Patrick Leahy: “what our Nation witnessed and what Members of Congress and the dedicated staff that work in the Capitol witnessed on…”

“what our Nation witnessed and what Members of Congress and the dedicated staff that work in the Capitol witnessed on January 6 was a deadly attack on one of our most sacred and historic constitutional duties: the count and final certification of the results of our Presidential election. The violent insurrection that occurred in the Capitol, which took the lives of five people, including an officer of the U.S. Capitol Police, was an attack on our democracy. The votes cast in the 2020 Presidential election were counted and recounted. The results were challenged in the courts and ultimately were certified in every single State. Yet, citing the baseless chant that the election was ``stolen,'' an angry and violent mob stormed the Capitol in an effort to suspend the democratic process, overturn the will of the American people, and ensure that now-former President Trump remained in office. These insurrectionists vandalized the very heart of our government and threatened and harmed those sworn to protect it. In a column in the VTDigger, Haviland Smith, a Vermonter and the first chief of counterterrorism operations for the Central Intelligence Agency, makes the strong case that the insurrection on January 6 was an act of domestic terrorism. I am certain that the FBI and the Department of Justice will continue to investigate and, where appropriate, to file charges and hold these people to account. But in this Chamber, we must heed Mr. Smith's wisdom.…”