Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Rebuking The Republican National Committee For Their False Declaration That The January 6th Violent Insurrection Was “Legitimate Political Discourse”
Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding the RNC declaring in a censure resolution that the January 6th violent insurrection was “legitimate political discourse.” Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Normally, I do not make a point on remarking upon the actions and statements of the Republican National Committee, which by now has completely fallen under the control of former President Donald Trump and his inner circle.
But last week they crossed a line, issuing a statement that censured two Republicans who stood up to the Big Lie while also describing the insurrection of January 6th as quote, “legitimate political discourse.” Their statement didn’t even make mention of the violence that day.
There’s no debate to be had here: January 6th was an armed insurrection. It was an attempt to reverse, through violent means, the outcome of a free and fair election. And it was fundamentally rooted in Donald Trump’s Big Lie that the election of 2020 was illegitimate, which now the RNC seems to be giving its blessing officially.
For the national committee of one of America’s two major political parties to officially sign onto the Big Lie—and more than that, to excuse the attack itself by attributing even a shred of legitimacy to it—is chilling and plainly dangerous. It puts us on a road where our democracy is at risk.
It’s a sad commentary on how far the political arm of the GOP now has gone that the RNC will go out of its way to punish its own members who spoke out against the former President’s lies, while defending the rioters who tried to undo an election with mob rule.
Theirs will be nothing less than everlasting shame.
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