The Jan. 6 insurrection has sharpened divisions in Congress and strained relationships among lawmakers.
Those divisions were dramatically highlighted when only one Republican showed up for a moment of silence marking the riot's one-year anniversary, and Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) told The Daily Beast how the deadly insurrection had ruined his connections with conservative colleagues.
“It’s definitely changed my relationships with members of my congressional delegation," Casey said. "We had eight out of nine Republican members from Pennsylvania vote against Pennsylvania on Jan. 6. That is inexcusable. It’s enraging."
“We’re losing that space in which we’re actually able to talk to each other," agreed Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ). "This is not the kind of environment that is conducive to the kind of debate over important issues that we should be having."
Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) likened the situation to a congressional softball game.
“You show up on an elementary school lot and play softball at seven o’clock in the morning and you’re in your rawest form," Bustos said. "You’re in your sweatsuit, you’re not wearing any makeup, you’ve barely combed your hair ... I know while I have teammates who did not vote to certify the electoral returns of the November 2020 election, we just don’t talk about it.”
Freshman lawmaker Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) told The Daily Beast hers is one of the only classes to do new-member orientation in a bipartisan way. And because of COVID, the freshmen mostly only knew each other toward the beginning of their tenures, she said. Still, Jacobs said it was “certainly difficult” to watch the events of Jan. 6 unfold and realize that there were some Republicans she’d gotten to know side with election deniers on Jan. 6.
“I was very disappointed when we all came back after the attack and they still voted against certification of the election. That was really hard and it certainly affected everything moving forward,” she said.
147 Republicans voted against certifying the 2020 election results, citing unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. Could a new freshman class help shake up the toxic dynamic in Congress? Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) said he wasn't sure it would.
“Every new class is an opportunity for that," Huffman said. "The unfortunate reality though, is that Trump’s grip on the Republican Party and the Republican primary process is so firm that we are just getting more extreme members with each new class. So, if that pattern holds, and I see no reason to think it won’t, the next class of Republicans will be even Trumpier.”
