Event to Protect ‘Our Freedoms, Our Vote’ Marks Two Years Since Jan. 6 Attack
Rep. Raskin Statement; Rep. Sarbanes, Martin Luther King III, Arndrea Waters King Join Democracy Advocates at U.S. Capitol
WASHINGTON — Today people across the nation rallied in observance of the two-year mark since the attack on the U.S. Capitol to call for accountability and democracy reforms recommended in the final report from the January 6 House Select Committee.
Watch the livestream in Washington, D.C.
Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) reflected on the officers and others who lost their lives as a result of the attack on the Capitol. “We understand the legacy of that day and what it means going forward,” said Rep. Sarbanes. “Accountability has to be at the center of those efforts, and we look to the U.S. Justice Department to make good on that promise to the people.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) provided a statement to mark the event. “January 6th was the first time in American history that coup-plotters and insurrectionists attacked the constitutional transfer of power in Congress and almost overthrew a presidential election. Trump and his accomplices made common cause with extremist groups steeped in racism and hellbent on insurrection; assembled a mass of followers into a giant surrounding crowd and mesmerized them with a Big Lie; incited the mob into a blinding antidemocratic fury, unleashing them on his own Vice-President and the Joint Session of Congress as we counted Electoral College votes at the Capitol; and continued to inflame his followers throughout the riot and praise them effusively afterwards, giving them aid and comfort all the way until today.” Read Rep. Raskin’s full statement.
“None of us could have imagined, that even as late as five years ago, that we would have to fight for the very right for democracy to exist,” said Svante Myrick, Incoming President of People for the American Way. “This is the fight that matters most. If we can’t choose our own leaders, we can’t do anything else.”
“The bipartisan Jan. 6 select committee recently finished their important, wide ranging work,” said Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen. “Coming out of that work they made the obviously needed criminal referrals of Donald Trump, John Eastman and others to the Department of Justice. The culpability of those bad actors is crystal clear, and the crimes that were committed that day cannot go unpunished. The committee also made important legislative and executive branch recommendations, policies that will improve our democracy going forward. Now, we are looking to our elected leaders and to the White House to move forward on those democracy reforms.”
“We’ve seen the structural attack on our democracy. We are seeing laws that should lift us all up being used to limit and roll back hard won rights,” said Arndrea Waters King, President, Drum Major Institute. “We’re seeing Martin Luther King Jr.’s granddaughter now with less voting rights than the day that she was born.”
“It is said that a people that do not remember their history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. That was tragic history two years ago,” said Martin Luther King III, Chairman of the Drum Major Institute. “We are better than the behavior that was exhibited back then….We are going to make America truly the great nation that it ought to be for all Americans.”
Other speakers included Christina Harvey, executive director of Stand Up America; Joanna Sweatt, national organizing director of Common Defense; Tishan Weerasooriya, Democracy Campaign Representative, Sierra Club; Addison Rose, D.C. Youth Mayor; Mariah Cooley, Board Member, March for Our Lives; Noor Mir, D.C. Spokesperson for Women’s March; and Dr. Ravi Perry, Professor of Political Science, Howard University.
Watch the full livestream here.
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The Not Above the Law coalition is made up of more than 150 organizations – ranging from legal, national security, netroots, and more – committed to protecting our democracy and fighting for the rule of law.
The Declaration for American Democracy is a coalition of over 250+ organizations from the labor, racial justice, voting rights, faith, environmental, women’s rights, good government, and many other important communities, representing tens of millions of Americans.