FTP for TV stations of her remarks is available here.
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) joined her Democratic colleagues on the Senate floor today to remember the violent attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. Cortez Masto once again called out President’s Trump’s pardoning of more than 1,500 insurrectionists, noting that at least a dozen of them have been re-arrested for serious crimes committed after President Trump put them back on our streets.
Cortez Masto is a cosponsor of the No Rewards for January 6 Rioters Act, which prohibits the use of federal funds in any restitution payments for January 6 rioters, as well as the No Settlements for January 6 Law Enforcement Assaulters Act to bar federal dollars from being used in legal settlements for insurrectionists convicted of assaulting a law enforcement officer.
Below are her remarks as delivered:
Mr. President, I join my colleagues today to condemn the acts of violence we have all been talking about that occurred on this day five years ago when violent insurrectionists stormed the United States Capitol. Five years ago today, a mob viciously attacked Capitol Police officers to try to stop the Senate from certifying, right here in this room, the free and fair election that voted Donald Trump out of office.
Many of my Senate colleagues will never forget that day, because as I’ve said, we were here. I remember it very, very clearly. As I was preparing to come up here to stand with states who legally certified that election, and argue against the oppositions that were coming from some of my colleagues, I remember as I was coming up here in the Capitol building running into a Capitol Police officer who was in one of the restrooms with the door open washing his eyes out because he’d been pepper-sprayed. Now, I remember thinking, “This Capitol Police officer here in the United States Capitol has been pepper-sprayed, and he is here now trying to protect himself, but most importantly, to protect all of us. What is happening that is so close to the Capitol right now that this police officer has been attacked?”
But I’ll tell you what this police officer did, like many others that day: he washed his eyes out, he looked at us – the Senators who were there – and he said, “Don’t worry, we’ve got your back, we will protect you.” He ran out of that bathroom, up the stairs, and out the door to protect us. He didn’t think twice about it. He’d already been harmed by these violent insurrectionists, but he didn’t think twice. He kept being at the forefront, being out there, running to protect all of us that were doing our job here on the Senate floor.
I think what’s so disturbing to many of us that lived through that day – and you don’t have to have lived through this day, you know, I’m talking to everyone in this room that was here, whether it is our parliamentarian, our staff, everybody here, the interns, our recorders, everybody experienced that day. People manning the doors. Everybody felt it.
But you know who else felt that day that are feel just as emotional about what they saw? Was every American who was watching it unfold on TV because this is their Capitol. This is their building. This is the building of the people.
And they were watching these violent insurrectionists try to tear it down and looking for members of Congress, looking for members of Congress to do who knows what to prevent us from carrying out the duties of our office, but most importantly, carrying out the peaceful transfer of power that this country is known for, and has been known for, for over 200 years.
Let me say this. That officer, along with another 150 of his fellow men and women in uniform, were injured during the insurrection. Five police officers died because of it.
Some members of President Trump’s mob stole riot shields and used them to beat officers. One person assaulted law enforcement with a metal whip. Another choked an officer to the ground. They brought weapons and zip ties to the Capitol, they used WD-40 and bear spray on our officers, and they assaulted Capitol Police with American flags.
We know this from first-hand accounts from not just the police officers, but from the videos of that day. And I know it firsthand because I saw it in the halls of the Capitol, the paraphernalia that was littered throughout because of the damage that was caused by those insurrectionists.
But I’ll tell you what, you don’t even have to take our word for it.
Take the word of the rioters, because the rioters took videos of themselves doing these horrific things and then posted them online! The claims that these were “peaceful protesters” are disproven by their own evidence. They were proud to attack the men and women who keep us safe in an attempt to steal an election.
Why? Because President Trump couldn’t handle the fact that he lost. Because he would rather see our democracy crumble than acknowledge that the American people voted him out. So, earlier that day, he encouraged his supporters to march to the Capitol and intimidate the Senators – and his own Vice President – who were in this chamber to certify those results.
The mob smashed through lines of Capitol Police officers. We saw that on video. They broke into this building. We saw it on video, we saw it on TV live. And left a trail of destruction behind them. All in the name of Donald Trump.
Condemning their lawlessness and their actions against police officers is something we should all be able to agree on. But the truth is that President Trump does not care about law enforcement.
In fact, he’s trying to sweep all of this under the rug. A year after the insurrection, Congress passed a law to install a plaque honoring the police officers who bravely tried to hold off the violent mob.
But now, Republican leadership in Congress is refusing to unveil the memorial. Recognizing the heroic actions of law enforcement on January 6 is the least President Trump can do, but that would require him to acknowledge that his followers did something wrong.
It shouldn’t be hard to say that if you commit crimes against law enforcement and incite an insurrection, you should be brought to justice and held accountable.
But instead of standing with our police officers and denouncing these appalling actions, President Trump is rewarding them.
He’s decided that you don’t need to face the consequences of your crimes, as long as you commit them on his behalf.
One of the very first things President Trump did the day he was sworn in was to pardon more than 1,500 January 6 insurrectionists. This is the President who claimed he would restore “law and order” during his presidency.
His actions go against our democracy, our rule of law, and against everything we stand for as a nation. In the United States of America, no one is above the law – not the president, and certainly not the convicted criminals he’s treating like his own personal army.
Letting these bad actors off the hook has encouraged their behavior. In fact, some of them gave interviews saying President Trump’s pardons have vindicated their actions.
Now, remember, these were some individuals who were convicted in our criminal justice system by a jury of their peers.
These pardons were an endorsement of political violence, and an endorsement of attacking our law enforcement.
And now, shockingly, within a year of President Trump putting these dangerous criminals back on our streets, several of them have been re-arrested for committing crimes.
At least a dozen of these men and women – including the one who assaulted Capitol Police officers with a metal whip – have been picked up on various charges, ranging from soliciting a minor, to plotting to murder the FBI agents who investigated him, to killing someone while driving drunk, to burglary. I could go on.
These are the people President Trump called “patriots”. These are the people President Trump put back on our streets, making our communities less safe, and putting innocent people in harm’s way.
President Trump owns this. Every crime these violent insurrectionists commit while they roam free is on his head.
This isn’t a policy debate – it’s about right and wrong. It’s about who we are as a country. It is about our rule of law and order.
Pardoning the January 6 insurrectionists is an insult to our law enforcement, to our rule of law, to our democracy, and, yes, to the American people who believe in it, who fight for it. We cannot stand for it, and my Democratic colleagues and I will continue to
not only to speak out against it, because you can’t whitewash this, but also to recognize those Capitol Police officers, those law enforcement officers, those men and women who ran headfirst into harm’s way to protect us.
And this Capitol, the people’s Capitol. They will be recognized every single day. And yes, we should have a plaque, a memorial, and do so much more. I’m proud of my colleagues for drawing attention to this and continuing to support and thank those men and women who risked their lives to protect our right and our democracy in this country.
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