is all about the good people of arizona. >> we will be in recess until the call of the chair. >> at this point the senate recess due to a security breach at the us capital by rioters it reconvened to continue to be the objection of the arizona electoral vote count it was rejected 93 / six. here is the debate.de >> the senate will come to order. >> and to give a brief statement with intelligence of the senators. today was a dark day in the history of the united states capital but thanks to the

swift efforts of us capital police federal state and local law enforcement the violence was quelled the capital is secured and the people's work continues. we condemned the violence that took place here in the strongest t possible terms. we grieve the loss of life in these hallowed halls as well as the injury suffered who defended the capital today. we will always be grateful to the men and women who stayed at their post to defend this historic place. those who make havoc in the capital today, you did not win. violence never wins. this is so the people's house.

and as we reconvene in this chamber the world will again witness the resilience and the strength for you in the wake of unprecedented violence and vandalism those representatives of the people of the united states have a son on - - have assembled again on the very sameda day to support the constitution of the united states. may god bless the loss, the injured d, and the heroes forged on this day, may god bless all who serve here and those who protect this place and may god bless the united statesac of america. let's get back to work. [applause]

>> mr. president. asking them is consent the majority leader and democratic leader be allowed to speak and the time not count against two hours of debate in relation to the objection raised on the state of arizona. >> is there objection? >> without objection so ordered. >> i want to show you the american people. united states senate will not be intimidated or kept out of this chamber by thugs, mobs , or threats. we will not bow to lawlessness

or intimidation. we are back at our posts, we will discharge our duty under the constitution, and for our nation. and we will do it tonight. that is one - - this afternoon the congress began to honor the will of the american people to count the electoral college votes me for further solemn duty every four years for more than two centuries.at whether our nation has been at war or peace and all manner of threats even during the ongoing armed rebellion and to the civil war, the clockwork of our democracy has carried on. facing them much greater threats than the will not be

deterred today. they triedle to disrupt our democracy but they failed. they failed to obtain out it just shows how crucial the task is for our republic. our nation was founded precisely so the free choice of the american people is what shapes our self-government, and determines the destiny of our nation. not fear, not force but now we

will finish exactly what we started. the complete the process the right way, but vote, following the precedents and the laws and the constitution to the left. >> and we will certify him as the winner of the 2020 election. criminal behavior will never dominate the united states congress. and with that democratic republic is strong and the american people deserve nothing less.

mr. president, it is very difficult to put into words what transpired today. i never look through the ones we just witnessed in the capital. franklin roosevelt set aside deh , 1941 as a day living in for me. unfortunately, we can now add january 6 adding that to a very short list of dates that will live forever the windows smashed and offices vandalized we saw those that were ushered

out because they were in harm's way. the house and senate floors are places of shelter and to evacuate modest evacuation was ordered. lawmakers average citizens who love your country and serve it every day feared for their lives want and where those shot and tragically lost their life feeling for the fence families. these images were projected to the world and with the home capitals to reports the harrowing scenes at the very heart of ourl democracy. it will be a stain on the country not so easily washed away. the final terrible indelible legacy of thed 45th president of the united states is undoubtedly our worst.

those they cannot be called protesters they were rioters insurrection, the bags and domestic terrorist. they do not represent america.us there were those a try to attack our democracy they must and should certainly by the next and provided no leniency. also want to think the local police and others who kept us

safe to return it to its rightful owners and purpose. thank you to the leaders republican and democrat, house and senate, speaker pelosi leader mcconnell, leader mccarthy a myself who came together to decide these settings would notcoec succeed d we would finish the work that our constitution requires us to complete. in the very legislative chambers of the house and senate that were desecrated the people and do it again tonight. would make no mistake. today's events did not happen spontaneously. the president who promoted conspiracy theories to motivate these thugs, the president who extorted them to come to the nation's capital and aid to them on, he hardly ever discourages firemen's

, more and more often encourages it, this president bears a great deal of the blame. this mob was in good part of president trumps doing incited by his words but those were last in ever lasting shame but to these events certainly would not have happened him. january 6th will go down as one of the darkest days in recent american history. a final warning to our nation about the consequences one who plants his lies and the others as he pushes america to the brink of ruin.

as we reconvene tonight, let us remember the end all this mob has accomplished to delay our work by a few hours. we will resume our responsibilities now. the house and senate chambers will be restored good as new ready for legislating in short order. the counting of the electoral votes is our sacred duty and democracies roots in this are deep and strong and will not be undone never by a group of thugs. democracy will triumph as it has for centuries. so to my fellow americans who were shocked and appalled by the images on the televisioned today and i worried about the future of this country, let me speak to you directly. the divisions clearly run deep.

but we are a resilien resilient, forward-looking people and we will begin the hard work of repairing our nation tonight because here in america we do hard things. in america we always overcome our challenges. >> mr. president. i yield two minutes to the senator from oklahoma. >> vice president, so why would anyone think attacking the capital is the best way to show that you are right? why would you do that?

rioters and thugs do not run the capital. we are the united states of america. we disagree on a lot of things and we have a lot of spirited debate in this room, but we talk it out and honor each other. even in our disagreements. that person. that person. that person is not my enemy but my fellow americans. while we disagree on things and strongly at times, we do not agree with what happened today. ever. i want to join my fellow senators to say thank you to capital police national guard and secret service who stood in harm's way while we were debating they were pushing back. i was literally interrupted midsentence speaking because we were unaware of what was happening right outside this room. because of what they had done.

and i want to thank them. ronald reagan once said peace is not the absence of conflict but the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means. the peaceful people in my state want their questions answered but they don't want this, what happened today. they want to do the right thing. they also want to do it the right way. they want to honor the constitutional process but a debate about election security to make sure it's right which is why is an important issue that still needs to be resolved. transparency in government doesn't seem like a bad idea. obviously the commission we

have asked for is not going to happen at this point. i understand that. we are headed towards the certification of joe biden to be the president of the united states. and we will work together and this body to set a peaceful example in the days ahead. i yield the floor. >> the senator from nevada. >> mr. vice president, i know this room is full of leaders of both parties who love this country and many believe for america to succeed our politics must find common ground . and that has never been clearer than today when armed rioters stormed to the usen capital emboldened by a presidents that my colleagues

that question the legitimacy of this election in arizona and all the other states, now see the dire and dangerous consequences of sowing doubt and uncertainty. i also know as us senators we take the oath that we swear to support and uphold the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic. at this moment in history i can think of nothing more patriotic than renewing our faith in the charters of freedom that our founding rt republicnd with the declaration of independence to derive the

powers from the consent of the governed. the people have spoken in the selection and her only job here today is to do what they ask. not too argue election security. that's not the place for what we are doing today. our constitution specifically reserved to people to vote for the president and vice president to oversee the process and the states are required to have robust measures andpp likewise to have an opportunity to examine evidence before they certify the electoral college vote and from the district courts to the united states supreme court to adjudicate legal challenges and legal disputes. all of those happened after the 2020 election.

stay houses and courts across the country took allegations of voter fraud seriously to follow the process to hear challenges to the election. no state found evidence of any widespread voter fraud in arizona democratic secretary of state republican attorney general the state supreme court justice all certify the results on november the 30th and we know because arizonans have been voting and said we need to elections well here in arizona and further stated we have the strongest election

laws in the country for contesting the results arizona has one of the most transparent election process in the country with built-in accountability. we heard allegations of voting machines in arizona and elsewherepr somehow change the balance these allegations all ignore the fact conducted the audits by hand and they found no widespread fraud or regularity maricopa county with more than 60 percent of the stateses population conducted a postelection audit

100 percent accuracy and machine tabulations what would have to call for a ten day emergency audit to be conducted when it's already been done by the state of arizona? what happened to states rights? the check and balance for the presidential election but also federal and state legislative elections the report shows hand stamp totals for each of the races audited the difference between the account between the hand and the machine was zero. no discrepancies were found by the hand count were during the audit.

hand-audit procedures from the arizona secretary of state. and the court found that maricopa county officials therefore could not lawfully have performed the hand-count audit the way the plaintiffs wanted it done. if they had done so, they would have exposed themselves to criminal punishment. the vice president: the senator's five minutes violence expired. ms. cortez mass mosquito:i would say, please do not disenfranchise the voters of arizona. certify their votes tonight. thank you. the vice president: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, i yield up to five minutes to the senator from utah, senator lee. the vice president: the senator from utah.

mr. lee: mr. president, at the time i prepared my remarks for today, it seems like a lifetime ago, a lot has changed in the last few hours and so i'm going to deliver some of the same remarks but it has a little bit of a different feel than it would have just a few hours ago. my thoughts and prayers go out to the family members of those who have been injured or killed today. my heartfelt gratitude goes out to the capitol hill police who valiantly defended our building and our lives. while it's true that legitimate concerns have been raised with regard to how some of the key battleground states conducted their presidential elections, this is not the end of the story. we each have to remember that we've sworn an oath to uphold, protect, and defend this document, written nearly two and a half centuries ago by wise men

raised up by god to that very purpose. that document makes clear what our role is and what it isn't. it makes clear who does what when it comes to deciding presidential elections. you see, because in our system of government, presidents are not directly elected, they are chosen by presidential electors and the constitution makes clear under article 2, section 1, that the states shall appoint presidential electors according to procedures that their legislatures develop. then comes the 12th amendment, it explains what we're doing here today in the capitol, that the president of the senate, the vice president of the united states shall open the ballots and the ballots shall be counted. it are those words that contain every scrap of authority we have in this process. our job is to open and then

count, open, then count. that's it. that's all there is. now, there are, of course, rare instances, instances in which multiple slates of electors can be submitted by the same state. that doesn't happen very often. it happened in 1960, it happened in 1876. let's hope it doesn't ever happen again. in those rare moments, congress has to make a choice, it has to decide which electoral votes have to be counted and which did not. that did not happen here, thank heavens and let's hope that it never does. now, many of my colleagues have raised objections or had previously stated their intent to raise objections with regard to these. i spent an enormous time on this issue over the last few weeks. i met with lawyers on both sides of the issue. i met with lawyers representing the trump campaign, reading

everything i could find about the constitutional provisions in question, and i spent a lot of time on the phone with legislators and other leaders from the contested states. i didn't initially declare my position because i didn't yet have one. i wanted to get the facts first and i wanted to understand what was happening. i wanted to give the people serving in government in the contested states the opportunity to do whatever they felt they needed to do to make sure that their election was properly reflected. i spent an enormous amount of time reaching out to state government officials in those states, but in none of the contested states, no, not even one, did i discover any indication that there was any chance that any state legislature or secretary of state or governor or lieutenant governor had any intention to alter the slate of electors. that being the case, our job is

a very simple one. this simply isn't how our federal system is supposed to work. that is to say, if you have concerns with the way that an election in the presidential race was handled in your state, the appropriate response is to approach your state legislators, first and foremost, these protests from -- hearing from those who have raised concerns, they should have been focused on their state clils, not our -- captain yols, not our nation's capitol. yes, we are the election judges when it comes to members elected to our own body. yes, the house of representatives, they are the judges of their own races there. we also have the authority to prescribe as a congress rules governorring the time, place, and manner of elections for senators and representatives. there is no corresponding authority with respect to

presidential elections, none whatsoever. it doesn't exist. our job is to convene, to open the ballots and to count them, that's it. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. the vice president: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: the senator from colorado, mr. bennet. the vice president: the senator from colorado. mr. bennet: thank you, mr. vice president. colleagues, it has been a terrible day for everybody here and for our country. one of the things i was thinking about today is something i often think about when i'm on this floor and that is the founders of this country, the people that wrote our constitution actually knew our history better than we know our history. and i was thinking about that history today as we saw the mob riot in washington, d.c., thinking about what the founders were thinking about when they

wrote our constitution, which is what happened to the roman republic when armed gangs doing the work for politicians prevented rome from casting their ballots for consult, for senators, these were the offices in rome and these armed gangs ran through the streets of rome keeping elections from being started, keeping elections from ever being called, and in the end, because of that, the roman republic fell and a dictator took its place. and that was the end of the roman republic or any republic for that matter until this beautiful constitution was written in the united states of america. so it is my fervent hope is that the way we respond to this today, my dear colleagues, is that we give the biggest

bipartisan vote we can in support of our democracy and in support of our constitution and in rejection for what we saw today and what the roman republic saw in its own time. there's a tendency around this place, i think, to always believe that we're the first people to confront something when that's seldom the case and to underappreciate what the effect of our actions will be. we need to deeply appreciate in this moment our obligation to the constitution, our obligation to the democracy, our obligation to the republic. there are people in this chamber that have twisted the words, twisted the words of a statute written in the 19th century that was meant to actually settle our electoral dispute, to leave them with the states, as

the senator from utah was saying, to give us ministerial role, accept in -- except in very rare circumstances, that is what that law is about that the senator from texas was talking about today. and that's the law that's leading us to be asked to overturn the judgments of 60 courts in america, many of them courts in arizona, some of whom have -- have howled the president's lawyers out of the courtroom because there's no evidence of fraud. by the way, the fact that 37% or 39% of americans think there's evidence of fraud does not mean there is fraud. if you turned a blind eye to a conspiracy theory, you can't now come to the floor of the senate and say, you're ignoring the people who believe the -- the

election was stolen. go out there and tell them the truth which is that every single member of this senate knows this election wasn't stolen and that we, just as in the roman republic, have a responsibility to protect the independence of the judiciary from politicians who will stop at nothing to hold on to power. there's nothing new about that either. that's been true since the first republic was founded. so now we find ourselves in a position just days after many senators here swore an oath to uphold and defend the constitution, every single member of the house of representatives swore the same oath as well. and i think we've got a solemn obligation and responsibility here to prove once again that

this country is a nation of laws and not of men and the only result that we can reach together is one that rejects the claim of the senator from texas and the other members of the house and senate who seek to overturn the decisions that were made by the states, by the voters in the states, and by the courts. if we follow what they have proposed, we will be thes ones -- the ones that will have disenfranchised every single person who cast a vote in this election, whether they voted for the president or they didn't. i urge you to reject this and i deeply appreciate the opportunity to serve with every single one of you. thank you, mr. president. the vice president: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i yield up to five minutes to the senator from

electoral -- the senator from georgia. the presiding officer: the -- the vice president: the senator from georgia. mrs. loeffler: mr. president, when i arrived in washington this morning, i fully intended to object to the certification of the electoral votes, however the events that transpired have forced me to reconsider and i cannot now in good conscience object to the certification of these electors. the violence, the lawlessness and siege of the halls of congress are abhorrent and stand as a direct attack on what my objection was intended to protect, the sanctity of the american democratic process. i thank law enforcement for keeping us safe. i believe that there were last-minute changes to the november 2020 election process and serious irregularities that resulted in too many americans losing confidence not only in the integrity of our elections but in the power of the ballot

as a tool of democracy, too many americans are frustrated with what they see as an unfair system, nevertheless there is no excuse for the events that took place in these chambers today and i pray that america never suffers such a dark day again. though the fate of this vote is clear, the future of the american people's faith and the core institution of this democracy remains uncertain. we, as a body, must turn our focus to protecting the integrity of our elections and restoring every american's faith that their voice and their vote matters. america's a divided country with serious differences but it is still the greatest country on earth. there can be no disagreement that upholding democracy is the only path to preserving our republic. i yield the floor. the vice president: the

democratic leader. mr. schumer: i yield two and a half minutes to senator booker and two and a half minutes to senator kaine. in reverse order. mr. kaine: mr. president -- the presiding officer: the -- the vice president: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: i applaud the comments of the senator from georgia deeply. my first job after school was in macon, georgia working for federal judge anderson, and i learned -- a lot about integrity and law from him. i also learned some sad lessons that in the history of georgia and indeed in virginia and many states, so many people, especially people of color had been disenfranchised over the course of our history. our late friend, john lewis, congressman from georgia, was savagely beaten on bloody sunday just for marching for voting rights. that act of violence inspired

this body, the u.s. senate, to come together in march of 1965, and work to pass in a bipartisan fashion the voting rights act. we should be coming together today after acts of violence as a united states senate to affirm the votes of all who cast ballots in november. instead, we're contemplating an unprecedented objection that would be a massive disenfranchisement of american voters. the georgia result was very clear, a 12,000 vote margin, two certifications by republican officials, four separate recounts and canvass, seven lawsuits, as in the other states. if we object to results like this, the message is so clear, we are saying to states, no

matter how secure and accurate your elections are, we'll gladly overthrow them if we don't like who you voted for. but for importantly what we'll be saying -- really what we'll be doing is as the body that acted together to guarantee americans the right to vote, we will become the agent of one of the most massive disenfranchise ypts in the history of -- in the history of this country. so i urge all of my colleagues, please oppose these objections. thank you, and i yield to my colleague from new jersey. the vice president: the senator from new jersey. booker booker mr. president -- mr. booker: mr. vice president, i can only think of two times in american history that

individuals laid siege to our capitol and tried to upend and overrun this government. one was in the war of 1812. and the other one was today. what's interesting about the parallel between the two is they both were waving flags to a sole sovereign, to an individual, surrendering democratic principle to the cultic personality. one was a monarch in england and the other with the flags i saw all over the capitol, including in the hallways and in this room, to a single person named donald trump. the sad difference between these two times was one the history in our country that tried to challenge the united states of america. but this time we brought this

hell upon ourselves. my colleague from texas said that this was a moment where there were unprecedented allegations of voter fraud. yes, that is true. there were unprecedented when the president before the election said if i lose this election, then the election was rigged. that's unprecedented. it's unprecedented before the night -- the counting of the vote was even done that he called it rigged. and it's unprecedented that he's fang the flames of conspiracy theory to create a smoke screen in this nation, to cover what he is trying to do, which is undermine our democratic principles. but it's not just that. the shame of this day is it's being aided and abetted by good

americans who are falling prey, who are choosing trump over truth, who are surrendering to the passion of lies as opposed to standing up and speaking truth to power, who are trying to fund raise off of the shame of conspiracy theories as opposed to doing the incal incalculably thing of value which is to speak truth to our nation. our democracy is wounded and i saw it when i saw pictures of another insurgency, a flag of another group of americans who tried to challenge our nation. i saw the flag of the confederacy there. what will we do? how will we confront this shame? how will we confront this dark second time in american history?

i pray that we remember a georgian and his words. all i can say is we must in spirit join together like those georgians on a bridge called the edmund pettus who joined hands, who were called threats to our democracy, who were called outrageous epithets when they sought to expand our democracy, to save it, to heal it, when they joined arm and arm and they said what we should say now, commit ourselves to that ideal, that together we shall overcome. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, i yield up to five minutes to the senator from nebraska, the senator from sasse. the vice president: the senator from nebraska. mr. sasse: mr. president, thank you. mr. president, let me say thank you for the way you fulfilled

your duties and obviously it hasn't been easy. colleagues, today has been ugly. when i came to the floor this morning, i planned to talk about the lesson of 1801, because i'm kind of a history nerd, and i wanted to celebrate the glories of the peaceful transition of power across our nation's history. it feels a little naive now to talk about ways american civics could unite us and bring us back together. 1801 blew everyone's mind over the world. john adams loses to thomas jefferson and adams willingly leaves the executive mansion and moves back to massachusetts and jefferson peacefully assumes power and people all over europe said that must be fake news, bad reports. there is no way anyone in the executive would lay out the power and adams in defeat did something glorious to give us a gift. i wanted to celebrate that and it feels a little harder now.

this building has been desecrated. blood has been spilled in the hallways. i was with october -- octogenarian members of the senate who needed troops to help them get down the steps. it was ugly today. but you know what? it turns out that when something is ugly, talking about beauty isn't just permissible. talking about beauty is obligatory at a time like that. why? why would we talk about beauty after the ugliness of today? because our kids need to know that this isn't what america is. what happened today isn't what america is. they have been given a glorious inheritance as the 59th presidential election -- if the vice president wasn't in the chair, i would have made some vote that chuck grassley voted in two-thirds of those 59

presidential elections. he's laughing. it's not as good as hit deer, deer dead. i don't think we want to tell the americans who come after us that this american is broken, this is a banana republic, our institutions can't be trusted. we don't want that in this body and our hometowns. i don't think we want to tell our kids that america's best days are behind us because it's not true. that's not who we are. america isn't hatfields and mccoys, blood feuds forever. america is a lot, not anything so big that the american people can't rebuild it, that freedom and community and entrepreneurial effort and that neighborhoods can't rebuild. nothing that's broken is so big that we can't fix it. generations of our forefathers and our foremothers, our ancestors, have spilled blood

to defend the glories of this republic. why would they do that? because america is the most exceptional nation in the history of the world and because the constitution is the greatest political document that's ever been written. most governments in the past have said might makes right, and we saw some of that today. might makes right. no, it doesn't. god gives us rights by nature and government is just our shared project to secure those rights. america has always been about what we choose to do together. the way we reaffirm our constitutional system. we've got some governmental tasks, and we all in this body could do better at those governmental tasks. but the heart of america is not government. the center of america is not washington, d.c. the center of america is the neighborhoods where 330 million americans are raising kids, trying to put food on the table and trying to love their neighbor. we're not supposed to be the most important people in

america. we're supposed to be servant leaders to maintain a framework for liberty so there is a structure that back home where they live they can get from the silver frame to the golden frame which is the apple, the things they build together, the places where they coach little league, the places where they invite people to synagogue and church. sometimes the things we do together are governmental like kicking hitler's ass. but the heart of america is about places where moms and dads are raising kids and we're supposed to serve them by maintaining order and by rejecting violence. you can't do big things like that if you hate your neighbors. you can't do big things together as americans if you think other americans are the enemy. there's a lot of uncertainty about the future. i get it. there's a lot that does need to be rebuilt. but if you're angry, i want to beg you, don't let the

screamers who monetize hate have the final word. don't let neilists become your drug dealers. there are some who want to burn it down but they're not going to win. instead organize, persuade. but most importantly, love your neighbor. visit the widower down the street who is lonely and doesn't want to tell anybody that his wife died and doesn't have a lot of friends. shovel somebody's driveway. you can't hate somebody who shoveled your driveway. we're supposed to be servant leaders. the constitutional system is the greatest order for any government ever and it's our job to steward it and be protect it. let's remember that today when we vote. the vice president: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: senator durbin. the vice president: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: thank you, mr. vice president. in march of 1861, a springfield

lawyer caught a train to washington. his name was abraham lincoln. it wasn't his first trip here. he served as a congressman 15 years before and he returned in the beginning of the civil war to serve as president. it was a different place than he knew it as congressman and in 15 years changed a lot. the spritions boarding house across the street which is now the library of congress was gone, and this building was changing. big changes. they were building a dome on the capitol. but they were also in the earliest days of war -- and president lincoln was counsel, stop building the dome. it costs too much money and we can't spend any more time on it. and he said no we're going to build that dome and we're going to finish it. that dome and this building will be a symbol of this country that will survive the civil war and come back strong.

so they built the dome. they won the war. and since those days, that dome and this building have been a symbol to this country, a symbol of unity and of hope. tourists come through here before covid-19 by the tens of thousands. and if you've ever noticed their tours, they're often shushed. people are saying show some respect for this building. we know this building in the rotunda as the place where some of the greatest american heroes of both political parties lie in state, and we go there to honor them. we know this building because we work here. we enact laws here that change america. we gather for state of the union messages from presidents and honor the people in the gallery. this is a special place. this is a sacred place. but this sacred place was

desecrated by a mob today. on our watch. this temple to democracy was defiled by thugs who roamed the halls and sat in that chair, mr. have want, the one that youe one you vacated this afternoon, sat and posed for pictures, those who were roaming around this chamber. what brought this on? did this mob spring spontaneously from america? no. this mob was invited to come to washington on this day by this president for one reason -- because he knew the electoral college vote was going to be counted this day. he wanted this mob to disrupt the constitutional process which we are a part of. this mob was inspired by a president who cannot accept defeat. if you wonder whether i'm going

too far in what i say, just read the transcript with the secretary of state from georgia and listen to the president's wild conspiracy theories one after the other, swatted down by that republican elected official and his attorney as having no basis in fact. this president begs. he coaxes, he even threatens that secretary of state to find the votes he needs. in any other venue that would be a simple obvious crimes. the lengths he'll go to are obvious. the texas senator says to us many people still agree with him, you know, when it gets down to the bottom line. many people have fallen for this presidential position, that it must have been a rigged election if i lost. well, i would say that after

after -- we've lost count -- 57 lawsuits, 62 lawsuits, after 90 different judges, after this president took his case, the best he could put together, to the highest court in the land across the street where he has personally chosen three justices on the supreme court, i say to the senator from texas, you know much more about that court than i do. i don't believe that they let that paper that he sent up there even hit the desk before they laughed it out of the court. and that's the best he had to offer. no evidence whatsoever of this rigged election and this fraudulence. the senator from texas says we just want to create a little commission. ten days, we're going to audit all the states, particularly the ones in contention here, and find out what actually occurred. and it really draws, it's parallel to 1876, hayes and tilden. don't forget what that

commission achieved. it was not some ordinary governmental commission. it was a commission that killed reconstruction, that established jim crow, that even after a civil war which tore this nation apart, it reenslaved african americans, and it was a commission that invited the voter suppression we are still fighting today in america. let me close by saying this. the vote we're going to have here is a clear choice of whether we are going to feed the beast of ignorance or we are going to tell the truth to the american people. we saw that beast today roaming the halls. let's not invite it back. the vice president: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, i yield up to five minutes to the senator from kansas, senator marshall. the vice president: the senator from kansas. mr. marshall: thank you, mr. president. freedom of speech and freedom to

protest are provided in our constitution and i share the same frustrations many americans have for the presidential election, the violence and mob rule that occurred at the u.s. capitol today and across the country the past year are unacceptable and i condemn it at the highest level. like all of us in the chamber, i'm thankful for the heroic officers who worked feverishly to restore order so we can get back to the certification process. during my 29-year career as an obstetrician and gynecologist, too often i had to sit down with patients and give them a very bad dying know cease. it might have been a very young mother of three who i delivered all three of her babies now with cancer or another with advanced cervical ovarian cancer all with a challenging prognosis but before i sat down with each one of those patients i carefully reviewed all their lab, their x-rays and pathology to make sure i had the facts straight but at the end of the day, my

final recommendation was always going to be a recommendation from my heart. i want my fellow kansans and all americans to know that i've given as much consideration and thought surrounding the issue objecting to a state's electoral college vote as i did considering the treatment plan for a serious health concern and today's decision once again is from my heart. mr. president, i rise today to restore integrity to our republic and i rise to do it to join the many of my colleagues who are concerned for current and future generations. we must restore faith and confidence in one of our republic most hallowed patriotic duties, voting. there's no question our u.s. constitution empowers state legislatures to execute free, legal, and fair elections. unfortunately in several states, the clear authority of those state legislatures to determine the rules for voting were usurped by governors, secretaries of states and activist courts.

our laws and constitution should always be followed, especially in a time of crisis. i don't rise undo a state's legally obtained electoral votes. i rise in hopes of improving the integrity of the ballot to hold states accountable to the time proven constitutional system of the electoral college. this is why i urge the formation of electoral commission to give constructive suggestions and recommendation the states can make to make our elections once again safe, free, and fair after a year of jarring irregularities. we must and will have a peaceful transition to power. to all my fellow americans, i have no doubt that our republic can go it -- grow stronger through this difficult day. my god bless this great republic. thank you, mr. president. i yield back. the vice president: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: the senator from illinois, senator duckworth. the vice president: the senator from illinois. ms. duckworth: in 2004 i packed

up my rucksack, laced up my boots and deployed to iraq ready to sacrifice whatever was asked of me all because i loved this nation, willing to sacrifice my life if needed. because i believe in the sanctity of our electoral system which had declared george w. bush my commander in chief. i earned my wounds proudly fighting in a war i did not support on the orders of a president i did not vote for because i believed in and i still do believe in the values of our nation. because i believe in a government of, by, and for the people where voters, voters choose who leads them, not the other way around. i have spent my entire adult life defending our democracy but i never, never thought it would be necessary to defend it from

an attempted violent, overthrow in our nation's own capital building. well, i refuse to let anyone intent on instigating chaos or inciting violence deter me from carrying out my constitutional duties. you know, when my army buddies and i raised our right hands, when the 45,000 troops in arizona raised their right hands, and swore to protect and defend the constitution, we did not qualify our oath by saying that we'd follow orders only when the commander in chief was someone whose election we were happy with. just like when every senator in this chamber was sworn into office, we didn't mutter under our breath that we discharge our duties only when it served our political interests or helped us to avoid the raght of a -- wrath, petty, tin pot dictator on the precipice of losing power and relevance. no, there's no ambiguity here.

joe biden won the election with a record number of votes. republican officials nationwide confirmed those results, including in arizona as has judge after trump-appointed judge. even trump's attorney general admitted that the united states department of justice had not found widespread fraud that would have affected the outcome. yet still many of my republican colleagues are asking us to ignore all of that. with no evidence of their own, they're asking us to ignore court rulings, ignore republican election officials, and even worse, ignore the will of the people across this vast great nation. by trying to overturn this election, they are placing more trust in conspiracy theories over the constitution proving that appeasing trump is more important to them than protecting the most basic tenet of our republic, that add

heernls to free and fair elections. there's one thing i know is that my troops didn't sign up to defend our democracy in war zones thousands of miles away only to watch it scrum balance in these -- crumble in these hallowed halls here at home. yet that is what this effort amounts to, an attempt to subvert our democracy and in the process it is threatening what makes america american. because in this country, in this country the power of the people has always mattered more than the people in power. that is the ideal that this nation was founded upon. that is why a few patriots through some tea in boston harbor, why washington crossed the delaware, when suffrages were arrested a century ago and my friend john lewis crossed that bridge in selma in 1965. it is why millions spent a tuesday in november standing in

line braving a pandemic to make their voices heard. listen, this administration has always had an add remember say yal relationship with the friewt. trump always cries conspiracy, always foments chaos whenever something doesn't go his way. but today we here in this chamber had the opportunity to prove that here in this country truth matters, that right matters, that the will of the people matters more than the whims of any single powerful individual. i have no tea to throw in boston harbor tonight. and i regret that i have no rucksack to pack for my country. no blackhawk to pilot. nor am i asking for any grand

gesture from my republican colleagues. all that i'm asking of you is to reflect on the oaths that you have sworn on the damage done to our union today, and on the sacrifices made by those who have given so much to this nation. from the service members at fort huachuca to the marchers who bent america's moral a -- every single step they took, every bridge they cross, then ask yourself whether the democracy they were willing to bleed for, the country that each of us in this chamber has sworn to defend is worth damaging in order to protect the porcelain ego of a man who treats the constitution as if it were a little more than a yellowing piece of paper. i think we all know the right answer. the vice president: the majority

leader. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, i yield up to five minutes to the senator from kentucky, senator paul. the vice president: the senator from kentucky. mr. paul: i wrote a speech for today i was planning to say that i fear the chaos of establishing a precedent that congress can overturn elections. boy was i right. chaos, anarchy, the violence today was wrong and un-american. the vote we are about to cast is incredibly important. now more than ever the question is, should congress override the certified results from the states and nullify the states' rights to conduct elections. the vote today is not a protest. the vote today is literally to overturn elections. we've been told that this is a protest. this is about an electoral commission. no, it's not. it's about whether to seat the electors that have been certified by a state. it's not about a electoral commission. it's not about a protest.

you can go outside if you want to protest. this is about overturning a state certified election. if you vote to overturn these elections, wouldn't it be the opposite of what states' rights republicans have always advocated for? this would doom the electoral college forever. it was never intended by our founders that congress have the power to overturn state certified elections. my oath to the constitution doesn't allow me to disobey the law. i can't vote to overturn the verdict of states. such a vote would be to overturn everything held dear by those of us who support the rights of states in this great system of federalism, those beqeeghted us -- bequeathed to us by our founders. it was created to devolve the power of selecting presidential electors to the states. the electoral college is without question an inseparable friend to those who believe that every

american across our vast country deserves to be heard. if congress were to give the power to overturn the states election, what terrible chaos would ensue every four years? imagine the furor against the electoral college if congress becomes a forum to overturn states' electoral college slates. it's one thing to be angry. it's another to focus one's anger in constructive ways. that hasn't happened today, to say the least. we simply cannot destroy the constitution, our laws and the electoral college in the process. i hope as the nation's anger cools, we can channel that energy into essential electoral reforms at the state level. america is admired around the world for our free elections. we must, we absolutely must fix this mess and restore confidence and integrity to our elections. we must.

the vice president: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: the senator from virginia, senator warner. the vice president: the senator from virginia. mr. warner: mr. president, i think like most of us i'm still pretty reeling from what happened today. what i was going to talk about was the work, the work i'm most proud of since i've been here with my good friend richard brrr and all the members of the -- richard burr and all the members of the intelligence committee of a report we did in foreign interference in our elections. probably our top recommendation of that five five-volume bipartn report was that any official or candidate should use restraint and caution when questioning results of our elections. because when you do so, you often carry out the goals of our

foreign adversaries. use caution because whether knowingly or unknowingly and whether that adversary is in russia or china or iran, their goals are pretty simple. they want to make it appear to americans, to folks around the world, to their own people that there's nothing special about american democracy. i was going to try in a feeble way to maybe reach some of the rhetorical heights of ben sasse and i knew i couldn't do that. so instead -- i know i'm very lating rules. today is the day for violating rules. this is a photo that appeared today on one of the most proper incident german newspapers. you don't need to -- you can draw up photos from any newspaper or any television feed anywhere across the world. and what does this -- is this

photo of? it's of thugs, thugs in the halls of this capitol. todadiminish -- diminishing everything we say, we believe in in this democracy. and when you look at those images, you realize those images are priceless for our adversaries. god willing tonight in an overwhelming way, we're going to take a small step in a bipartisan way of restoring that trust of hopefully our people and billions of people around the world who believe in that notion of american democracy. remember, these i amages are still there. i yield back. the vice president: the majority leader. deployed mr. president, i yield up to five minutes to the senator from missouri, senator

hawley. the vice president: the senator from missouri. mr. hawley: mr. president, thank you. i want to begin this evening by saying thank you to the men and women of the capitol hill police , the national guardsmen, the metropolitan police and others who came to this capitol, who put their lives on the line to protect everyone here working inside of it. and i want to thank law enforcement all across this country, in my home state of missouri and everywhere else who do that day in and day out. and i just want to acknowledge that when it comes to violence, this has been a terrible year in america, this last year. we've seen a lot of violence against law enforcement, and today we saw it here in the capitol of the united states. and in this country, in the united states of america, we cannot say emphatically enough, violence is not how you achieve change. violence is not how you achieve something better. our constitution was built and put into place so that there

would be, in the words of abraham lincoln, no appeal from ballots to bullets, which is what we saw unfortunately attempted tonight. there is no place for that in the united states of america. and that's why i submit to my colleagues that what we are doing here tonight is actually very important because for those who have concerns about the integrity of our elections, those who have concerns about what happened in november, this is the appropriate means, this is the lawful place where those objections and concerns should be heard. this is the forum that the law provides for our laws, provides for for those concerns to be registered. not through violence, not by appealing from ballots to bullets, but here in this lawful process. and to those who say this is just a formality today, an antique ceremony that we have engaged in for a couple of hundred years, i can't say that i agree, i can't say that our

precedents suggest that. i actually think it's very vital what we do, the opportunity to be heard, to register objections is very vital because this is the place where those objections are to be heard and dealt with, debated and finally resolved. in this lawful means, peacefully, without violence, without attacks, without bullets. and so, mr. president, let me just say now briefly, in lieu of speaking about it later, a word about pennsylvania, which is a state that i have been focused on, objected to, as an example of why people are concerned, millions of americans are concerned about our election integrity. say that pennsylvania, quite apart from allegations of any fraud, you have a state constitution that has been interpreted for over a century to say that there is no mail-in balloting permitted except for in very narrow circumstances that's also provided for in the law, and yet, last year, pennsylvania elected officials passed a whole new law that

allows universal mail-in balloting and did it irregardless of what the pennsylvania constitution said. and then when a pennsylvania citizen tried to go and be heard on this subject before the pennsylvania supreme court, they were dismissed on grounds of procedure, timeliness, and violation of that supreme court's own precedent. so the merits of the case have never been heard, the constitutionality of the statute has never been defended. i am not aware of any court that has passed on its constitutionality. i actually am not aware of anybody that has defended the constitutionality. this is the statute that governed this last election in which there were over 2.5 million mail-in ballots in pennsylvania. this is my point, that this is the forum. the pennsylvania supreme court hasn't heard the case. there is no other court to go to to hear the case in the state. and so this is the appropriate place for these concerns to be raised, which is why i had raised them here today. and i hope that this body will not miss the opportunity to take

affirmative action to address the concerns of so many millions of americans. to say to millions of americans tonight that violence is never warranted, that violence will not be tolerated, that those who engage in it will be prosecuted, but that this body will act to address the concerns of all americans across the country. we do need an investigation into irregularities, fraud. we do need a way forward together. we need election security reforms. i bet my friends on the other side of the aisle don't disagree with that. we need to find a way to move forward on that together so that the american people from both parties, all walks of life, can have confidence in their elections and that we can arrange ourselves under the rule of law that we share together. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. the vice president: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: the senator from pennsylvania, mr. casey. the vice president: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: i rise tonight to

defend the people of the commonwealth of pennsylvania, to defend the more than 6.9 million voters who voted in this election, and to condemn in the strongest possible terms this attempt to disenfranchise the voters of pennsylvania based upon a lie, a falsehood. that same lie sowed the seeds of today's violence and today's lawlessness here in the capitol. one of my constituents, susan, from the lehigh valley, the community of our state where senator toomey lives, recently wrote to my office and perhaps said it best. she said, and i quote, we cannot allow anybody to overturn the legal votes of the citizens of pennsylvania. this would be the ultimate destruction of our democracy, unquote. susan had it right.

we cannot allow anybody -- and she put that word in all caps -- to overturn the legal votes of the people of our state. let me address the allegation regarding the pennsylvania constitution and the general assembly. somehow that the general assembly didn't have the authority to enact no-excuse mail-in voting, that process for the people of our state. first, the law in question, act 77, was passed in 2019 and was implemented without any serious question as to its constitutionality. the law was passed by a republican-controlled general assembly, house and senate. it was only after the 2020 election when it became clear that president-elect joe biden won pennsylvania by little more than 80,000 votes did some republican politicians in our

state decide to challenge the constitutionality of the law. second, act 77 is plainly constitutional. my colleagues alleged that the state constitution requires in-person voting except under limited circumstances. this is not true. while pennsylvania lays out specific situations in which absentee voting is required, there is no in-person requirement in our state's constitution. the constitution sets a floor, not a ceiling, for this type of voting. second, apart from the argument made by my colleague, there is bipartisan agreement across our state, at the local, state, and federal level, that our election was fair, secure, and lawful. on monday, my colleague from pennsylvania, senator toomey, wrote in an op-ed, and i'm quoting, the evidence is overwhelming that joe biden won

this election, unquote. there is simply no evidence to justify the outrageous claims of widespread voter fraud or election irregularity to justify those seeking to overturn the election. 60 cases, court after court, all throughout our state and throughout the country, including the supreme court, dealing with this bizarre argument that we know is based upon that lie. in one court, the united states court of appeals for the third circuit, judge beavis, appointed by president trump. he said, quote, the campaign's claims have no merit, unquote. the united states, he said, has free and fair elections which are the lifeblood of our democracy. charges require specific allegations and then proof. we have neither here, unquote, so said judge beavis.

finally, mr. president, a word about those election officials who did such work. these election officials all across our state, republicans and democrats, from red counties and blue counties, they did their jobs. they are patriots. and these objections are an attack on these pennsylvania public servants. give you one example. republican commissioner al smitd say, of philadelphia. he wrote, and i will quote as follows. quote, there really should not be a disagreement regardless of party affiliation when we're talking about counting votes by eligible voters. it's not a very controversial thing, or at least it shouldn't be, unquote. after election day, commissioner al schmidt, his family and his colleagues, were subjected to death threats simply because he was trying to do his job with integrity.

it calls to mind, mr. president, that great line from "america the beautiful." o beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years. these election officials, like so many of our patriots. we heard from senator duckworth tonight, a real patriot. these patriots did their job. let's support these patriots. vote against this objection. i yield the floor. the vice president: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i yield five minutes to the senator from utah, senator romney. the vice president: the senator from utah. mr. rommie: mr. president, today was heart breaking, and -- and i was shaken to the core as i thought about the people i met in china and russia and afghanistan and iraq and other places yearning for freedom, and to look -- and who look to this building and these shores as a place of hope, and i saw the images being broadcast around the world, and it breaks my heart. i have 25 grandchildren.

many of them were watching tv, thinking about this building, whether their grandpa was okay. i knew i was okay. i must tell you as well, i was proud to serve with these men and women. this is an extraordinary group of people. i am proud to be a member of the united states senate and be with people of integrity as we do here today. now we gather due to a selfish man's injured pride, and the outrage of supporters who he has deliberately misinformed for the past two months and stirred to action this very morning. what happened here today was an insurrection incited by the president of the united states. those who choose to continue to support his dangerous gambit by objecting to the results of a legitimate democratic election will forever be seen as being complicit in an unprecedented attack against our democracy.

fairly or not, they will be remembered for their role in this shameful episode in american history. that will be their legacy. i salute senator lankford, loeffler, braun, and daines and i'm sure others who, in the light of the day's outrage, have withdrawn their objection. for any who remain insistent on an audit in order to satisfy the many people who believe that the election was stolen, i'd offer this perspective -- no congressional audit is ever going to convince these voters, particularly when the president will continue to say that the election was stolen. the best way we could show respect for the voters who were upset is by telling them the truth. [applause]

mr. romney: that's the burden, that's the duty of leadership. the truth is that president-elect biden won the election, president trump lost. i have had that experience myself. it's no fun. scores of courts, the president's own attorneys general, state election officials, both republican and democrat, have reached that unequivocal decision. and in light of today's sad circumstances, i ask my colleagues, do we weigh our own political fortunes more heavily than we weigh the strength of our republic, the strength of our democracy, and the cause of freedom? what's the weight of personal acclaim compared to the weight of conscience? leader mcconnell said that the vote today is the most important in his 36 years of public service. think of that.

authorizing two wars, voting in two impeachments. he said that not because the vote reveals something about the election, it's because this vote reveals something about us. i urge my colleagues to move forward with completing the electoral count, to refrain from further objections, and to unanimously affirm the legitimacy of the presidential election. thank you, mr. president. the vice president: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: the senator from new hampshire, senator shaheen. vice president haven't the senator from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: mr. president, on january 3, i along with 31 of my colleagues stood in this chamber and swore an oath to support and defend the constitution of the united states. it's both ironic and deeply disappointing that only three

days after swearing these oaths, some of my colleagues are willfully coming close to breaking this promise. since 1797, each u.s. senate has peacefully handed over power to the next, and that will happen again on january 20 when donald trump, despite the protesters today, the violence today, when donald trump leaves the white house at noon and joe biden becomes president. and we've heard tonight from both democrats and republicans about the importance of the voters speaking in the election and about the fact that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. but this is not just an issue for us here in the united states. this is an issue for nascent democracies around the world who, as senator romney said, look to the united states as an

example. we are the shining city on the hill. we give those struggling under oppression hope for a better future. now, like so many of us in this chamber, i've traveled to developing democracies around the world -- to afghanistan and iraq, to the western balkans, to africa, to the country of georgia. i went there with my colleague, senator risch, in 2012. we went to georgia to observe officially on behalf of the senate the election between outgoing president mikhail cashville lee and his united national movement part and the change by georgian dream, which was a newly formed party supported and funded by billionaire oligarch

kabanishvili. it was a battle for parliament but also for control of the government. senator risch and i visited multiple polling places on election day, and we agreed with the international assessment, that that election was free and fair and that georgian dream were the winners. but there was real concern in the country that is they were gg to refuse to give up power, that would end up with violence, and would end the nascent forms happening in that republic. so senator risch and i, the day after the election, went to visit the new president -- the president to try and talk him out of staying in power. i remember very clearly going to his home, and we sat down with him and we pointed out that the

hallmark of a democracy, what he had worked so hard for in his eight years as president of georgia, the hallmark of that was to turn over power in a peaceful election to the person that the voters chose. well, the president listened to us and he did leave office peacefully. but it's important that future generations recognize that america, like democracies everywhere, depends on a peaceful transition of power on believing in what the voters say and in ensuring that happens. unfortunately, we've heard from some senators today who have been enabling president trump's willful disregard of the votes of our citizenry, even as they

speak out against foreign leaders who ignore their own people. they will fail, and history will remember them. and i hope that future generations will view the actions of some of those folks today as little more than an unfortunate anomaly. future opportunists may use this ill-fated effort to seek short-term political gain over the long-term stability of our republic. but for the sake of our great country and america's standing in the world, i ask my colleagues today to fully endorse the results of the free and fair election and set aside this partisan attempt to subvert the will of the people. we should be venerating the peaceful transition of power, even if our own preferred candidate didn't win. that is, after all, who we are in the united states of america. thank you, mr. president.

the vice president: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, i yield up to five minutes to the senator from ohio, senator portman. the vice president: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: mr. vice president, you have fulfilled your duties as president of the senate tonight with distinction, and we all appreciate it. [applause] mr. portman: i thought i might change my mind about speaking tonight given the lateness of the hour and i know all of my colleagues would have appreciated that greatly, but i felt it was necessary to speak because i want the american people, particularly my constituents in ohio, to see that we will not be intimidated, that we will not be disrupted from our work, that here in the

citadel of democracy we will continue to do the work of the people. mob rule is not going to prevail here. now, let's face it ... we did not reclaim this chamber tonight. brave and selfless law enforcement officers stood in the breach and ensured that the citadel of democracy would be protected, and that we would be defended. and we are deeply grateful for that, as is the nation. i've listened carefully to the comments of my colleagues and i've listened over the past couple of weeks as this issue has been discussed, and i tell you, for me, it's not a hard decision. i stand with the constitution. i stand with what the constitution makes clear -- the people and the states hold the power here, not us. my oath to the constitution and my reverence for our democratic principles make it easy for me

to confirm these state certifications. by the way, i opposed this process some 15 years ago when some democrats chose to object to the electors from my home state of ohio after the 2004 elections. i opposed it then and i oppose it now. i said at the time, congress must not thwart the will of the people. that's what we would be doing. let's assume for a moment that those who 0 be to the certifications are right -- that those who object to the certifications are right, that the constitution intended that a bare majority of the members of congress could circuit vent the will of the states chosen to certify the votes of theater own citizens. i ask the object terse to think about the precedent that would be set if we were to do that. what if the majority in the house and the senate was of the other party?

when a presidential candidate of our party came through a close presidential election. would you want a congress controlled by the democrats to play the role you now intend for us? it is asking congress to substitute its judgment for the judgment of the voters. and its judgment for the judgment of the states that certified the results. and even forgetting the dangerous precedent that would be set, what would be the basis for objecting in this election? look, i voted for president trump. i supported him because i believe the trump administration's policies are better for ohio and for the country. and i supported the trump campaign's right to pursue recounts. they had every right to do it -- and legal challenges. i agree that there were instances of fraud and i.g. regularities in the 2020 --

irregularities in the 2020 elections. there's fraud and irregularities in every presidential election. but it is also true that after two months of recounts and legal challenges, not a single state recount changed the result. and of the dozens of lawsuits filed, not one found evidence of fraud or irregularities widespread enough to change the result of the election. this was the finding of numerous republican-appointed judges and the trump administration's own department of justice. every state has now weighed in and chosen to certify its electoral slate based on the popular vote, as set out in the constitution. i understand that many americans who would never storm this capitol don't trust the integrity of the 2020 election, don't think the states should have certified, don't think we

should have accepted the results from the states, and are insisting on more transparency and accountability. in the 2016 elections, lest we forget, many democrats objected to the results and distrusted the election. i challenge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to listen but also to do our part to try to restore faith in our elections. mr. president, we should all work to improve the integrity of the electoral system and the confidence of the american people in this bedrock of our great democratic republic. today i'll do my constitutional duty and oppose these efforts to reject the state-certified rums and tomorrow in the wake of this attack on the capitol, the pandemic that engulfs us and other national challenges, let's work together for the people. i yield back.

the vice president: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: mr. president, i believe we've eight minutes left, so i'd like to give four to senator king and four to senator van hollen. the vice president: that's correct. martin luthermr. king: mr. presn churchill said if he could do a two-hour speech extemporaneously but a ten-minute speech took immense preparation. i don't know what he would have said about a four-minute speech. we are a 240-year anomaly in world history. we think that what we have here in this country is the way it's always been. it is a very unusual form of government. the normal form of government throughout world history is dictators, kings, czars,

pharaohs, warlords, tyrants. and we thought 20 years ago the march of history was toward democracy, but it is in retreat in hungary and turkey, goodness knows in russia. democracy, as we have practiced it, is fragile. it's fragile, and it rests upon trust. it rests upon trust in facts. it rests upon trust in courts. in public officials, and, yes, in elections. i don't simple that thighs or justice -- i don't sympathize or justify or in any way support -- that's a mild -- that's putting it mildly -- what happened here today, but i understand it. i understand it because i saw those people interviewed today,

and they said, we're here because this election has been stolen, and the reason they said that is that their leader has been telling them that every day for two months. we cannot afford to pull bricks out from the foundation of trust that underlines -- underlies our entire system. and i agree with governor romney that the answer to this problem is to tell people the truth. it is to tell them what happened. it's easy to confront your opponents. it's hard to confront your friends. it's hard to tell your supporters something they don't want to hear. but that's our obligation. that's why the word "leader" is

applied to people in jobs like ours. it's not supposed to be easy. it's supposed to be something that we take on as a sacred obligation. and if people believe something that isn't true, it's our obligation to tell them, no, i'm sorry, it isn't. just as senator portman just said, as mike lee just said. i'm sorry, we can't do this here. we don't want to do this here. this is a power reserve to the states, not to the congress. and i agree with the majority leader. i think this is one of the most important votes any of us will ever take. on december 1, 1862, abraham lincoln came to this building. he came to this building in the darkest days of the civil war. he was trying to awaken the congress to the crisis that we were facing.

and he didn't feel that they were fully and effectively engaged and he ended his speech that day with words that i think have an eerie relevance tonight. here's what abraham lincoln said. fellow americans, we cannot escape history. we of this congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. no personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. and here's his final words. the fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. the fiery trial through which we

pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the vice president: the senator from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. president. the mob violence and attack we saw on our capitol today should be a wakeup call to each and every one of us of what happens when we fail to come together, not as democrats and republicans, but each of us as americans to stand up to a president who time and again has shown contempt for our democracy, contempt for our constitution. today here on the capitol we

witnessed people taking down an american flag and putting up a trump flag. that is not democracy in the united states of america. as every senator who has spoken has mentioned, we have for hundreds of years had a peaceful transfer of power. nobody likes to lose and supporters of the losing candidate are always disappointed. what's different this time? we all know what's different this time. we had a president, who as the senator from new jersey said, even before a vote was cast, that if he didn't win the election, it was going to be a fraud and every day since then has perpetrated that lie. we have a president who just today criticized very loyal vice

president who is presiding right now, urging him to disregard his responsibilities of the constitution of the united states in order to reinstall donald trump as president. the same person who got on the phone to the secretary of state in georgia and threatened him to change the results of the election. mr. president, i read something this week i never thought i'd read in a newspaper in the united states of america. it was an op-ed by all the living secretaries of defense, including secretaries rumsfeld, cheney, and mattis warning -- warning the country about our tradition of peaceful transfer of power and that it would be inappropriate for the military to take sides. in the united states of america. we talk to the world about how we want to promote democracy and

our values and right here at home too many are undermining those values. and, mr. president, donald trump could not do this alone. he can only do it if he's aided and abetted by individuals who are willing to perpetrate those lies and those conspiracies. and that is why it is so important that we, as democrats and republicans and senators, stand up together, stand up together and tell the truth. you know, when you go into a court of law like those 60 cases, you're testifying under penalty of perjury. that's very different than here in the house and the senate and in all of those 60 cases under penalty of perjury, there was no evidence of widespread fraud. so it should be easy for us, all

together, to tell the truth. on january 20, joe biden will be sworn in as the next president of the united states. he has said he wants to bring the country together. he has said he wants to bring democrats and republicans together to do some of the pressing business of this country to defeat this pandemic, to get the economy going again, to face challenging issues of racial and social justice. i hope we will learn from what happened today, the mob attack on this capitol, the price we pay when we don't stand up for the truth and for democracy. james mchenry, maryland's delegate to the constitutional convention wrote about a famous exchange in his diaries between elizabeth willie powell and benjamin franklin. wrote, a lady asked, well, doctor, what have we got a republic or monarchy.

a republic replied dr. franklin, if you can keep it. my colleagues, this is a test of whether we're united to keep our republic. i hope we will pass the test together. thank you, mr. president. the vice president: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, i yield up to five minutes to the senator from south carolina, senator graham. the vice president: the senator from south carolina. mr. graham: many times my state has been the problem. i love it. it's where i want to die but no time soon. tim and i have a good relationship. i love tim scott. 1876, south carolina, louisiana, and florida sent two slate of electors, they had two governments, by the way, and we didn't know what to do. why did south carolina, florida,

and louisiana do it? to hold the country hostage to end reconstruction. it worked. the commission was 8-7. it didn't work. nobody accepted it. the way it ended is when hayes did a deal with these three states, you give me the electors, i'll kick the union army out. the rest is history. it led to jim crow. if you're looking for historical guidance, this is not the one to pick. if you're looking for a way to convince people there was no fraud, having a commission chosen by nancy pelosi, mitch mcconnell, and john roberts is not going to get you to where you want to go. it ain't gonna work. so it's not going to do any good. it's going to delay and it gives

credibility to a dark chapter of our history. that's why i'm not with you, but i will fight to my death for you. you're able to be object, you're not able to do anything wrong, other people have objected. i think it's a uniquely bad idea to delay this election. trump and i, we had a hell of a journey. i hailt it being this way. -- a hate it being this way. from my point of view, he's been a conventional president, but today, first thing you will see, all i can say is count me out. enough is enough. i tried to be helpful. but when this wisconsin supreme court ruled 4-3 that they didn't violate the constitution of wisconsin, i agreed with the three, but i accept the four. if al gore can accept 5-4, he's not president, i can accept wisconsin 4-3. it went to the court, they said,

no you're wrong, i accept the pennsylvania second circuit that trump's lawsuit wasn't right. georgia, they said the secretary of state took the law in his own hands, he changed the election laws unlawfully. a federal judge said no, i accept the federal jublg, even though i don't agree with it. fraud, they said there's 66,000 people in georgia, under 18 voted. i didn't -- they said 8,000 felons in prison voted, give me ten, hadn't got one. does that say there's problems in every election. i don't buy this. enough's enough. we've got to end it. vice president pence, what they are asking you to do you won't do because you can't. you talk about interesting times. i associate myself with rand paul. how many times will you hear that?

the mob has done something else nobody else could do, to get me and rand to agree. rand is right. if you're a conservative, this is the most offensive concept in the world that a single person could disenfranchise 155 million people. the president of the senate shall in the presence of the senate and house of representatives, open all certificates and the vote shall then be counted, the person having the greatest number of votes for president shall be president. where does it say, i don't like the resultsism want to send -- results. i want to send them back to the states. to the conservatives who believe in the constitution, now is it the time to -- is the time to stand up and be counted. originalism, count me in. it means what it says. my -- mr. vice president, hang in there.

they say we can count on mike. you will do the right thing. you have a son who flies f-35's, a son-in-law who flies f-18's, they are flying so we get it right here. there are people dying, to my good friend from illinois, to make sure we have a chance to argue among ourselves. and when it is over, it is over. it is over. joe biden, i travel the world with joe. i hoped he lost. i prayed he would lose. he won. he's the legitimate president of the united states. i cannot convince people, certain groups, by my words, but i will tell you by my actions that i, above all others in this body need to say this, joe biden and kamala harris are lawfully elected and will become the president and the vice president of the united states on

january 20. the vice president: majority the vice president: on this vote the jayce are 6. the nays are 93. the objection is not sustained. the secretary will notify the house of the action of the senate informing the body that the senate is ready to proceed to joint session with further counting of the electoral vote for