If you wonder whether I am going too far in what I say, just read the transcript with the secretary of state from Georgia and listen to this President’s wild conspiracy theories, one after the other, swatted down by that Republican-elected official and his attorney as having no basis in fact. This President begs, he coaxes, he even threatens that secretary of state to find the votes he needs. In any other venue, that would be a simple, obvious crime.
The lengths he will go to are obvious. The Texas Senator says to us: Well, many people still agree with him, you know, when it gets down to the bottom line. Many people have fallen for this Presidential position that it must have been a rigged election if I lost.
Well, I would say that after—we have lost count—57 lawsuits, 62 lawsuits—I have heard so many different numbers—after 90 different judges; after this President took his case, the best he could put together, to the highest Court in the land across the street, where he had personally chosen three Justices on the Supreme Court—and I say to the Senator from Texas that he knows much more about that Court than I do—I don’t believe they let that paper that he sent up there even hit the desk before they laughed it out of the Court. And that is the best he had to offer—no evidence whatsoever of this rigged election and this fraudulence.
The Senator from Texas says: We just want to create a little commission, 10 days; we are going to audit all of the States—particularly the ones in contention here—and find out what actually occurred.
And it really draws its parallel to 1876, to Hayes and Tilden. Don’t forget what that commission—that so-called political compromise—achieved. It was not just some ordinary governmental commission. It was a commission that killed reconstruction, that established Jim Crow, that—even after a civil war, which tore this Nation apart, it re-enslaved African-Americans, and it was a commission that invited voter suppression we are still fighting today in America.
Let me close by saying this. The vote we are going to have here is a clear choice of whether we are going to feed the beast of ignorance or we are going to tell the truth to the American people. We saw that beast today roaming the halls. Let's not invite it back.
The Vice President. The majority leader.
Mr. McConnell. I yield up to 5 minutes to the Senator from Kansas, Senator Marshall.
The Vice President. The Senator from Kansas.
Mr. Marshall. Thank you, Mr. President.
Freedom of speech and the freedom to protest are provided in our Constitution. While I share the same frustration many Americans have over the Presidential election, the violence and mob rule that occurred at the U.S. Capitol today and across the country over the past year are unacceptable, and I condemn them at the highest level. Like all of us in the Chamber, I am thankful for the heroic law enforcement officers who worked feverishly to restore order so that we get back to the electoral certification process.
During my 29-year career as an obstetrician and gynecologist, too often I had to sit down with patients and give them a very bad diagnosis. It might have been a young mother of three whose three babies I delivered, now with metastatic breast cancer, or perhaps another woman with advanced cervical or ovarian cancer, all of which have very challenging prognoses. But before I sat down with each one of those patients, I carefully reviewed all the labs, their x rays, and the pathology to make sure I had the facts straight, but at the end of the day, my final recommendation was always going to be a recommendation from my heart.
I want my fellow Kansans and all Americans to know that I have given as much consideration and thought surrounding the issue of objecting to a State’s electoral college votes as I did considering the treatment plan for a serious health concern, and today’s decision once again is from my heart.
Mr. President, I rise today to restore integrity to our Republic, and I rise to do it knowing that many of our colleagues are all concerned for current and future generations. We must restore faith and confidence in one of our Republic’s most hallowed and patriotic duties: voting.
There is no question our U.S. Constitution empowers State legislatures to execute free, legal, and fair elections. Unfortunately, in several States, the clear authority of those State legislatures to determine the rules for voting was usurped by Governors, secretaries of state, and activist courts. Our laws and Constitution should always be followed, especially in a time of crisis.
I don’t rise to undo a State’s legally obtained electoral college votes; rather, I rise in hopes of improving the integrity of the ballot to hold States accountable to the time-proven constitutional system of the electoral college.
This is why I urge the formation of an electoral commission to give constructive suggestions and recommendations that States can take to make our elections once again safe, free, and fair after a year of jarring irregularities.
We must and will have a peaceful transition of power.
To all my fellow Americans, I have no doubt that our Republic can grow stronger through this difficult day.
May God bless this great Republic.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I yield the floor.
The Vice President. The minority leader.
Mr. Schumer. The Senator from Illinois, Senator Duckworth.
Ms. Duckworth. In 2004, I packed up my rucksack, laced up my boots, and deployed to Iraq, ready to sacrifice whatever was asked of me, all because I love this Nation—willing to sacrifice my life, if needed, because I believe in the sanctity of our electoral system, which had declared George W. Bush my Commander in Chief.
I earned my wounds proudly fighting in a war I did not support on the orders of a President I did not vote for because I believed in and I still do believe in the values of our Nation; because I believe in a government of, by, and for the people, where voters—voters—choose who leads them, not the other way around.
I have spent my entire adult life defending our democracy, but I never—never—thought it would be necessary to defend it from an attempted violent overthrow in our Nation’s own Capitol Building. Well, I refuse to let anyone intent on instigating chaos or inciting violence deter me from carrying out my constitutional duties.
You know, when my Army buddies and I raised our right hands, when 45,000 troops in Arizona raised their right hands and swore to protect and defend the Constitution, we did not qualify our oaths by saying that we would follow orders only when the Commander in Chief was someone whose election we were happy with.
Just like when every Senator in this Chamber was sworn into office, we didn’t mutter under our breath that we discharge our duties only when it served our political interests or helped us to avoid the wrath of a petty, insecure, wannabe tin-pot dictator on the precipice of losing power and relevance. No, there is no ambiguity here—Joe Biden won the election with a record number of votes. Republican officials nationwide confirmed those results, including in Arizona, as has judge after Trump-appointed judge. Even Trump’s Attorney General admitted that the U.S. Department of Justice had not found widespread fraud that would have affected the outcome.
Yet still many of my Republican colleagues are asking us to ignore all of that. With no evidence of their own, they are asking us to ignore court rulings, ignore Republican-elected officials, and even worse, ignore the will of the people across this vast, great Nation by trying to overturn this election. They are placing more trust in Reddit conspiracy theories than the Constitution, proving that appeasing Trump is more important to them than protecting the most basic tenet of our Republic—the adherence to free and fair elections.
If there is one thing I know, it is that my troops didn’t sign up to defend our democracy in war zones thousands of mile away only to watch it crumble in these hallowed halls here at home. Yet that is what this effort amounts to—an attempt to subvert our democracy. In the process, it is threatening what makes America American, because in this country—in this country—the power of the people has always
