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Floor Speech

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Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to share a little bit of maybe a reflection on the pardons of last week.

Part of the reason why I do, after the President issued the pardons for all of the January 6 protesters, I had a friend of mine call me up because I had said that some of the protesters probably got swept up in the events of the day. But some of those protesters harmed police officers, and I can't support that. I said, when I say I wear this pin almost every day and when I say I back the blue, I back the blue, period.

I back them when they are beaten by people who came into this Capitol on January 6. I back the blue because I am endlessly--over the last 10 years, I have been to this floor numerous times to mourn the loss of more than 80 police officers in North Carolina alone who died in the line of duty. I do this time after time after time.

The Republican Party is the party that stands for law and order and law enforcement, in my opinion. I have seen people excuse the protests in Kenosha and Portland as just mostly peaceful protests. The amazing thing was, when you see this on TV or you see it in the papers, they are saying mostly peaceful protests in Portland and Kenosha, and there is a building on fire in the background in and around a police precinct.

And in Washington, Federal agents were injured by law enforcement officials during the Biden administration. Every single one of us said that is inappropriate and those people need to be brought to justice.

Now, on January 6 of 2021, I was standing right over there in the middle of that aisle. My seat was right there. So when we were doing the certification of the election, you could hear people had breached the building. They were running around the Capitol. They were banging on doors. And, finally, my chair being right next to that door, we heard a loud crash. And I saw Capitol Police officers say, ``Secure that building,'' and run up there to protect the Members who were in the Chamber. And we were all here.

I saw some people immediately go to the Capitol Police so that they could take them to safe refuge, and they are the same people who have fundraised on a website that is called ActBlue. Fortunately, it has been taken down because I ranted enough. After a year, they finally did it. But they had a run for justice, 13.12. The alphabetic analog is ACAB, which translates into their slogan: ``All Cops Are Bastards.''

How does this relate? They raised money on it. In fact, they even encouraged people to do their 13-mile run around police stations to disrupt and intimidate police officers.

Now, how does this relate to everything that is going on here? I was the last Senate Member out of this Chamber on that day. In fact, it was one of the Vice President's details whom I happen to know that came back to me and said, Now you have really got to go. I walked through that hallway, down the stairwell that is over there, into the train tunnel, and what I saw were police officers who were bleeding; they were bruised; and they were beaten down.

The people who did that were pardoned last week. To those people--and I will give the President the benefit of the doubt. I support pardons for people who should have never come into the building. I don't know if I were President, if I would have pardoned them. But I can actually, at least, understand the rationale for those. But I think if you back the blue, there can be no equivocation on any exception for someone who assaults or murders a police officer.

The funny--not funny thing. The tragic thing is I just filed two bills that would increase the penalties for assaulting a police officer and increase the penalty for murdering a police officer as a Federal crime up to and including the death penalty. I want to send a message to those folks in blue that I, as an elected official and Member of the U.S. Senate, will never equivocate when it comes to backing the blue.

I would argue that if anybody has a problem with them, then call 911 and tell them you never want them to show up to your door when you are in trouble because most people know that the police officers who serve us and protect us in this building are great people.

I have this ask to those who have been pardoned--the QAnon Shaman who sat in that chair that the gentleman from Indiana is sitting in now and boasting over how he came into this Chamber, do you know what his social media tweet was when President Trump gave him a chance and gave him a pardon? Now I am going to go buy me some F'ing guns.

For the others who have been pardoned, be like a handful of some who have refused the pardon because they felt like they deserved the punishment.

For those who have received a pardon, view it as the gift that it is. Apologize to these police officers for what you did to them. If you do that, then I will feel like maybe President Trump gave you a chance to redeem yourself.

But if you come and spike the football in this Capitol Building and you pretend like what you did was right, righteous, or justified, please do not come anywhere near me.

It is important, for the past week I have told the police officers when I entered the building, I thought the pardons of those who assaulted police officers were wrong. I told every one of them. I said, I know you shouldn't react to it because you have to be apolitical. But I am a political person. I can say whatever I want to and then answer to the people of North Carolina.

But I thought it was important for me to come to the floor and record this in the Congressional Record: Particularly, the challenge to the people who assaulted police officers, show that you are remorseful. Demonstrate that you were wrong. Don't pretend that that pardon means that what you did was right.

For that reason, I felt compelled to come to the floor and make this statement because where I come from and where I have been my entire public service career, I will never stop backing the blue.

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