DCCC Interested Parties Memo: January 6th

On January 6, 2021 a violent far-right mob incited by former President Trump and House Republicans’ “Big Lie” stormed our Capitol in an attempt to overturn a free and fair American election. Republicans’ violent mob assaulted and injured over 100 police officers in the process – beating them with American flags and peppering them with chemical agents – trashed the U.S. Capitol building, and committed violent acts that left five Americans dead.

To put it plainly, House Republicans’ attack on our democracy has continued every day since. In fact, they’ve spent each day of the last year delving deeper into extremism; downplaying, lying about, and covering up the shameful attack on our democracy to prevent the truth from reaching the American people.

The truth is that House Republicans know exactly how toxic and unpopular their extremist politics is – our own polling shows 6 in 10 battlefield voters have serious doubts about House Republicans that supported or covered up the January 6th attack on the Capitol that left police officers injured and five Americans dead. Ahead of next November, Democrats are going to remind voters just how House Republicans have spent the last year trying to gaslight the American public and just how dangerous they’d be if they were in charge of Washington.

• HOUSE REPUBLICANS SPREAD LIES ABOUT 2020 ELECTION + PROMOTED EXTREME DISTRUST AMONG ANGRY TRUMP SUPPORTERS:  For weeks leading up to January 6th, House Republicans worked to sow doubt among GOP voters and refused to acknowledge the results of the 2020 Presidential Election, despite security officials reporting it was the most secure election in American history.

  • A Washington Post survey of Congressional Republicans taken one month after President Biden won the election shows a mere 15 House Republicans would even admit Biden was the rightful President-Elect.

  • Around that same time, more than 100 House Republicans signed an amicus brief in support of a Texas lawsuit aimed at overturning the election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

• Republicans’ dismissal of President Biden’s victory and constantly spreading Trump’s dangerous lies about election fraud spurred extreme distrust in our elections amongst Trump supporters, and ultimately helped them justify their unprecedented fight to try to stop the constitutional election certification process.

• HOUSE REPUBLICANS PARTICIPATED IN AN EXTREMIST SCHEME TO COORDINATE THE ‘STOP THE STEAL’ RALLY THAT FIRED UP THE RIOTERS: As part of their extremists efforts to undermine the 2020 election, several House Republicans allegedly took part in coordinating Trump’s far-right “Stop the Steal” rally. According to right-wing activist Ali Alexander, who organized the “Stop the Steal” movement, GOP Reps. Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, and Mo Brooks worked with him and his team as they hatched a plan to coincide with Congress’s vote to certify the electoral college votes.

  • “We four schemed up putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting,” Alexander said, also claiming the purpose was “to build momentum.”

• The three members, along with freshman extremist Reps. Madison Cawthorn, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene went on to spew incendiary language at the rally and on social media, firing up protestors before they stormed the Capitol.

  • Rep. Paul Gosar claimed Donald Trump would be President “once we conquer the Hill.”

  • In a video message to the crowd, Rep. Andy Biggs said, “I implore you to keep fighting.”

  • Rep. Mo Brooks, who was the first Republican to commit to objecting to certifying the election results, said rally-goers should “start taking down names and kicking ass” and telling them to “carry the message to Capitol Hill.”

  • Rep. Madison Cawthorn said he doesn’t regret his comments commending the crowd’s “fight” and telling them to be “so loud that the cowards in Washington DC that I serve with can hear you.”

  • Reps. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene disturbingly referred to January 6th as Republicans’ “1776 moment.”

• JUST HOURS AFTER VIOLENT RIOTERS DESECRATED THE CAPITOL, HOUSE REPUBLICANS STILL MET THEIR DEMANDS & VOTED AGAINST CERTIFYING THE ELECTION:  As if inciting a violent, white supremacist, extremist mob to fatally attack the U.S. Capitol wasn’t far enough, 139 House Republican lawmakers came back to the House floor mere moments after the tear gas and weapons were cleared and voted the way the rioters had demanded — to overturn Donald Trump’s election loss. Extremist Ringleader Kevin McCarthy was quick to try and deceive the American public, saying that the votes “were not about overturning an election” despite Republicans’ clear indication that that was exactly what the vote was about.

• LEADER MCCARTHY & HOUSE REPUBLICANS FLIP-FLOP ABOUT TRUMP’S ROLE IN THE ATTACK, TRY TO GASLIGHT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE: Since allowing his members to help incite the insurrection, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has gone from pathetically failing to condemn his caucus’s extremist antics to willfully encouraging them. He’s completely handed the reins of his caucus over to the most fringe extremists in his party, and our democracy is paying the price.

  • The “leader” made a drastic reversal since the January 6 attack, going from unequivocally blaming President Trump for the violence, to walking back those comments, to blatantly attempting to gaslight the American people about who’s really at fault.

• Republican leadership was so desperate to keep face and continue spreading their lies about the January 6th attack that they shamelessly ousted Liz Cheney from her role in the conference after she did the bare minimum and refused to promote the Big Lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. The caucus was quick to prop up Elise Stefanik in her place, a Trump loyalist who peddles dangerous conspiracies about the results of the election.

• Leader McCarthy and House Republicans continued to spread utter lies in an extremist campaign to deceive the American people about Trump’s role as well as their own roles in the attack, including:

  • Falsely claiming Pelosi stopped the National Guard from deploying

    • Truth: Trump didn’t call them

  • Falsely claiming Pelosi ignored warnings ahead of 1/6 and failed to prepare Capitol Police

    • Truth: House Republicans were the ones encouraging the rioters to come to D.C. and stop the results

  • Disturbingly comparing the insurrection to a “normal tourist visit.”

    • Truth: 5 people died and 140 officers were injured, and rioters were chanting “hang Mike Pence”

  • Insisting Trump supporters were not the ones causing violence and they were the real victims on January 6th

    • Truth: Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick defended the capitol and the Members inside leading up to his death, while Trump supporters shouted “Kill him with his own gun!” at another Capitol Police Officer

  • Falsely claiming the Capitol rioters were “peaceful patriots.”

    • Again,  5 people died and 140 officers were injured, while rioters were chanting “hang Mike Pence”

• HOUSE REPUBLICANS HAVE TRIED TO BLOCK AN INVESTIGATION TO UNCOVER THE TRUTH EVERY STEP OF THE WAY: After doing everything in their power to deceive voters about what happened in the January 6 attack, Leader McCarthy and House Republicans fought at every turn to prevent a fair and non-partisan investigation into the deadly attack to uncover the truth about how it happened and how we can ensure it never happens again.

  • In May, McCarthy pushed House Republicans to vote against an independent commission to investigate the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.

  • In June, McCarthy and all but two House Republicans again attempted to make sure the truth never sees the light of day by voting to block a bipartisan committee, blatantly showing they’re afraid of the American people finding out the truth.

  • Then in July, McCarthy pulled a performative stunt to appease GOP insurrections and Donald Trump, and removed all five of the Republicans he selected from serving on the select committee.

  • In September, McCarthy put his fear of the truth on display yet again and issued a stark threat to telecom and social media companies who comply with the Select Committee’s request to retain phone records and other information relevant to the January 6 attack.

  • In their latest attempt to undermine the bipartisan Select Committee, extremist House Republicans voted to protect Donald Trump’s crony and key witness Steve Bannon, who has critical information about the events that directly led up to the January 6th insurrection.

  • It begs the question, what are House Republicans so desperately trying to hide?

• KEVIN MCCARTHY & TOM EMMER HAVE WILLFULLY WELCOMED & DEFENDED VIOLENT INSURRECTIONISTS: Instead of trying to distance their caucus from the crowd of violent rioters who desecrated our nation’s Capitol, put the lives of hundreds of Members, staff, and officers at risk, and stole official documents, extremist ringleaders Kevin McCarthy and NRCC Chairman Tom Emmer saw the next batch of rising Republican stars. The GOP leaders have in the last year been scraping from the bottom of the barrel, welcoming a slew of insurrectionists and conspiracy theorists in their efforts to recruit candidates for Congress.

  • In August, Chairman Emmer refused to rule out supporting candidates who were part of the mob that ransacked the Capitol on January 6.

  • As of now, there are at least two serious contenders for Congress who took part in the January 6 riot.

    • Teddy Daniels (PA-08) tweeted a video from the riot that was shot well past the police barricades that the mob barreled through.

    • Derrick Van Orden (WI-03) was on Capitol grounds in a restricted area during the deadly insurrection and used campaign cash from his failed 2020 congressional campaign to attend the insurrection on January 6th. He has also peddled baseless claims about the integrity of his own election.

      • Leader McCarthy even shamefully invited insurrectionist Derrick Van Orden back to the Capitol in December to show their “diverse” recruitment efforts.

  • The NRCC declared that candidates who spread election falsehoods “embody the principles of the House Republican Conference.”

  • Cowardly Kevin McCarthy and extremist NRCC Chairman Tom Emmer have their hands full with a band of anti-democracy goons, and a group of Big Lie candidates that are sure to turn off suburban voters looking for real, sane leadership in Washington.

  • The American people are still completely disturbed by House Republicans’ handling of the January 6th insurrection, which resulted in five Americans dead in an attack on our democracy.

• HOUSE REPUBLICANS & CANDIDATES DESPERATELY LOOK TO PASS TRUMP’S LITMUS TEST BY CONTINUING TO PROMOTE THE LIE THAT LED TO THE ATTACK: This fall, the twice-impeached former President/Insurrectionist-in-Chief issued a clear warning to his party: keep spreading lies about the 2020 election or lose his voters. Now, every single Republican running for Congress will have to answer whether they agree that relitigating 2020 to protect the former President’s feelings is “the single most important thing” over delivering results for their districts.

• Kevin McCarthy and Tom Emmer’s complete and cowardly deference to Trump leaves House Republicans with a dangerous agenda and a field of anti-democracy candidates that are morally bankrupt, extremist, and bracing for a midterm election failure, including:

  • Steve Scalise, the second-ranking House Republican, repeatedly refused to say that the 2020 election wasn’t stolen.

  • North Carolina’s Richard Hudson, the House GOP conference secretary, continued to repeat Trump’s lies, insisting “there was election fraud” in 2020.

  • Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry was so entwined with the efforts to overturn the election and spread the Big Lie that he is now refusing to cooperate with the Jan. 6 committee investigating the Capitol riot.

  • Brian Babin of Texas claimed we have to get “to the bottom of some very abnormal, anomalistic, strange or irregular things that happened” in the 2020 election.

  • In Florida, Anna Paulina Luna promoted wild, debunked conspiracy theories about voting machines following the 2020 elections.

  • Jake Evans championed his efforts as an election lawyer who “fought for the counting of only legal votes during President Trump’s re-election in Pennsylvania all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

  • Eli Crane, a former Navy SEAL running in Arizona, called on the state legislature to “decertify” the 2020 election, and for the state attorney general to “launch a criminal investigation to hold all involved accountable.”

  • Tyler Kistner, running in MN-02, filed a lawsuit to try to stop the certification of his election in 2020 and still is refusing to say that President Biden won the 2020 election.

Contrast what House Republicans have done since the January 6 attack with House Democrats, who in the last year have restored the economy at record pace, passed an agenda that’s wildly popular to rebuild crumbling roads and bridges, got millions of Americans back on the job faster than in any other Administration, saved millions of children from poverty and hunger, delivered a historic middle-class tax cut, and passed legislation to strengthen our elections.

The stakes are clear — while Democrats fight for hardworking Americans and families, House Republicans are catering to extremists and insurrectionists and are too dangerous to be in charge of Washington. 

BOTTOM LINE: Republicans’ far-right extremism and sinister politics has gone beyond divisive to downright dangerous, and there’s no way House Republicans can escape blame for their part in the January 6th attack. Their complete embrace of conspiracies, lies, extremism, and insurrectionists demonstrates just how dangerous their return to power would be. House Democrats are going to fight to protect American families and the integrity of our Democracy as a whole as they continue to be threatened by Republicans’ extremist policies and political maneuvers. We trust that when provided with the truth, the American people will make the right choice between strong Democratic leadership and harmful Republican chaos.

###