Mr. President, a year ago today, we witnessed one of the worst assaults on our democracy in living memory. For those of us who were in the Chamber--that includes virtually every Senator--there are images which are emblazoned in our memory. Mine, like others, was of a Vice President sitting, where you are sitting, who shortly after 2 p.m. in the afternoon was pulled off of the dais by two of his security detail and hurried out that door. It is an unusual thing to happen under any circumstances, but while we were counting the electoral college returns, it was amazing and unprecedented. Then they came up and the Capitol Police instructed us: Stay at your desk. This is going to be a secure room. We are going to start bringing in all the staff, and they will be lining the walls here. We will keep you safe. Well, we all sat there in anticipation of the next thing to happen and, not 10 minutes later, another Capitol policeman came up and said: That last directive is off. Evacuate this body, this room, as quickly and orderly as possible. And we all started piling out the doors. As we left and went down the exit stairways just outside the doors of this Chamber, I looked out the window and saw a sea of Trump signs converging on the Capitol. It was an image I won't forget. We went to what we considered to be a safe location and witnessed over television what most of America was watching. How serious was it?…
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