Booker: “We saw a violent attack on this Capitol… [and] we saw heroic actions… to keep this nation’s traditions moving.”

Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) delivered remarks on the Senate floor on the anniversary of the January 6^th insurrection and ongoing attempts to undermine the voting rights of all Americans – particularly those of Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other marginalized communities.

WATCH HERE

Key Excerpts

“We saw a violent attack on this Capitol ignited and incited by demagogues who were trying to spread a lie telling people their votes were stolen; by a president who broke with our traditions of a peaceful transfer of power. And [who] told his supporters to come to this building. And on that day, that vicious attack, we saw heroic actions by men and women who stood in the breach to try to protect the 535 members of Congress, their staffs, [and] the people in this body that do so much good to keep this nation’s traditions moving.”

“I will never forget this moment, as long as I live…when I turned on that [television] screen, the very first thing I saw was the Confederate flag…. When I saw that flag it connected [me] to a current of the dark eddies of our nation’s history that have persisted because violent mobs from the beginning of our country have tried to stop our democratic traditions.”

“We make a big mistake if on this day we just talk about what happened here….All across this country right now there are believers in this democracy that have the same fear that my grandparents did. The same fear that my father did. The same fear that Blacks and whites who joined arms to march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge for voting rights did. This is a cancer; it [has] always been here. And we make a tragic mistake just by talking about this day. Because when I survey the United States of America, I am so worried. There has never been a time in my life, where I’ve been more worried about this democracy.”

“I stand here today to tell you, why aren’t we talking about the fact that in states right now, laws are being passed, specifically designed to disenfranchise people.”

“When early voting started in the fall of 2020 in Georgia, some voters had to wait up to 10 hours to vote in six metro areas at polling places where minorities constituted more than 90% of active registered voters. The average wait time in the evening for those black communities was 51 minutes. In [white] communities, the average wait time was six minutes….Is [this] what we mean when we look at our flag and say liberty and justice for all?”

“The John Lewis Voting [Rights Advancement] Act [and] the Freedom to Vote Act will be part of the answer to that question.”

“Democracy is not certain. It is not automatic. Democracy is hard. Democracy takes work. Democracy takes sacrifice.”