On the recordFebruary 25, 2021
Yeah. There is no question. In my view, what we are seeing today is the assertion of power over the mind of America, right? And it is just happening as we see it. We have got a fence with razor wire around the Capitol. We were all horrified, sitting right here, all of us here in the body who were here on January 6. We all want to protect each other. But we also have a duty to lead. We also have a duty to have a Capitol that is open; to figure out a way to secure the body without sending signals to the world that somehow this is a military state. You walk around the Capitol and there are people in camouflage. There is a fence. I can't even walk around D.C. We are harming business. We are telling the American people that, nope, sorry, you can't come here, all in the name of a virus or then what happened on January 6. That is all about power. That is all about message. Okay? I do not believe for a minute, with all due respect, that that is about actual security of this building and this complex. That is about projecting a message to the American people. That is what the magnetometers are for. That is not to keep us safe. It is not. It is not the highest and best use of the Capitol Police to be having 20 people around this floor every day; literally having Members of Congress duly elected by the people to have to go through magnetometers. You have got to go through security to get in the building. It is all a show. And that is all a projection of power.…





