“We are at a very critical moment in our democracy. There are efforts underway in 47 state legislatures to make it more difficult for people to vote, particularly communities of color and other marginalized communities. It’s the most sacred responsibility we have as citizens of this democracy is to be sure that we express our views during times of voting. The only remedy to that is to enact H.R. 1/S. 1 – to protect voting rights all across this country. The thing standing in the way of that is the filibuster, this sort of Jim Crow relic. The irony that this fundamentally undemocratic device will be used to crush the most pro-democracy piece of legislation in a generation is kind of a cruel irony. Whatever way they do it, the Senate has to move forward on H.R. 1/S. 1 so we can protect voting rights all across this country. I think you can easily carve out an area of democracy, voting rights, and civil rights, particularly when you look at the history of the filibuster and how it has been used to prevent progress on civil rights. This is a perfect carve-out. I think we should get rid of it completely. For those that are reluctant to do it for sure, we ought to be more interested in protecting our democracy than protecting this Jim Crow relic called the filibuster.”
“We don’t know what Kevin McCarthy is going to do, but we know for sure the Speaker has appointed a now bipartisan committee that will have a quorum to begin hearings this week. This is an ongoing effort to ensure that we get all of the facts surrounding this bloody attack on our democracy that left five people dead, including one Capitol Police Officer, the most serious attack on our democracy since the War of 1812. We tried to do this as an Independent National Commission – the Republicans refused. Kevin McCarthy then made some appointments that made it clear he’s not serious, he wants to turn this into a circus, people who have been promoting the big lie. If you look at Jim Banks’ statement after he was recommended by McCarthy, it was disqualifying what he said in that statement. We are determined to get all of the facts surrounding January 6th. What led up to it, who paid for it, who organized it, to make sure this never happens again in this country. This was a day where the peaceful transfer of power occurs, the meeting of the Electoral College. This is an effort by insurrections to overthrow the government of the United States, to stop that peaceful transition power. We have to take it seriously. This was an effort that was conducted by some of the worst domestic terrorist groups in this country, and we just can’t sort of let it go. We have a responsibility to make sure we do everything necessary to hold everyone accountable who was involved in this and to make sure it never happens again in America.”
“Democrats are very much united and making sure we do two things. One is to pass an infrastructure bill that addresses our roads, our bridges, our ports, our schools, our transit systems. But also pass the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan that also is about making sure people get back into the workforce with early childhood education, affordable childcare, community colleges, community-based care, all the things that are often impediments to getting back into the workforce. It’s about supporting working families. Democrats are united. We want to be as bold and big as we can to respond to the economic crisis we face. We want to rebuild the infrastructure of our country so we can compete with other countries around the world. We once had the best infrastructure in the world, that’s no longer the case. This is about America competing successfully, and about investing in working families. We’re going to get both of those things done, with or without our Republican colleagues.”
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