Murray: “The real fight is to ensure we learn the lesson of the January 6th Insurrection. Because there is no reason to think the same insurrectionists—that are now free—and the same President—now bolder than ever in challenging our laws and our Constitution—won’t try, once again, to get their way through threats and through violence.”
Murray: “President Trump’s allies in Congress, to this day, have refused to hang a plaque honoring our Capitol police officers for their sacrifice… Speaker Johnson has turned a plaque that was meant to be proof of their bravery, into proof of his own cowardice.”
***WATCH: Senator Murray’s full floor speech***
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, took to the Senate floor, alongside other Senate Democrats, to mark the fifth anniversary of the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Senator Murray slammed Trump’s blanket pardons of violent criminals who attacked police officers on January 6th and Republican attempts to rewrite history, and discussed the dangers facing American democracy as Trump continues to endorse political violence and spread lies about the 2020 election. Murray also called out Republicans for their continued refusal to honor Capitol Police officers who put their lives on the line and suffered severe injuries protecting Members of Congress on January 6th.
“The same forces that ignited the insurrection five years ago are still here. The same lies are still being spread about the 2020 election, you just heard some of them, by the same bad faith actors. The same President who told the crowd—just hours before the violent insurrection—that he would march to the Capitol with them is now accusing Democrats of treason, and sharing calls to execute them. And the same violent people—the people who stormed and battered our Capitol Police, the people who brought bats, and knives, and zip ties, the people who left blood and feces, and broken glass littered throughout the halls of this building, they’re walking free today—because President Trump thinks they were the victims,” Murray said on the Senate floor today.
“But no matter how many criminals Trump pardons, no matter how many lies he tells, and no matter how loudly he tells them—no President can rewrite history unless we stand by and let him,” she continued.
“The challenge before us, at this moment, is greater than just fighting for truth and history. It is not enough to make sure we simply remember the truth of the January 6th Insurrection. The real fight is to ensure we learn the lesson of the January 6th Insurrection. Because there is no reason to think the same insurrectionists—that are now free—and the same President—now bolder than ever in challenging our laws and our Constitution—won’t try, once again, to get their way through threats and through violence.”
On President Trump’s first day in office last year, he granted full, complete, and unconditional pardons to over 1,500 people charged with committing crimes in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and commuted the sentences of 14 others, including leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, far-right militias. Among those pardoned by Trump were 169 people who pled guilty to assaulting police officers on January 6th.During the siege of the Capitol that day, over 80 U.S. Capitol Police Officers were assaulted, as well as over 60 officers from the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. Last January, following Trump’s pardons of violent criminals, Senator Murray introduced and tried to pass a resolution condemning the pardons of individuals who were found guilty of assaulting Capitol Police Officers. Republicans blocked passage of the simple resolution twice. Senator Murray has spoken at length about her experience on January 6th, on lockdown inside the Capitol building while it was being stormed by insurrectionists.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, approximately 1,572 defendants were federally charged with crimes associated with the attack of the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. This includes approximately 598 charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement agents or officers or obstructing those officers during a civil disorder, including approximately 174 defendants charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer. As proven in court, the weapons used and carried on Capitol grounds during the January 6th attack include firearms; pepper spray; tasers; edged weapons, including a sword, axes, hatchets, and knives; and makeshift weapons, such as destroyed office furniture, fencing, bike racks, stolen riot shields, baseball bats, hockey sticks, flagpoles, PVC piping, and reinforced knuckle gloves.
At least 33 pardoned January 6th insurrectionists have now been convicted of, charged with, or arrested for additional crimes since the insurrection, including: child sexual assault, production of child pornography, possession of child pornography, rape, conspiracy to commit murder of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents, kidnapping, sexual assault, aggravated robbery, reckless homicide, driving under the influence causing death, illegal possession of firearms, domestic violence by strangulation, burglary, vandalism, grand theft, stalking, violation of protective orders, threatening public officials, and drug trafficking.
Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered on the Senate floor today, are below:
“Five years ago, my husband and I sheltered in place, right here in this building, and prayed that our lock would hold.
“Five years ago, we had to hunker down in the Capitol as alarms blared, glass shattered, and rioters stormed the halls of this building chanting ‘hang Mike Pence.’
“We heard them just outside the room I was, feet away from this chamber, they were looking for any lawmaker they could find, screaming ‘kill the infidels.’ We felt them bashing against our door trying to get in.
“We held our breath and waited for what seemed like forever. And this time every year—it feels like I am still holding my breath.
“Because I know it wasn’t just my husband and I that were in danger that day and it wasn’t just the windows that were shattered.
“It was our democracy that was under attack, our democracy—and the very idea that we use our voices and our votes in this country, not violence.
“And the same forces that ignited the insurrection five years ago are still here. The same lies are still being spread about the 2020 election, you just heard some of them, by the same bad faith actors.
“The same President who told the crowd—just hours before the violent insurrection—that he would march to the Capitol with them is now accusing Democrats of treason, and sharing calls to execute them.
“And the same violent people—the people who stormed and battered our Capitol Police, the people who brought bats, and knives, and zip ties, the people who left blood and feces, and broken glass littered throughout the halls of this building, they’re walking free today—because President Trump thinks they were the victims.
“On his first day in office Trump pardoned rioters who assaulted officers with pepper spray and metal poles. Trump pardoned people who crushed police with riot shields.
“Trump pardoned an insurrectionist who violently punched, slapped, and swatted police—and even choked one officer to the ground.
“Trump pardoned someone who plunged a stun gun into a Capitol police officer’s neck.
“Trump pardoned those people, and many like them, with no care for how dangerous or violent they were.
“He even let the leader of the Proud Boys out of prison!
“And the story doesn’t end there. Because several people that Trump let out of prison—are now back in jail for other crimes, gun charges, breaking and entering, burglary, fatal drunk driving accidents, child pornography, aggravated kidnapping, sexual assault—even plotting to kill the FBI agents who investigated them.
“Months after Trump pardoned Christopher Moynihan—one of the first rioters to breach the police barricades—he was arrested again for threatening the life of Leader Jeffries.
“Make no mistake, Trump’s mass pardons were a dangerous endorsement of political violence—telling criminals you can beat cops within an inch of their lives, as long as it’s in service to President Trump.
“They are also part of an all-out effort by President Trump and his allies to now rewrite the history of the insurrection of that day.
“President Trump’s Justice Department just took down the public database that laid out thousands of investigations.
“He just put up a website that blames Capitol police for escalating the situation. Seriously—Trump isn’t just siding with the rioters, he is trying to blame our law enforcement.
“And President Trump’s allies in Congress, to this day, have refused to hang a plaque honoring our Capitol police officers for their sacrifice.
“We lost a Capitol Police officer that day. Several others took their lives in the trauma that followed. Capitol Police officers suffered severe injuries—cracked ribs, smashed spinal disks, brain injuries, even the loss of an eye.
“And yet—Speaker Johnson has turned a plaque that was meant to be proof of their bravery, into proof of his own cowardice.
“But no matter how many criminals Trump pardons, no matter how many lies he tells, and no matter how loudly he tells them—no President can rewrite history unless we stand by and let him.
“I, for one, am never forgetting the truth of that day—it is burned into my brain, and I am never letting our country forget it either. This is a battle I have no doubt we can win.
“But the challenge before us, at this moment, is greater than just fighting for truth and history. It is not enough to make sure we simply remember the truth of the January 6th Insurrection. The real fight is to ensure we learn the lesson of the January 6th Insurrection.
“Because there is no reason to think the same insurrectionists—that are now free—and the same President—now bolder than ever in challenging our laws and our Constitution—won’t try, once again, to get their way through threats and through violence.
“Trump has already made clear where he stands on democracy. He made it clear five years ago when he promised to march on the Capitol. He made it clear last year when he pardoned everyone who actually did storm the Capitol. He makes it clear every single day.
“That is why it is incumbent, on all of us in this country, to be just as clear where we stand on democracy—especially when it comes to standing up to Trump.
“Our government—of the people, by the people, for the people—is an amazing accomplishment. But it is not automatic, or inevitable.
“It takes work. It takes people speaking up. It takes Congress listening, and acting. At the end of our day, our democracy is only as strong as our resolve. It is only as enduring as our courage.
“January 6th was a day that tested that resolve. It was a day that tested that courage. Frankly, some people in this body failed that test.
“But five years ago today, as I sheltered in place, steps away from right here, it wasn’t just the locks that held. The courage of our Capitol police held. And, most importantly, the resolve of some leaders to put country before party held.
“To my colleagues, and to the American people: I know we can continue to protect this democracy. But only if we tell the full truth about the threat that we faced five years ago, and the challenges we face today.”
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