Ritchie Torres: “When I was sworn in the week of January 6, I never imagined living through an insurrection against the U.S. Capitol…”

“When I was sworn in the week of January 6, I never imagined living through an insurrection against the U.S. Capitol during the electoral college vote count. On January 6, I felt the same sense of shock and trauma that I had felt on 9/11. Like most of America, I took for granted that the peaceful transfer of power is so natural as to transcend even the most turbulent period of partisan politics. I was wrong. We were all wrong. Democracy is too fragile to be taken for granted. It demands from all of us a vigilant defense. As Members of the United States Congress, we took an oath to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States. The insurrection against the U.S. Capitol was a literal and metaphorical assault on the very Constitution we have been charged with defending. The January 6 Commission is, therefore, not a choice, but an obligation. We have a duty to investigate what happened and why it happened and who is responsible. As a Congress, if we are not able or willing to ascertain the full truth surrounding an invasion of our very home, of our Nation's Capitol, then why are we here? The 11th-hour attempt to sabotage a bipartisan, bicameral position is not a difference of opinion, nor is it politics as usual. It is an abdication of the oath that we took to uphold the Constitution. The United States of America is not a cult of personality, it is a Nation of laws. And our loyalty should not be to one political figure or one political party.…”