyoming. Darin Smith, again, is seeking to 
become a U.S. attorney representing the Department of Justice in the 
State of Wyoming.
  Mr. Smith was present at the U.S. Capitol on January 6--though he 
claimed he didn't enter any buildings. Regarding the insurrection, 
Smith contended that rioters were entrapped and that the U.S. Capitol 
Police were guilty of massive incompetence.
  Mr. President, 140 of the U.S. Capitol Police who defended my life 
and the life of everyone in the Capitol on that day were injured. Two 
or three died as a consequence of that experience. And for him to argue 
that they were guilty of massive incompetence is an embarrassing 
statement. It is a slap in the face to the Capitol Police who risked 
their lives for me and for other Members.
  Mr. Smith baselessly claimed FBI agents who interviewed him regarding 
his presence at the Capitol were sent there by Representative Liz 
Cheney ``and her goons.'' Afterward, he demanded that she should be 
censored by the Wyoming Republican Party.
  How do these people proceed through the ranks of the Trump 
administration to be given such positions of importance when they are 
so dismissive of the efforts by that mob to first injure the policemen 
who were doing their duty here in the Capitol and then to disrupt the 
proceedings that the Vice President was presiding over? The list goes 
on.

  (Mr. McCORMICK assumed the Chair.)
  It has been the case ever since Trump has been reelected that when it 
comes to many judges and many U.S. attorneys, dismissing January 6 as 
just tourists out of control is acceptable by the Trump administration. 
Well, it is not acceptable. As someone who lived it, who witnessed it, 
saw it firsthand, that they are dismissing this operation on that day 
as simply some political statement is unfair.
  Don't salute the police and ignore the obvious. The police were under 
attack on that day, and to dismiss that is to dismiss the obvious.

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