Hoyer: Let Us Remember January 6th, Lest it be Repeated

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) joined the Congressional Black Caucus on the House Floor to deliver remarks to mark five years since the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Below is a full video and transcript of his remarks:

Click here to watch a full video of his remarks.

"I thank my friend for yielding. He and I have known each other for some 60 years. We've served in this body for a very long time. I can remember two events; one was on September 11th, 2001, and we were, as the gentlemen observed, attacked by an enemy from without. That was horrific. America lost thousands of lives that day. We stood on the steps of the United States Senate that evening and sang 'God Bless America.' On January 6th, I was sitting where the gentleman from South Carolina now stands. I saw an officer - a detail officer from the Capitol Police come in and take Speaker Pelosi from the rostrum, and then a Capitol Policeman assigned to my detail, as we call it, came up to me, took me by the arm, said, 'We have to get out of here.' And I got to that door, and we went through that door, and I said to him, 'What has happened?' and the stunning words of his reply was, 'The Capitol has been breached.'

"Mr. Speaker, I observe and don't know whether the cameras are panning this House, but the other side of the aisle is empty, failing to recognize one of the most grievous, criminal, treasonous events that has happened during the 44 plus years that I've been in this House, as if it were not [a] historic event where every member of this House - 435 of us - ought to be rising today and say, 'America, we will not survive that kind of conduct.' That is not America. And urging every one of our constituents - as I'm going to quote George Washington, in just a minute - to ' honor democracy in victory and in defeat .' Al Gore lost a presidential election 5 to 4. When the Supreme Court said the election is over by a vote of 5 to 4, and Al Gore did what real patriots do. He said, 'The court has declared the election ended, and because of my love of America and democracy, and because that is how our system works. A nation of laws, not of men and women.'

"Mr. Speaker, my favorite painting in the Capitol hangs in the rotunda. Painted by John Trumbull, it depicts George Washington in the Maryland State Senate chamber as he resigns his commission as commander in chief of the Continental Army at the end of the Revolutionary War. That painting, Mr. Speaker, is testament to a man who so eagerly relinquished his power and who only reluctantly reclaimed it when the American people called him to serve as their first president. It is a symbol of the peaceful transition of power upon which our democracy depends. Mr. Speaker, five years ago today, that painting towered over the swarm of insurrectionists Donald Trump sent to this Capitol. That is why he was deemed to be, as the Whip said, the most culpable of the figures involved in this insurrection. What did George - what did he say? He told the mob to 'stop the steal' and 'fight like hell,' and then he deployed them to the Capitol of the United States of America, the beacon of democracy, freedom and liberty for all the world, and the Capitol was breached.

"There, of course, was no steal, and the courts said so in court after court after court after court, but unlike Al Gore, President Trump did not honor the courts. Rather, he deployed an army to come to the Capitol, breach it, and stop Democratic proceedings. The army he deployed maimed some 140 of our brave U.S. Capitol Police officers, several of whom lost their lives. They paraded Confederate and Nazi symbols through these halls, as the Whip observed, as well. They erected gallows. They erected gallows on the Capitol lawn to hang the Republican Vice President of the United States and so stated. Unlike the past few months, the National Guard was nowhere to be found. Donald Trump had every opportunity to restore order. The Republican Leader of this House, Mr. McCarthy, called the White House and said, 'Mr. President, you need to stop this violence.' And nothing happened. Instead, the President played the figurative fiddle as the Capitol was sieged, and the Constitution was challenged.

"The same man responsible for the violence that day is now trying to distort it, to erase it. Perhaps, Mr. Speaker, that's why there's no other Republican on the Floor; to try to forget what happened, erase it from the minds of Americans, erase it from the history books. 'It was just a group of tourists taking an amble through the Capitol.' Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States inexplicably has described January 6th as 'a day of love.' Mr. Speaker, I call it what it was: a day of violence, sedition, and treason. Trump has called those who stormed the Capitol 'unbelievable patriots.' 435 of us ought to be on the on this Floor saying, 'No, sir. It was unbelievable violence and sedition.' I call those 'unbelievable patriots' what they are: criminals, convicted of such. Insurrectionists, cop killers, cop beaters, democracy destroyers. In one of the first actions in his second term - the Whip has mentioned this; others will mention it - I use the word inexplicable.

"In his first days in office, some 1600 insurrectionists who stormed this Capitol, who breached this Capitol, who tried to stop democracy from working, were pardoned by the President of the United States, Mr. Donald J. Trump. David Dempsey, sentenced to 20 years, viciously assaulted and injured police officers, including the Lower West Terrace - at the Lower West Terrace Tunnel using weapons made from broken furniture, pepper spray, and flagpoles. Daniel Joseph Rodriguez, sentenced to 12.5 years after being found guilty, filmed deploying fire extinguishers and dragging Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone and repeatedly shocked Fanone in the neck with a taser - pardoned. The Chief of the Capitol Police, when asked about those pardons, said it was 'deeply troubling to the Capitol Police,' as well it should be. Patrick McCaughey, seven and a half years, used a stolen riot shield to pin Maryland - Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodge to a metal doorframe, while another assailant beat Hodge in the face with a stolen baton. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden described McCaughey as 'the poster child of all that was dangerous and appalling about January 6th.' Peter Francis Stager, [sentenced] four years and four months, [wielded] a flagpole and struck defenseless officer who was lying face down. I would ask any Member of the President's party or of our party to come to this Floor and defend the pardoning somebody who perpetrated a crime on the police officer.

"Stewart Rhodes, sentenced to 18 years said this: 'Patriots -' using Donald Trump's word for them - 'it was a long day, but a day when patriots began to stand. Stand now or kneel forever. Honor your oath. Remember your legacy.' That's what he said. Pride in assaulting the officers, pride in assaulting democracy, pride in driving the Congress - thankfully, for just hours - out of this Capitol so they could not proceed in doing their constitutional duty. That pardon list included 600 who were charged with assaulting or obstructing law enforcement. So much, Mr. Speaker, for supporting the 'Thin Blue Line.' So much for supporting the brave men and women of law enforcement. Mr. Speaker, we cannot afford to forget January 6th. We cannot afford to be absent, Mr. Speaker, to take a walk, to turn our backs on what happened on January 6th. To do so is to risk its repeated actions.

"It did not end when a bipartisan majority in this House impeached Trump the following week, and it still has not ended. Mr. Speaker, I ask this House now, as I did on January 6th, standing where the gentleman from South Carolina is standing now: 'Do we have the courage to stand up to a President who violates our Constitution, our laws and our norms?' Will enough of my colleagues across the aisle find that courage? Liz Cheney found that courage. Liz Cheney, the third ranking Republican in the House of Representatives. Liz Cheney, the daughter of Vice President Cheney. She found that courage to recognize that day for the tragedy it was. I pray others will do the same. So would General Washington, whom I mentioned earlier. He would tell them that he - what he told his own officers when he learned they were conspiring to overthrow the Continental Congress just a few months before he resigned his commission. He said this: 'Express your utmost horror and detestation of the man who wishes, under any specious pretenses, to overturn the liberties of our country, and who wickedly attempts to open the flood gates of civil discord and deluge our rising empire in blood.' That is what happened on January 6th.

"On January 6th, we saw the floodgates of insurrection open. If we forget that, if we gloss over that fact of history, if we ignore it, if we diminish its venality or glorify the actions of the mob as Trump does, we risk letting that dream of liberty for which our founders pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor be swept away. Let us remember January 6th, lest it be repeated. I yield back."