Lawmakers offer perspectives on Jan. 6 anniversary

Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In a forceful speech, President Joe Biden accused Donald Trump and his supporters of holding a “dagger at the throat of democracy.” He warned that though it didn’t succeed, the incident remains a serious threat to America’s system of government.

Biden’s criticism was blistering of the defeated president whom he blamed for the assault that has fundamentally changed Congress and the nation, and raised global concerns about the future of American democracy.

“For the first time in our history, a president not just lost an election, he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob breached the Capitol,” Biden said. “You can’t love your country only when you win.”

His voice booming at times, filling the ornate Statuary Hall where rioters had laid siege, the president called on Americans to remember what they saw Jan. 6 with their own eyes: the mob attacking police, breaking windows, a Confederate flag inside the Capitol, gallows erected outside threatening to hang the vice president — all while Trump sat at the White House watching it on TV.

“The former president’s supporters are trying to rewrite history. They want you to see Election Day as the day of insurrection and the riot that took place here on January 6 as a true expression of the will of the people. Can you think of a more twisted way to look at this country, to look at America? I cannot.”

The president’s remarks launched the start of daylong remembrance, drawing a contrast between the truth of what happened and the false narratives that persist about the Capitol assault, including the continued refusal by many Republicans to affirm that Biden won the 2020 election.

“We must be absolutely clear about what is true and what is a lie,” Biden said. “The former president of the United States of America has spread a web of lies about the 2020 election.”

Republican leaders and lawmakers largely stayed away from the day’s events, dismissing them as overly politicized.

JAN. 6 • A7 FROM A1 From Florida, Trump showed no signs of letting go, and in fact revived his attack on the elections. He accepted no responsibility for egging on the crowd that day. Instead, in one of several statements Thursday, he said Biden was trying to “further divide America. This political theater is all just a distraction.”

Even among congressional Republicans who condemned the attack in the days afterward, most have stayed loyal to the former president.

“What brazen politicization of January 6 by President Biden,” tweeted Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a sometimes Trump confidant.

Others, including Senate Republican leader Mitch Mc-Connell, were absent, with a contingent attending the funeral for a former colleague Sen. Johnny Isakson in Georgia.

Leaders from Pennsylvania also reflected on the events of a year ago.

In the Mon Valley, State Sen. Jim Brewster, D-McKeesport, said there is still work to be done to put constituents, and America, first. Brewster said he thinks the incident started changes to election rules, including the expansion of mail-in voting. He believes it was the right thing to do, but said it caused confusion in an already contentious presidential election. The nation’s reaction to the pandemic added to the uncertainty regarding the election. “With the changes to the election and then the pandemic, it stopped being about performance or what we have done and became a situation where people turned a very serious health event into a political event,” Brewster said.

In Brewster’s case, it proved that every vote matters. He narrowly won re-election against Republican Nicole Ziccarelli in the 45th District in a race that included multiple legal challenges over which types of votes should be counted.

Republicans refused to seat Brewster Jan. 5 while a federal court was considering Ziccarelli’s latest lawsuit to overturn the result.

In an ugly scene on the Senate floor, Democrats accused Republicans of breaking the law. Republicans insisted that senators had the constitutional authority to decide who should be seated in the chamber.

Republicans relented after United States District Judge Nicholas Ranjan rejected Ziccarelli’s argument that Allegheny County’s decision to count mail-in ballots that lacked a handwritten date — and state court decisions allowing Allegheny County to count them — violated her rights and the rights of voters.

The judge refused to dispute the state high court’s ruling — despite Ziccarelli’s urging — and said it is binding on federal courts and nullifies Ziccarelli’s arguments that Allegheny County was wrong to count the ballots. Ziccarelli conceded and Brewster won by 69 votes. A year later, he believes politicians from both sides of the aisle should be able to work together.

“Real leadership is about bringing people together, to make this anger go away,” he said. “There are people dying from cancer, poverty, violence, and it has made some people distracted from the important things we should be worried about.

“When you become distracted from those important things and focus solely on winning and having the power to control, things that matter get pushed to the side and it’s time for people like me to start talking about it.”

Brewster said he plans to continue to work on behalf of his district to make sure those important issues are tackled fairly, with thought and consideration on how legislation both helps and could hurt those impacted as he works to better the 45th District.

“We have moved on and my staff and I are going to continue to do what we have been doing to work for our district,” he said. “I view myself as a visionary. When I go to work every day, I am thinking about what I can do for the 38 communities I serve now, and also how what I do now will impact them 10 years from now. That’s leadership to me and. I think if we start working together on both sides of the aisle to put our people, all of our people first, we will start to move forward.”

State Sen. Camera Bartolotta, a Republican from Carroll Township, said rioters who breached the Capitol should be held accountable for their actions.

“I find it unconscionable for anyone to have breached the sanctity of our halls of democracy,” Bartolotta said. “Those who did so should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Peaceful protest is the bedrock of our political process and democracy, but any violence must be condemned. It is past time for Americans to come together to solve our multitude of problems.”

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, called Jan. 6, 2021 “one of the darkest days in our nation’s history” and — without actually using his name — called out Trump.

“After months of lying about the election and stoking baseless conspiracy theories, the former president encouraged a mob of thousands of armed insurrectionists to attack the United States Capitol in order to overturn the results of a free and fair election and keep himself in power,” Casey said in a prepared statement. “He even turned them against his own vice president, such that they chanted ‘Hang Mike Pence’ in the halls of Congress. The former president’s incitement of violent extremists led to at least five deaths and injuries to nearly 140 members of law enforcement. Countless more continue to carry emotional scars from that day.” Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle, who represents multiple Allegheny County communities in the Mon Valley, took to social media to reflect on Jan. 6, 2021.

“One year ago, a violent mob of domestic terrorists stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to overturn a free and fair election,” Doyle said in a Facebook post, as well as in a series of tweets. “We must never forget #January6 and the sacrifices that the US Capitol Police and D.C. Metropolitan Police officers made in defending our democracy that day.”

Doyle used the insurrection’s anniversary to encourage support for a voting act and to highlight social media’s role in the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

“Congress should pass the Protecting Our Democracy Act to strengthen the institutions that can keep our elections free,” he wrote. “Through my role as Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, I’ll continue to shine a light on internet disinformation and the role social media played in creating the January 6th mob.”

He also used the anniversary to push for passage of voting acts.

“Instead of accountability and remorse, members of the Republican Party continue to undermine our elections and our democratic principles. Republican officials across the country have embraced the former president’s ‘Big Lie’ by introducing and enacting an unprecedented number of voter suppression measures and politicizing nonpartisan election administration functions,” Casey said. “If we do not restore and strengthen voter protections nationwide, a future authoritarian could succeed where the former president and his insurrectionists failed.

“To live up to our national ideals and fortify our elections against partisan subversion, the senate has an obligation to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, two commonsense bills which would improve access to the ballot, protect our democracy and restore the full strength of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

“The strength of our republic was tested one year ago, and it remains under attack. In order to preserve our democracy, we must protect our elections and ensure all Americans have a voice in their government.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.