WASHINGTON — Heavy security fencing is back up around the U.S. Capitol ahead of this week’s fourth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress, which is serving as a painful reminder of that deadly and violent day to many on Capitol Hill.
“It makes me sad,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) told Raw Story while fighting back tears Friday. “We’ve seen too many threats this past year. Too many.”
Besides the failed assassination attempt on former President Trump last summer, the U.S. Capitol Police reported members of Congress received more than 700 threats in November alone.
“Let's face it, it's an unpredictable time,” Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) told Raw Story. “I'm sure New Orleans got everybody on edge, yeah? And, you know, that's the world we live in.”
Even as they’re still recovering from their party’s resounding defeat, many Democrats are eager to see Vice President Kamala Harris preside over the peaceful transfer of power from President Joe Biden to his former opponent Trump. They’re hoping Jan. 6, 2025 serves as an example to their Republican counterparts of what democracy is supposed to look like.
“I just want little drama, a peaceful transfer and the American people to see how it should be,” Dingell said. “It's not just going through the motions. It's doing our job. We’re going to do our job and do it according to what the election results were and accept them.”
“Slap in the face of all the law enforcement”
While Democrats are preparing to publicly accept their resounding November defeat, the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol is never far from their minds, especially because Trump’s vowing to pardon many, if not all, of those convicted in the aftermath of the national tragedy.
“That is such a slap in the face of all the law enforcement people who you can see on tape, you know, what actually happened,” Pingree (D-ME) said while walking to the House floor Friday. “This isn’t conjecture. This was a horrific day for our country.”
Since launching his reelection bid in Waco, Texas in March 2023, Trump’s unsettled Democrats by embracing the Jan. 6 prisoners.
“It tells me that the [incoming] president is terrible. The Republicans are trying to rewrite history to say that the Jan. 6 insurrection didn't happen — ‘it was just tourists,’” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) told Raw Story. “It's absurd and dangerous.”
It’s beyond ‘absurd’ to Nadler’s replacement as the top Democrat on the powerful House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD).
“A blanket pardon for the people who assaulted our officers and engaged in seditious conspiracy against the United States would be a statement of approval for those actions,” Raskin recently told Raw Story on the Capitol steps.
Raskin says blanket pardons would serve as an endorsement of the masses of rioters.
“Indeed, it would be a continuation of the insurrectionary attitude that caused these events in the first place,” Raskin said. “We have a Constitution that in six different places opposes insurrection. This is very serious business. It's not some minor trivial detail.”
The constitutional lawyer and former law professor says it’s dangerous to see today’s Republicans playing fast and loose with America’s foundational principles.
Violence is in the air
Moreso, Raskin fears pardoning violent insurrectionists will only embolden them once they’re out, which he says the GOP will have to answer for.
“Do they want to be responsible for whatever criminal events follow from the release of hundreds of people who have been convicted of violently assaulting police officers?” Raskin said. “Is that really the agenda of a party that pretends to stand with the police?”
That’s partly why all fencing erected around the Capitol for Jan. 6 is a troubling reminder to many Capitol Police officers, congressional staffers, the congressional press corps and members of Congress.
“It all feels eerily familiar,” Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) — House Democratic Caucus chair and former select Jan. 6 committee member — told Raw Story.
ALSO READ: 'Bring it on': Defiant Raskin responds to GOP threats of retaliation for J6 investigation