TRANSCRIPT: Majority Leader Schumer Remarks At Senate Rules Committee On The January 6th Insurrection And The Need To Protect Our Democracy And Confront Donald Trump’s Big Lie
Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today delivered remarks at the Senate Rules Committee on security improvements made since the January 6th insurrection and the continued threat to our democracy posed by President Trump’s Big Lie. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Let me first thank the Chair of the Rules Committee, my good friend Senator Klobuchar, for the great work she has done making our Capitol much safer. And let me thank my friend, the Ranking Member, for his bipartisan cooperation on this important issue. And I thank you for the opportunity to speak now.
I also want to thank today’s witness: U.S. Capitol Chief of Police Thomas Manger. 2021 was one of the hardest years ever for our Capitol Police, but Chief Manger has done an outstanding job in his first few months ushering in the necessary reforms to the department. He’ll be the first to say the job is not done, but today the Capitol is a whole lot safer than it was a year ago, and I commend him for his leadership. I feel safe walking the halls of this hallowed building.
My colleagues, we are here today because one year ago, the men and women of our Capitol Police stood on the front lines of the unthinkable – unthinkable – in America: a violent assault upon the U.S. Capitol, instigated by former President Trump and carried out by a mob of radicals looking to halt the peaceful transfer of power.
I remember January 6th as if it were yesterday—I’ve said repeatedly over the last year my experience of that day was sort of like Charles Dickens’s “A Tale of Two Cities”: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The best of times because at 4:00 a.m. that morning, we had learned, those of us on the Democratic side anyway, the Senators Warnock and Ossoff had won and we would come back into the majority. I couldn’t sleep. I got in my car at 7:30 a.m., got here at 12:30 p.m., got on the floor of the Senate at 1:00 p.m. as we began to count the votes. I was only on the floor of the Senate for about an hour, when a police officer in a bullet-proof vest and a sub-machine gun strapped across his waist grabbed me firmly by the collar like this. I will never forget that grip. He said: Senator, we are in danger. We’ve got to get out of here. He had to explain to me what the danger was, I didn’t know. None of us knew at that time. We walked through a hallway, went through a door, and this was shown on the video camera that was captured and they used at the impeachment trial. I had not seen it until they did it then. But they showed me walking briskly with a police officer on either side down a hallway. We go through a door, and you do not see us for 20 seconds and then we are running out at full speed.
I was within 30 feet of these nasty insurrectionists. Had one of them had a gun, had two of them blocked off the door, Lord knows what would have happened.
So, that was quite a day. And it was even a tougher day, much tougher for our Capitol Hill Police. They were outnumbered. They were underequipped. Yet their bravery and their quick thinking saved many lives and prevented a violent riot from becoming something even worse. It allowed us – hen the four leaders met and decided we were going to not let these insurrectionists stop us from going forward with the counting of the ballots – it allowed us to come back that night at 8pm and actually finish the counting. Having the insurrectionist’s object that day – to stop the count – fail.
So, today we honor those who stepped up that day, and especially those whom we’ve lost in the aftermath. We remember them and pray for their families.
In the year since that attack, as it’s been mentioned, we’ve gotten a lot done in the Senate to strengthen our Capitol Police to assure – from a security standpoint – that the violence of that day never happens again.
Early last year I put in place a new Sargent at Arms — Lieutenant General Karen Gibson — a wonderfully competent person with a great deal of experience on both the organizational side as well as on the intelligence since. And we installed the first all-woman leadership team in the history of the Senate Sargent at Arms. As a member of the Capitol Police Board, Ms. Gibson led a diligent search and helped us find a new police chief who sits here today. It was so important to me that we had a new police chief who was competent, experienced and dedicated. I am proud that we have found such an individual in J. Thomas Manger.
Last summer, we did a few other things. We passed critical supplemental funding led by Senator Leahy and Senator Shelby, providing tens of millions in overtime pay, funding for more police officers, hazard pay, and retention bonuses for the Capitol Police.
And just last month, we passed legislation authorizing the chief to summon the National Guard in future emergencies without prior authorization. We all know what we went through that day trying to get the National Guard to come quickly.
Thanks to this work, the chief’s work, and the new leadership of the Capitol Police, the U.S. Capitol today is much safer than it was a year ago, although we are continuing to work on that vital job of the safety of this Capitol.
But let’s be clear, let’s be very clear: January 6th was not merely a senseless act of mob violence that sprung up spontaneously. It was an attempt to reverse, through violent means, the outcome of a free and fair election.
And make no mistake: the root cause of January 6th is still with us today. It is the Big Lie pushed by Donald Trump that is undermining faith in our political system and making our democracy, our country, less safe.
The biggest threat to our Capitol, our Capitol Police and our democracy today is the insidious, insidious motives stemming from the Big Lie, propagated by the former president and his Republican allies across the country.
We can — and we will — continue to make sure the Capitol is safe from a security standpoint.
But without addressing the root causes of the violence on January 6th, the insurrection will not be an aberration. It could well become the norm.
And just like the Senate has the power to pass legislation supporting our Capitol Police force, we have the same power and obligation to pass legislation to address these root causes that brought the Big Lie to life. That is what my Senate Democratic colleagues and I are focused and committed to doing, here in the Rules Committee and among our caucus as a whole. And we must act – we must act.
More than any point in recent history, threats of political violence are on the rise. Election administrators – basically people who are almost like civil servants, just trying to count the elections accurately – are facing harassment, even death threats for carrying out their duty. Isn’t that a sad day in this country, when the people who, in many situations, nonpartisan in many situations, bipartisan, but are simply dedicated to counting the vote fairly are threatened, something is very wrong. By one measure, nearly a third of those who count the votes say they feel less safe on the job, and many of them are quitting because they fear for their safety.
What has this country come to when that happens, when the wellspring of our democracy, the fair unbiased counting of our votes, which has been a part of our hallmark for this country since we’ve started, which is the root of democracy, when that is, when people who do that are threatened with violence, what has come to our country?
So we must act, we must act.
My colleagues, the threats I’ve mentioned are the symptoms of an illness festering deep within the bones of our democracy. And unless we confront the Big Lie—unless all of us do our part to fortify and strengthen our democracy—the political violence of January 6th risks becoming little more than a taste of dangers to come.
All of us have a role to play to protect our democratic system – everyone from our Capitol Police, to the voting public, to those of us entrusted to serve in elected office.
And again: Just as the Capitol Police have taken the experience of January 6th to institute reforms for the future, every member of the United States Senate is called on to do the same, to reckon with the lessons of that terrible day and take action to cure America of the disease of the Big Lie.
That means passing legislation to protect our democracy from subversion and safeguard the right to vote, including the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. In the weeks to come, I look forward to working with all my colleagues to achieve this goal.
For now, let me close again by thanking Chief Manger for being here, and for leading his department in making the changes necessary to prepare for the future. And let me thank Senator Klobuchar and Senator Blunt in the Rules Committee for their work. I know it’s not easy work, I know it’s been met at times with resistance, but I commend you, for keeping your eye on the big picture and for doing your part to protect our democracy. It is my hope that the Senate can follow suit in the near future.
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