Republican senators who objected to the results of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, even after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, said this week they don’t regret casting those votes.
“No, no,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said. “Because, you know, I was concerned about voter integrity. I think all of us need to be concerned about that. And then whether there was any problems with that, I just wanted people to look into it.”
Eight Senate Republicans, and 139 House Republicans, voted against fully certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory on Jan. 6. Those who spoke with NBC News defended their official objections, which took place the same day as the deadly riot at the Capitol.
Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who leads the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, said he “objected for the right reasons.” He did not elaborate.
Pelosi adds ‘Hamilton’ song to Jan. 6 proceedings
As part of the official events surrounding the anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced a videotaped performance of a song from the 2015 hit musical “Hamilton,” which celebrates the colonial insurrection against British authorities that lead to American independence.
Following a brief introduction by the show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the current cast of the musical —each having recorded themselves separately — performed the song “Dear Theodosia,” where the characters express their hopes and dreams for their young children and new nation.
“If we lay a strong enough foundation, we’ll pass it on to you, we’ll give the world to you,” Pelosi said, quoting a line from the song.
Pelosi used the song to kick off a moderated discussion with historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham aimed at providing historical context for last year’s attack.
“Somehow the arts have a way of saying things in a way that connects that we cannot do any other way,” Pelosi said. “And that’s why I thought it was really important for us to have the arts lead us in this discussion.”
Donald Trump Jr., the son of the former president, was predictably not amused by the performance. “So now it’s literally theater,” he said on Twitter.
How Senate Democrats’ voting legislation handles election subversion
The Freedom to Vote Act — a bill crafted by a group of Democratic senators — includes several provisions to protect election administrators and the voters themselves.
The bill would make it a federal crime to intentionally harass, intimidate, threaten, or coerce election officials, poll workers and election volunteers for doing their jobs. Local election officials cannot be suspended, removed, or relieved of duties for anything other than “negligence, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office,” the bill states, and any local official improperly removed can sue in federal court to challenge their removal.
The bill also gives voters the opportunity to sue in federal court if they believe their vote or the right of that vote to be fairly counted has been infringed upon.
“This would allow voters to sue in the event of an unreasonable failure to certify election results or other efforts to set aside a valid election outcome,” according to the Brennan Center, a nonpartisan policy group that supports the bill’s passage.
The Jan. 6 committee investigation, by the numbers
Twelve months to the day after rioters overtook the U.S. Capitol, here’s a recap of where things stand with the Jan. 6 committee and security around the complex.
So far, the House Committee investigating the attack has interviewed more than 350 witnesses, issued over 50 subpoenas for information, received more than 35,000 pages of records and 250 substantive tips, and spent almost $420,000 on the probe, according to House records.
The panel also advanced criminal referrals for former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon and former senior Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark, although the latter wasn’t approved by the full House.
Meanwhile, the Capitol Police chief told senators Wednesday that the department had addressed most of the more than 100 recommendations issued by the department’s inspector general for improving building security. The force has struggled with attrition, however, and seeks to hire hundreds more officers, he said.
One year later, congressman fears U.S. hasn’t learned the lessons of Jan. 6
Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., had an immediate answer when asked Thursday if he believes the U.S. has learned the right lessons from Jan. 6, 2021.
“No,” he told NBC News, standing under the U.S. Capitol Dome on the one-year anniversary of the attack. A photo of Kim cleaning up the rotunda the morning after the riot went viral last year.
“I believe that we are more divided as a country now than we were a year ago,” he added. “Not only have we not learned the lessons, I think we’ve actually gone on an even more dangerous path.”
Kim said the problem was evident when more than 140 Republicans voted to block the counting of some electoral votes for Joe Biden, then the president-elect, even after the attempted insurrection.
“There was a choice to be made in that room, down the hall, where the Republicans could have rejected what happened this day and used it as a moment to turn the corner. But they chose not to. And every day since then, they’ve continued to double down on that,” he said. “And I just find that to be so disgraceful.”
Does he believe things will get better in 2022?
“I don’t know. Right now, I don’t necessarily think so. I see a million ways where this gets worse. I see a handful of ways where it gets better. But I wouldn’t be doing this job if I didn’t have some hope that it could get better,” Kim said. “I truly believe that the opposite of democracy is apathy.”
House Democrats trapped in gallery on Jan. 6 serve lunch to Capitol Police officers
The group of House Democrats who were seated in the House gallery on Jan. 6 served food to Capitol Police officers on Thursday.
“Gratitude is the antidote,” tweeted Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., alongside a photo of him handing out food.
Phillips told NBC News in an interview he had considered leaping from the observation balcony above the House floor to escape rioters. He was trapped with about 20 of his Democratic colleagues.
“I tried to calculate the distance down,” Phillips recalled in the interview, noting that he concluded that the risk of grievous injury or death was too great.
Capitol police chief addresses officers on Jan. 6 anniversary
Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger sent a video of thanks and encouragement to all the department’s officers this morning on the anniversary of the attack on the Capitol.
In the video, obtained by NBC News from two law enforcement sources, Manger acknowledges the failures of department leadership one year ago and says that it is his responsibility to ensure the department is “ready for our next test, our next challenge.”
“One year after a day marked by departmental failures, leadership failures, I promise you that we will be better prepared for whatever we face in the future,” he says in the video. “The improvements we’re making will be sustained for years to come. This is my responsibility. And I owe you my total commitment to fulfilling it.”
But, according to conversations with several officers, rank-and-file police officer morale remains poor and the department is just as strained as it was on Jan. 6, 2021, and possibly even more so as their responsibilities have grown.
Rep. Norma Torres shares videos of her experience during Capitol breach
Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., marked the anniversary of the Capitol riot by sharing videos of what she experienced in the House chamber during the attack.
Torres, who took office in 2015, said she received multiple security alerts before the House and Senate were informed that the Capitol had been breached.
One of the videos was taken at around 40 minutes into the assault, Torres said. By then, she said, tear gas had been deployed, a shot had been fired, and she had crawled the entire length of the gallery. At one point, Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., began to pray.
After a previous failed evacuation attempt, Torres and her colleagues prepared to exit. They found a safe room where she said the lawmakers ultimately weren’t truly safe.
Torres also said in a statement Thursday morning, “We won’t forget, we won’t let the American people forget and we won’t stop working every day to preserve our freedoms.”
Dick and Liz Cheney only Republicans in House chamber for moment of silence
Former Vice President Dick Cheney was on the House floor Thursday for the moment of silence with his daughter Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., vice chair of the House select committee investigating Jan. 6.
They were the only two Republicans in the House chamber and sat in the first row together on the Republican side. The former vice president spoke with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., before the session began and a line of other Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., greeted him and shook his hand.
Speaking about the GOP leadership’s handling of Jan. 6, he said, “Well, it’s not a leadership that resembles any of the folks I knew when I was here for 10 years.” Cheney served in Congress from 1979 until 1989, including serving as House minority whip and chair of the House Republican Conference.
He said the fact that no other Republicans showed up for the anniversary events “is a reflection of where our party is. Very concerning.”
Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, the only other Republican on the Jan. 6 committee, who has bashed his other GOP colleagues and is retiring from Congress at the end of this year, said he wanted to be there Thursday but was awaiting the birth of his child.
“Wish I could be there too, but I’m on baby watch. I am in spirit,” he wrote on Twitter.
Pelosi says Jan. 6 was ‘as if somebody in the White House dropped a bomb’ on Congress
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Thursday reflected on her experience a year ago as the mob of Trump supporters violently breached the Capitol.
In an interview that will air Thursday evening on “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt,” she recalled initially brushing off members of security in the House chamber telling her that she needed to evacuate, not realizing the seriousness of the threat. They were adamant, however, that she had to leave. Security whisked her away to an undisclosed location and that’s when she saw visuals of the situation outside and inside the Capitol.
“It breaks your heart — it’s as if somebody in the White House dropped a bomb on the Congress of the United States,” Pelosi said.
Watch the full interview on “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT.
Asked about her most memorable point of Jan. 6, Pelosi paused for a few moments and described the trauma of the entire day. She expressed shock about the Confederate flags being waved outside and inside the Capitol; violence against police officers by those who profess to support law enforcement; the noose hung on the grounds; and chants of wanting to hang Vice President Mike Pence and shoot the House speaker.
“But the thing that is unforgivable about January 6 is the traumatic impact that it had on the people who serve our country,” Pelosi said. “Whether it’s our police officers, or the staff. Our staffs are young, idealistic people who believe in our country and that they should be hiding under tables or behind locked doors with people banging on the door to do violence to them, or seeking their bosses…”
Pelosi continued: “So when we came back from the undisclosed location, And I saw my staff, I saw in their eyes something I had never seen before. The trauma, the fear of it all.”
With threats against lawmakers skyrocketing, Capitol Police will need more staff, chief says
In the 12 months since a pro-Trump mob stormed the halls of Congress, the U.S. Capitol Police has doubled the size of its investigative staff to address the rising number of threats against lawmakers.
“The biggest challenge I think we have is keeping up with the number of threats,” Capitol Police Chief J. Tom Manger said Wednesday in testimony before the Senate Rules Committee, on the eve of the Jan. 6 anniversary. “We have … doubled the number of officers that investigate these threats, agents that investigate these threats. And if they continue to go up the way they have, clearly we are going to need additional officers to assign to this responsibility.”
NBC News in November reported on the increased dangers facing members of Congress since the Jan. 6 riot, with Capitol Police saying they expected the number of threats in 2021 to substantially surpass the 8,600 reported the previous year. Many of those threats have been targeted at GOP lawmakers who voted to impeach or convict former Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 riot with false claims of a stolen election, as well as Democrats who served as impeachment managers at the former president’s trial.
Manger’s congressional testimony comes as Congress examines the events of last year’s attack and keeps pressure on the Capitol Police, which is responsible for protecting the building and all those who work there.