What I learned stunned me

Yesterday, on the 5-year anniversary of the January 6 attack on our nation's Capitol, I learned two things that stunned me.

Yesterday morning, as I was preparing to speak on the Senate floor, I learned that the plaque honoring the police officers who heroically defended the U.S. Capitol, members of Congress, and our staff during the January 6, 2021, attack is sitting neglected in a back room.

This plaque isn't optional. Congress ordered it to be displayed through a law we passed in 2022. Failing to do so is an egregious insult to every officer who held the line that day, to those who were injured, and to the five officers who died as a result of the attack.

That's why I'm working with Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina on a bipartisan resolution to immediately display the plaque in the Senate wing of the Capitol while we continue pushing for full compliance with the law requiring it to be displayed properly.

Then, I saw something else that stopped me cold.

The White House's new January 6 website rewrites history — portraying a violent attack on our democracy as something else entirely, and targeting political opponents with language that is chillingly Orwellian. It is disinformation, plain and simple.

This is what we're up against: a deliberate effort to distort the truth, erase accountability, and normalize authoritarianism. I'm ringing the alarm bells because our democracy depends on remembering what happened, honoring courage, and refusing to let lies take hold.

I will not stop fighting to defend the truth, the Constitution, and the people who stood up for our democracy when it mattered most.

Onward,

Jeff