Blumenthal Votes to Establish an Independent Commission on January 6 Insurrection

[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) released the statement below after Senate Republicans blocked a bill to establish an independent commission, looking into what happened during the violent insurrection at the Capitol on January 6:

“This vote was despicable. We cannot allow Republicans to stifle and suppress the truth. Republican intransigence leaves us with only one option: a Select Committee to investigate and make specific recommendations about how to prevent another violent attack on democratic institutions.”

 “I’m really ashamed of my Republican colleagues. A full accounting of what happened on January 6 in the Capitol isn’t about the former president or the next election – it’s about white supremacy and violent extremism, and how to stop it from destroying our democracy. It’s about the police officers who died, the lawmakers who barricaded themselves in their offices, and the staff who had to scrub Nazi slogans and blood off the walls. I agree with Gladys Sicknick, whose son Brian was killed defending us, that voting down the January 6 commission is a ‘slap in the faces of all the officers who did their jobs that day.’”

-30-