01.05.22

Durbin: One Year After January 6 Insurrection, Trump's "Big Lie" Remains A Threat To The Nation

WASHINGTON – One day ahead of the first anniversary of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding the anniversary of the insurrection and the continued threat to our democracy posed by Donald Trump’s “Big Lie.”

“We came perilously close to losing our democracy… It survives today only because men and women of conscience, Democrats and Republicans, refused to cooperate with the former President,” Durbin said.  “This was no minor incident, or as a Republican Congressman from Georgia said, just ‘tourists’ visiting the Capitol.  No, it was a deadly moment.  People died as a result of what happened that day.  People have been changed forever as a result of what happened that day.  It was for real.  Today, the windows and furniture that were shattered by the rioters have been replaced.  The National Guard members have gone home… But there are many invisible scars from January 6.  Five police officers who battled the mob died. More than 140 [law enforcement officers] were wounded.  And the Big Lie of the stolen election that Trump used to summon his mob continues to metastasize.”

Durbin continued, “Over the last year, Republican lawmakers across the country have used this Big Lie as a pretext to pass laws to make it more difficult for Americans to vote… Those state legislatures controlled by the Republican Party have tried to make it more difficult in the next election for the same people to vote.  That’s a fact.  And Americans now distrust our elections, and more now believe that political violence is acceptable, and that has to change. Our democracy cannot endure with these cancers spreading.”

Durbin concluded, “For the sake of our forbearers who gave us this democracy, and for our children and grandchildren who will inherit its future, I’m begging my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to condemn what happened in this chamber on January 6, 2021, and to make it clear once and for all, on a bipartisan basis, that we stand together united for this democracy to succeed.”

Video of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.

 

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