On the recordJanuary 6, 2021
Mr. President, with just a few minutes to speak, I am going to get right to the point. Gunfire in the halls here, IEDs on the Capitol grounds--I will say to my colleagues, with the domestic terrorists roaming the halls just a few hours ago, I have been stunned that this debate is actually going forward, and that is because, colleagues, this is a fake debate on electoral certifications; that is because it lends credibility to the bogus idea that the Congress can actually toss out the results of the election, and, as we saw today, it serves to fuel insurrection. Contrary to what some of my ``aye'' voting colleagues believe by votes cast just a few minutes ago, this debate has never been about setting up some kind of routine election tribunal. This isn't about election security. If the Republic majority for the last 2 years had actually been interested in election security, they would not have worked relentlessly to block my legislation to secure our 2020 elections with hand-marked paper ballots and post-election security audits. By the way, those are the kinds of approaches that are part of the Oregon system, where for 25 years we voted by mail. I am the Nation's first mail-in U.S. Senator. The second--and I see my colleagues from Maine and Alaska here because they are very fond of him, like I am-- Gordon Smith, a Republican, was the second mail-in U.S. Senator in our country. That is because we do the job right. It is efficient.…
Source
govinfo.gov




