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Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, my husband and I sheltered in place right here in this building and prayed that our lock would hold. Five years ago, we had to hunker down in the Capitol as alarms blared, glass shattered, and rioters stormed the Halls of this building chanting ``hang Mike Pence.''

We heard them just outside the room I was in, feet away from this Chamber. They were looking for any lawmaker they could find, screaming ``kill the infidels.'' We felt them bashing against our door trying to get in. We held our breath and waited for what seemed like forever.

And this time every year, it feels like I am still holding my breath because I know it wasn't just my husband and I that were in danger that day and it wasn't just the windows that were shattered. It was our democracy that was under attack--our democracy--and the very idea that we use our voices and our votes in this country, not violence.

And the same forces that ignited the insurrection 5 years ago are still here. The same lies are still being spread about the 2020 election--you just heard some of them--by the same bad actors; the same President who told the crowd just hours before that violent insurrection that he would march to the Capitol with them is now accusing Democrats of treason and sharing calls to execute them.

And the same violent people--the people who stormed and battered our Capitol Police, the people who brought bats and knives and zip ties, the people who left blood and feces and broken glass littered throughout the Halls of this building--they are walking free today because President Trump thinks they were the victims.

On his first day in office, Trump pardoned rioters who assaulted officers with pepper spray and metal poles. Trump pardoned people who crushed police with riot shields. Trump pardoned an insurrectionist who violently punched, slapped, and swatted police and even choked one officer to the ground. Trump pardoned someone who plunged a stun gun into a Capitol Police officer's neck.

Trump pardoned those people and many like them with no care for how dangerous or violent they were.

He even let the leader of the Proud Boys out of prison.

The story doesn't end there because several people that Trump let out of prison are now back in jail for other crimes: gun charges, breaking and entering, burglary, a fatal drunk driving accident, child pornography, aggravated kidnapping, sexual assault--even plotting to kill the FBI agents who investigated them.

Months after Trump pardoned Christopher Moynihan--one of the first rioters to breach the police barricades--he was arrested again for threatening the life of Leader Jeffries.

Make no mistake: Trump's mass pardons were a dangerous endorsement of political violence, telling criminals you can beat cops within an inch of their life as long as it is in service to President Trump.

They are also part of an all-out effort by the President and his allies to rewrite the history of the insurrection of that day. President Trump's Justice Department just took down the public database that laid out the thousands of investigations.

He just put up a website that blames Capitol Police for escalating the situation. Seriously. Trump isn't just siding with the rioters; he is trying to blame our law enforcement.

And President Trump's allies in Congress, to this day, have refused to hang a plaque honoring our Capitol Police officers for their sacrifice.

We lost a Capitol Police officer that day. Several others took their lives in the trauma that followed. Capitol Police officers suffered severe injuries--cracked ribs, smashed spinal discs, brain injuries, even the loss of an eye--and yet, Speaker Johnson has turned a plaque that was meant to be proof of their bravery into proof of his own cowardice.

No matter how many criminals Trump pardons, no matter how many lies he tells, and no matter how loudly he tells them, no President can rewrite history unless we stand by and let him.

I, for one, am never forgetting the truth of that day. It is burned into my brain, and I am never letting our country forget it either. This is a battle I have no doubt we can win. But the challenge before us at this moment is greater than just fighting for truth and history.

It is not enough to make sure that we simply remember the truth of the January 6 insurrection. The real fight is to ensure we learn the lesson of the January 6 insurrection because there is no reason to think the same insurrectionists that are now free and the same President--now bolder than ever in challenging our laws and our Constitution--won't try once again to get their way through threats and through violence.

Trump has already made clear where he stands on democracy. He made it clear 5 years ago when he promised to march on the Capitol. He made it clear last year when he pardoned everybody that did storm the Capitol. He makes it clear every single day.

That is why it is incumbent on all of us in this country to be just as clear where we stand on democracy, especially when it comes to standing up to Trump. Our government of the people, by the people, for the people is an amazing accomplishment, but it is not automatic or inevitable. It takes work. It takes people speaking up. It takes Congress listening and acting.

At the end of the day, our democracy is only as strong as our resolve. It is as enduring as our courage. January 6 was a day that tested that resolve. It was a day that tested that courage.

Frankly, some people in this body failed that test, but 5 years ago today, as I sheltered in place steps away from right here, it wasn't just the locks that held. The courage of our Capitol Police held. And most importantly, the resolve of some leaders to put country before party held.

To my colleagues and to the American people: I know we can continue to protect this democracy, but only if we tell the full truth about the threat that we faced 5 years ago and the challenges we face today.

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