[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 132 (Wednesday, July 28, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5119-S5120]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       January 6 Select Committee

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, yesterday, Congressman Bennie Thompson 
called to order the first hearing of the special committee that most of 
our Republican colleagues have tried to block, the Select Committee to 
Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.
  It continues to amaze me that an independent, bipartisan committee to 
investigate the worst assault on our democracy since the War of 1812, 
an assault that left one police officer dead and more than 140 injured, 
was filibustered and stopped in its tracks by the Republican leader of 
the Senate, Mitch McConnell.
  That is exactly what he did. He tried to conceal the truth about what 
happened on January 6. He tried to hide it from the American people and 
to do this without police officers in this building noticing, many of 
whom risked their lives on that day. Well, we saw yesterday that he 
failed. Senator McConnell failed to stop the investigation. We are 
going to learn what

[[Page S5120]]

happened on January 6, despite his effort to stop it.
  During the first hearing of the select committee yesterday, we heard 
testimony from four police officers who battled the mob for hours on 
January 6. Many of us witnessed it. Two members of the Capitol Police 
Force and two from the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, 
DC, testified. These officers were brutalized in hand-to-hand combat. 
Some thought they were going to die. And they are still grappling with 
the physical and emotional trauma they suffered.
  Officer Harry Dunn recounted yesterday how the mob of the former 
President's supporters chanted the N-word in his face.
  Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone testified that members of 
the mob attempted to steal his service weapon and kill him with it. He 
was dragged into the mob, tasered repeatedly, and beaten unconscious. 
He suffered a heart attack and a traumatic brain injury. This is what 
Officer Fanone said yesterday: ``My fellow citizens, including so many 
of the people I put my life at risk to defend, are downplaying or 
outright denying what happened. I feel like I went to hell'' he said, 
``and [came] back to protect them and the people in this room. But too 
many are now telling me that hell doesn't exist or that hell wasn't 
exactly that bad.''
  Is that how we are going to treat police officers in the Capitol? I 
ask that of the Senators and the House Members.
  They risk their lives every day to defend us, to defend this 
building, to defend what it stands for. Instead of thanking them, are 
some of my colleagues going to deny the brutality that they faced? That 
cannot be. These brave officers deserve better. At the very least, they 
deserve that the truth be told.
  One of the most searing images from January 6 was that of a police 
officer screaming in agony as he was pinned against the metal door and 
beaten by this insurrectionist mob.
  Yesterday, that man, Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, told 
the select committee: ``There can be no moving on without 
accountability. There can be no healing without making sure this will 
never happen again.''
  To all of the police officers who held the line on January 6, let me 
say clearly: You defended the American democracy. You didn't just 
defend this building and the Members of Congress. And if not for your 
heroism and sacrifice, the terrible toll of that day would have been 
far worse. Take solace in the fact that you did your duty.
  But there are Members of the Senate and the House who are failing to 
do theirs. Right now, this Senate has a chance to finally do right by 
our police officers.
  Yesterday, Chairman Leahy and Vice Chairman Shelby announced a 
bipartisan $2.1 billion security supplemental funding package that will 
not only pay the salaries of our Capitol Police officers, it will 
increase security at the Capitol. It will reimburse the National 
Guardsmen who were deployed to defend this building after January 6--a 
great sacrifice.
  That package would also provide relief to another group of heroes who 
risked their lives for America and who did so on foreign soil: our 
civilian partners in Afghanistan. This package would provide an 
additional 8,000 special immigrant visas to Afghan interpreters who 
supported our diplomats and troops on the frontlines of America's 
longest war.
  As we begin to finally bring our troops home from Afghanistan, let's 
not forget the heroes who supported them and risked their lives to help 
them. Many of these individuals and their families are no longer safe 
if the Taliban takes control. We need to give them a new home in 
America. I am glad this bill provides the means to do so.
  I thank Senator Leahy for leading the negotiations. I hope every 
Senator will support it.
  Yesterday, Officer Harry Dunn told the Select Committee about the 
anxiety he and other officers felt when the remaining security fence 
around the Capitol was taken down, but little else has been done to 
protect this building from another mob insurrection.
  Officer Dunn said: ``When that fence came down--when we lost that 
last layer of protection--that was hard. . . . The fence came down and 
still nothing has changed. Everything is different, but still nothing 
has changed.''
  This is the time to show the officers who protected us and the world 
that when you defend America in our time of need, we will stand by you. 
I urge all my colleagues to support the security supplemental bill. It 
is the least that we can do.
  Mr. President, there is one other thing I would like to say. It is 
just too close to call. I thought about it long and hard, and it is 
just too close to call.
  In an effort to plumb the depths of political meanness and 
irresponsibility, it is just hard to choose between Tucker Carlson and 
Laura Ingraham. First, they became our Nation's leading anti-vax 
quacks, making their specious arguments against lifesaving COVID-19 
vaccines and sowing doubt among their viewers, who were literally 
putting their lives at risk because of the lies that these two 
individuals are spouting. And now--and now--they are creating a braying 
chorus focused on defaming the police who defended this building on 
January 6.
  Their mockery of the bravery of the Capitol and DC police, who risked 
and some lost their lives on the January 6 attack on the Capitol 
Building, is cowardly and shameful.
  It took courage for the police to face the Trump mob. It takes no 
courage for these FOX talking-heads to belittle these officers. It 
takes no courage to practice their well-worn smirks reacting to the 
bravery of these policemen.
  It is hard to imagine reading a press account of what they said 
yesterday and last night about the hearing that took place, the things 
that they did. Ingraham gave the ``best performance in an action role'' 
to Washington Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who, during 
the testimony, recalled fearing he would be shot with his own gun.
  Ingraham said: ``Well, there was certainly a lot of violence that 
day, but it was not a terrorist attack. It wasn't 9/11. It wasn't the 
worst thing that ever happened to America. It wasn't an insurrection.''
  And then Tucker Carlson responded with a smirk to the footage of 
Fanone telling the hearing he had experienced post-traumatic stress 
disorder.
  Throughout the monologue, Carlson piled onto his previous claims 
about the violence just being a ``political protest that got out of 
hand.''
  First the vaccines and now defaming the police--this is irresponsible 
from start to finish. I would ask those at FOX network, not exactly my 
friends and allies in politics, to show common decency and common 
sense--common sense when it comes to these vaccines, which we know if 
more people were vaccinated we wouldn't be facing this resurgent need 
for masks and fear of this new variant. And common decency when it 
comes to the men and women in uniform when it comes to risking their 
lives for this Capitol, this democracy, and this government. Certainly, 
there is freedom of speech, but let's hope that good sense will 
dominate this discussion over at the FOX network as to whether these 
two ought to be allowed to continue their rant.
  I yield the floor
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, it is my understanding that prior to my 
remarks on the floor, we were going to recognize the Senator from 
Minnesota for 10 minutes or so. So if that is still desired by the 
Senator from Minnesota, I would be glad to yield.
  And since the Senator from Minnesota is not present, I will go ahead 
and make my remarks.
  I do ask unanimous consent that I be recognized as if in morning 
business for such time as I shall consume.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.