Amy Klobuchar: “I rise today to join my colleagues in standing up for the right to vote and the critical need to ensure that that right…”

“I rise today to join my colleagues in standing up for the right to vote and the critical need to ensure that that right is protected. I want to thank Ranking Members Padilla and Reed for their leadership on this issue and in organizing this floor block. Senator Padilla, a former Secretary of State himself, understands to a core how important the right to vote is. The right to vote is sacred to our democracy. It secures all of our freedoms. As Congressman John Lewis once said, voting is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect Union. But in recent years, from the January 6 insurrection--I just came from a spotlight hearing in which Officer Dunn and in which former prosecutors were speaking out about their work on that day. I remember that day because, at 3:30 in the morning, it was Senator Blunt and Vice President Pence and I that were here on our own in this very Chamber and made that walk, which in the morning had been a big celebration of our democracy; but this time we were walking over broken glass, we were walking by marble pillars spray-painted with racist vulgarities. But we made that walk, and our democracy prevailed. But in one of President Trump's first acts, he pardoned the violent offenders who had struck police officers, who had injured over 100 police officers. That is what he did.…”