Insurrection in the Capitol
Floor Speech
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Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her incredible courage. I asked her to go last because this is so personal. This is so hard because, as many of my colleagues and my closest colleagues know, on my very first day of orientation, I got my first death threat.
It was a serious one. They took me aside. The FBI had to go to the gentleman's home. I didn't even get sworn in yet and someone wanted me dead for just existing.
More came later; uglier, more violent. One celebrating in writing the New Zealand massacre and hoping that more would come. Another mentioned my dear son, Adam, mentioning him by name. Each one paralyzed me each time.
So what happened on January 6, all I can do is thank Allah that I wasn't here. I felt overwhelming relief. I feel bad for Alexandria and so many of my colleagues who were here; but as I saw it, I thought to myself, Thank God I am not there. I saw the images that they didn't get to see until later.
My team and I decided at that point we would keep the death threats away. We tried to report them, document them, to keep them away from me because it just paralyzed me. All I wanted to do was come here and serve the people who raised me; the people who told my mother, who only had an 8th grade education, that she deserves human dignity; people who believed in me.
So it is hard. It is hard when my seven brothers and six sisters beg me to get protection, many urging me to get a gun for the first time. And I have to tell you, the trauma from just being here, existing as a Muslim woman is so hard. But imagine my team, which I love and just adore. They are diverse. I have LGBTQ staff. I have a beautiful Muslim who wears her hijab proudly in the halls. I have Black women who are so proud to be here, to serve their country. I worry every day for their lives because of this rhetoric. I never thought that they would feel unsafe here.
So I ask my colleagues to please try not to dehumanize what is happening. This is real. And you know many of our residents, from the shootings in Charlottesville to the massacre at the synagogue, all of it--all of it is led by hate rhetoric like this. So I urge my colleagues to please, please take what happened on January 6 seriously. It will lead to more deaths. We can do better. We must do better.
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