House Democrats warn the ‘struggle’ of Jan. 6 ‘continues to this day’

A group of House Democrats joined with activists Friday in front of the Capitol, warning about the future of the country on the day before the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.

“The struggle that began on Jan. 6 in this building continues to this day,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said.

“Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election by more than 7 million votes — 306-232 in the Electoral College. This is the hard, inescapable, ineradicable fact that Donald Trump and his followers have never been able to accept to this day,” he continued. “That was the cause of the riots and the violent insurrection and the attempted political coup that took place on Jan. 6.”

Raskin, Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) warned that the American people still have more work to do to ensure an insurrection could not happen again.

“From my perspective, Jan. 6 was a wake-up call. But today, three years later, we need a true call to action to address this,” Ivey said. “We've got to get back on track with respect to making sure that the ‘big lie’ that's been told over and over again by Donald Trump and many of his members of the Republican Party, the public needs to hear the truth about that.”

Raskin focused on promises from former President Trump to pardon people convicted of Jan. 6-related crimes if reelected. Nearly 1,000 people have been convicted of Jan. 6 crimes.

“Donald Trump is saying that he is going to pardon all of these people, and he means it. We must take him at his word,” Raskin said. “What he's saying is that he will release these political shock troops who are willing to commit violence in the name of the Trump party.”

Aquilino Gonell, a Capitol Police officer who worked during the Jan. 6 Capital riots, also brought attention to his experience and denounced the GOP response to the insurrection, which has mostly consisted of supporting rioters.

“Tomorrow is going to be a solemn day not only for myself, but for many of my colleagues who almost three years ago defended the Capitol against the mob,” Gonell said.

“There’s one thing that I have to tell the new Speaker of the House. ... Those people were not patriots,” he continued. “I risked my life, my colleagues risked their lives protecting them on Jan. 6, and that's not how you support the police officers. That's not how you support us.”

“When you call those people patriots, what that makes us the police officers and what does that make us the law enforcement officer?” he added. “What was our sacrifice for?”

Activists advocated for additional protections for election workers — who have faced harassment since the 2020 election and high turnover — as well as for additional voting rights protections. The group also endorsed efforts to kick Trump off state primary ballots via the 14th Amendment.

“This disqualification clause is an essential safeguard for our democracy,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) chief counsel Donald Sherman said. “Inciting a violent mob to overturn an election and disenfranchise millions of Americans is exactly the kind of undemocratic activity that meets this test.”

CREW led the effort to kick Trump off the ballot in Colorado, a case that is expected to be heard by the Supreme Court. Sherman said the 14th Amendment is perfectly situated to prevent a second Trump term and perhaps future political violence.

“It was literally built for this moment. The only question is, are our courts?” he said. “If we don't use this tool to defend our democracy now, we may be facing another insurrection a year from now or further into the future.”

The press conference was briefly interrupted by a group of protesters who called on the government to back a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war and stop military aid for Israel.