Christopher Van Hollen

“ I had hope that most of us grasped the idea that the machinery of our democracy does not operate automatically. It is not self-executing. That institutions are ultimately only as strong as the people who safeguard them. That it is up to each and every one of us to nurture and protect our democracy. That we are the current stewards of our republic’s tradition of the peaceful transfer of power. Mr. President, I really believed that night that that was a shared belief in this Senate. ”

“ That’s why we must establish uniform national standards to protect access to the ballot box and ensure that our elections reflect the will of the American people – not the political wishes of any party or any one person. That is exactly what the Freedom to Vote Act does – and why we must pass it. This bill would defend every American’s right to the ballot. The Freedom to Vote Act also helps protect election officials from unfair removal and guards against attempts to tamper with or change election results. ”

“ 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. ”

“ One year later, while we have improved the physical security of this Capitol, we have not secured our democracy. Our great American experiment remains under as much threat today as it did a year ago. And we, as Americans, have a duty to come together to take action to protect it. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We have a President who just today criticized the very loyal Vice President, who is presiding right now, urging him to disregard his responsibilities under the Constitution of the United States in order to reinstall Donald Trump as President ”

“ We all know what is different this time. We have 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. ”

“ It was an op-ed by all the living former 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. ”

“ President, James McHenry, Maryland’s delegate to the Constitutional Convention, wrote in his diaries about a famous exchange between Elizabeth Willing Powell and Benjamin Franklin. He wrote, ‘A lady asked Dr. Franklin: Well Doctor what have we, what have we got a monarchy or a republic? ”

“ He could only do it if he is 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. ”