Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks: Senate Will Vote On Bipartisan January 6th Commission; American People Will See Which Members Are On The Side Of Truth Vs. On The Side Of Donald Trump’s Big Lie
Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding the need to bring the House-passed legislation that would create an independent commission to investigate the events up to and including the January 6th insurrection up for a vote. Senator Schumer also stressed that this legislation is crucial for maintaining our democracy and moving forwards as a country. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
The Senate will soon consider bipartisan legislation passed by the House to create an independent commission to investigate and report on the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
I have already taken procedural steps to make the legislation available for consideration on the Senate floor. I will bring the bill forward for a vote, very soon. I will have more to say on that in the coming days.
The formation of a commission is more important now that it ever has been. In the months since January 6th, Washington Republicans have tried to re-write history and re-cast the attack on January 6th as little more than a peaceful protests that got out of hand.
One Republican member said the rioters were more like a group of “normal tourists.” Did you see the tapes? Did you see the films, America? Those were normal tourists?
Another went so far as to say the mob—not the staff who were terrorized, or the police who were brutalized—were the real victims on January 6th. Give me a break.
For the sake of our democracy, it is crucial to establish an independent and trusted record of what really transpired. According to an Ipsos poll today, 56% of Republicans believe that the election was rigged and 53% of Republicans believe that Donald Trump is the true president, not Joe Biden. That’s what the Big Lie has caused: the majority of one of America’s two major political parties doesn’t believe our president is the actual president.
Now more than ever, both parties must to stand up to the Big Lie and shine a light on the truth of the 2020 elections and what happened on January 6th.
And yet it seems our Republican colleagues would rather avoid the subject entirely. The Republican Leader, after moving the goalposts week after week, announced his opposition to the commission despite the fact that Democrats agreed to every single request made by the House Republican Leader.
One Republican Senator said this weekend that it was “too early” to establish a commission. Another admitted that many Republicans opposed the commission because they feared it would hurt the Republican message in the midterm elections. Talk about saying the quiet part out loud.
The prevailing view among Republicans seems to be that we should sweep the Big Lie and all of January 6th under the rug, like it never happened.
Look, I’m sorry that some Republicans believe that a bipartisan investigation of the attack on our democracy is inconvenient for their midterm campaigns. But the Democratic-led Congress of the United States is not going to sweep January 6th under the rug.
We are going to vote on the January 6th Commission in the Senate, and the American people will see where every member stands: on the side of truth, or on the side of Donald Trump’s Big Lie.
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