us today. will you please stand, charles and gladys, and be recognized. [ applause ] gladys sicknik has met with several members of congress trying to urge them initially to vote for the commission, the 9/11 style commission, to learn what led to the insurrection that day, unfortunately, unsuccessfully, from her perspective to get the members of congress to get that record. let s bring back john avlon. john avlon, let me start with you. we heard from republicans who have tried to criticize the president s speech this morning as partisan.
a new president who is not corrupted by his love of power and lack of regard for our constitution, the many capitol police officers who put so much on the line to stop the insurrectionists, the capitol staff, the journalists, our own staff and so many more who were both witnesses and victims, and yes, all of us as members of congress who went back that night to certify that election because it was our job, the very thing we came to this place to do. the challenge today for me is that we re not marking something that is over and done with. the danger is still clear and it is still present. our democracy is very fragile, and the cult of the big lie is still very much an action with the help of the vast majority of our colleagues on the other side who continue to try to rewrite
emotional. i m emotional because my memories are very similar to many of yours. i was three days into my time in congress. i knew it was ministerial, not to be terribly eventful, but i was excited to be there. i was in the gallery. i want to observe, as i was preparing my own arguments for the pennsylvania challenge to come, i wanted to hear chose challenges. i was hearing those challenges mounting the word shame for these arguments. then i remember trying to go back to my office to finish my arguments, and a very large police officer stopped me and said, there is a bomb threat in canon, please go back to where
kevin mccarthy and the deputy whipped votes against it and now mcconnell calling on folks to do him a solid and vote it whipping votes against the formation of a commission. how do people how should people view that? i think they should view it as how legislation should work. house republicans and democrats meet together. there s a give and a take. i think it looked like katko got just about everything that republicans wanted in the commission. it was a bipartisan commission. same number of democrats and republicans. mccarthy would be able to appoint one. and it s going to be independent, outside of congress. just everything, even the subpoena negotiates and then brings it back and let s go and
one, there is a larger number than you would than i think most people would believe of republicans, including republican elected officials, who believe donald trump won the election and believe the conspiracy theories and believe in qanon, and we d like to think that it s the far fringe of the who? who? well, you go through the members of congress who, in the past few weeks, were saying that, you know, the insurrection wasn t that bad and who are defending the insurrectionists. you talk about people like ron johnson in the senate. so they are the fringe of the party but these are people in high elected office and i think it s bigger the number is there are more of them than there are liz cheneys, i ll put it that way. but i think there is a much bigger number of people who just continue to, especially in the senate, who approach this the same way they ve approached the lies and conspiracy theories for more than ten years now. you go back to where this, i think, all began wi