Democrats slam ‘MAGA radicalism’ on second anniversary of Jan. 6 attack
Barnini Chakraborty
Video Embed
Top Democrats on Friday slammed “MAGA radicalism” on the second anniversary of the Capitol riot, accusing former President Donald Trump of continuing to “poison American democracy with his Big Lie.”
“This anniversary should serve as a wakeup call to the Republican Party to reject MAGA (Make America Great Again) radicalism, which has time and time again led to Republican failures,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement.
GREENE RENEWS BOEBERT FEUD OVER MCCARTHY ‘OBSTRUCTION’
Supporters of the former president showed up in Washington, D.C., two years ago in an ill-fated, eleventh-hour bid to thwart the certification of President Joe Biden and prevent the peaceful transition of power. Mobs stormed the Capitol following a rally in which the former president spread lies about voter fraud.
Hundreds of pro-Trump supporters pushed past barricades and entered the Capitol building in an effort to disrupt the certification. In all, about 150 officers from the Capitol Police, the Metro Police Department, and other local agencies dispatched were injured in the melee that turned deadly. More than 900 people were arrested.
“Republicans continued embrace of election deniers in the years after the January 6 attack is not only a slap in the face to the brave U.S. Capitol police officers who protected them that day, but also to members of law enforcement across the country,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Ammar Moussa said. “It’s clear that Donald Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ still has a complete stranglehold on today’s MAGA Republican Party.”
Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA), the leader of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, agreed and said the threats that led to the Jan. 6 attack were intended to “destroy our democracy and undermine the will of voters across the country” and warned that those same threats continue to this day.
“While democracy prevailed, the threats remain as far-right extremists and leaders of the Republican Party continue to embrace lies, promote dangerous conspiracy theories, and fail to condemn colleagues who incite violence,” she added. “Today there are members in Congress that perpetuated the ‘Big Lie’ that led to the insurrection and there are members that attended the insurrection themselves — and yet, their party is now tasked with leading a branch of government whose objective is to protect and defend our democratic values.”
Like DelBene, Schumer also tried to tie the attack instigated by Trump to the chaos surrounding the House Republicans’ inability to elect a speaker after multiple failed attempts this week. A small faction of the GOP has spent all this week voting against Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s bid for speaker.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“The utter pandemonium wrought by House Republicans this week is just one more example of how the extreme fringe of their party, led by election deniers, is pulling them further into chaos and making it impossible for them to govern,” Schumer said. “For their own sake and for the sake of the country, Republicans should reject their MAGA wing and commit to working with Democrats to deliver bipartisan victories for the American people.”
Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) told Axios she was “thanking my lucky stars all week that Republicans weren’t in charge two years ago.” Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH) added, “The whole campus is aware of this juxtaposition of these two dates and what they’re attempting to do, which is to disrupt our democracy.”