Democrats in Congress marked the anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Thursday recounting the terror they experienced first-hand — and argued that it gives them even more reason to pursue voting rights legislation.
They remembered the desperate scramble to hang on to the boxes that held the presidential vote tally, the rush to hustle Vice President Mike Pence out of the Senate chair, the rioters pounding on the doors of the U.S. House chamber.
Rep. Ann McLane Kuster of New Hampshire said she and Rep. Sara Jacobs, (D-Calif.), crawled through the chamber as Capitol Police shouted commands and ushered members to safety.
“We thought that we would die,” she said. “As we jumped into the elevator just as the raging rioters came charging down the hallway, 1,000 acts of courage saved my life and saved our democracy by moments … What would they have done to us?”
The attack, and former President Donald Trump’s role in inciting it, are directly tied to the drive in Republican state legislatures to restrict voting rights, Senate Democrats said on the floor Thursday.
Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen fed both the Jan. 6 mob and state laws to restrict voting access, they said. Democrats are seeking to enact federal voting rights laws to counteract state-level restrictions.
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