Insurrection in the Capitol

Floor Speech

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Mr. WELCH. Madam Speaker, it was an extraordinary day that started out quite beautiful for me. I live across the street, right next to the Supreme Court; and every day, almost without fail, there are demonstrators out on the Supreme Court who are peaceful. Some of them I agree with and some of them I disagree with, but it is a beautiful sight to see people exercising their First Amendment right.

That was a beautiful day, January 6, and I had time. We weren't scheduled to be here in the House until about 1 p.m. So I did something that is a privilege and just a joy for those of us who serve here in the Capitol. I took a walk from the Supreme Court to the Capitol, down to the Washington Monument, to the Lincoln Memorial, and back.

Of course, the Trump protesters at that point were there, as it was their right to be. But on the way back, I became somewhat alarmed because when I got to the White House, it was really much more like a mob with many folks with bullhorns talking about hanging Mike Pence and using horrible epithets I can't mention here directed towards Nancy Pelosi.

As they came back toward 4th Street, I came in sight of--and was standing by--two groups of people who were about 70 strong and were practicing marching in military formation, and as they marched, they were chanting, again, a word I can't use here, F those people, talking about the people in this building.

As Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said, people in this building were workers. They were Capitol Police who were in this building because they had to do an hour-and-a-half commute to do this job to protect this building that belongs to the people of this country so they could then pay the bills for their family and make that hour-and-a-half commute back. It was the cafeteria workers. It was everyday, hardworking, wonderful Americans.

Now, at that point I still didn't think anything about it because it never occurred to me, with all the anger and hostility I saw with those groups of people who were marching in a formation, that when I was later sitting up in that gallery with many of my colleagues as the proceedings were taking place, that this building would be invaded. I took it for granted that that just couldn't happen.

Of course, it did. The first sign we had of something amiss is when we saw the security people for our leadership--the Speaker, the minority leader, and our majority leader--rush them off the floor. We on the floor and in the gallery still had no idea what was going on.

Now, in retrospect, we find out the west side of the building was being breached, and one of the police officers said it was like a castle storming.

Mr. McGovern took the chair and began to continue the process of certification of the election until one of the Capitol Police officers told us that teargas had been fired, that people had breached the building, get out the gas mask, and lie on the floor.

Then I saw Capitol Police officers with guns from their holsters. I looked at these men and women and I tried at that moment to imagine what was it like for them that they actually had to have a weapon out. They had families, they had responsibility, and whatever fear they may have felt, their duty was to protect us, and they were going to do it no matter what.

How small I felt at that moment that because of someone who was doing their duty to protect me--I am no more worthy than any other person who works in this building--but that is their job. They were threatened.

Then, of course, we heard the shot when the mob was getting in to the door of the Speaker's Lobby. Then to get us out, they had to bring us all the way across this Chamber to the far door. We got stopped right over here where these two doors were being breached, and we heard the sound and saw the poles that were being pushed through.

You know the rest. We are going to hear more stories.

But I want to say that, in listening to my colleagues and experiencing it myself, where I had some fear, but then we were okay, there are two things that just stay with me. The first thing is that the tradition we have had in this country that is so commonplace, we do it every 4 years, the peaceful transfer of power, and how extraordinary it is that we do that every 4 years, was shattered. The second thing is that we saw something that allowed Jim Crow to thrive for over 100 years after the Civil War, and that was the use of violence as a political tactic.

We now have a Capitol ringed by these 7-foot fences with concertina wire. So the trauma that we are feeling, working in the sense of isolation, is the trauma to our democracy. Our goal, our responsibility is to restore that and not be defeated.

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