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John,
Yesterday, the House passed the Protecting Our Democracy Act, my sweeping, landmark legislation to prevent presidential abuses of power and begin to repair our democracy after four years of Donald Trump.
And as I walked off the House Floor, I couldn’t help but think how very close we came to seeing our democracy fail just eleven months earlier.
How on the same Floor where I proudly cast my vote, Capitol Police instructed Members of Congress to prepare to don gas masks as rioters and insurrectionists attempted to beat down our chamber’s doors.
This Congress, and this country, have witnessed events in the past year that few of us previously thought possible in the United States.
81 million votes for Joe Biden are what stood between our democracy and an authoritarian striving to tear it down. Even then, Donald Trump pulled out every stop to halt the peaceful transfer of power — something that has been an unbroken and vital practice since our nation's inception.
And we’re not out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot.
A Big Lie has shaken our nation and threatens the integrity of our elections in the future. The same Big Lie that led to a bloody insurrection that injured at least 151 Capitol and Metropolitan Police officers, and is now being used to usher in a new generation of Jim Crow laws around the country.
Protecting voting rights is foundational to our democracy. But even with a solid foundation, Trump illustrated that a corrupt leader could still pull the walls down around our democratic institutions.
By using the levers of government to go after his political opponents. By using his office to enrich himself and his family. By inviting foreign interference in our elections. By dangling pardons before those who would lie to cover up for him. And so much more.
The Protecting Our Democracy Act puts into law the norms of office that were destroyed over the last four years. But to pass this package of reforms, we need relief from the same archaic rule that has thus far stymied progress on voting rights legislation.
So I ask my Senate colleagues: What is more important to you?
An unconstitutional, anti-democratic, procedural rule that prevents a simple elected majority from passing legislation demanded by those who elected them.
Or the survival of our democracy?
The Senate must abolish the filibuster. We must demand it. Because there is no room for compromise or half-measures against the forces of authoritarianism. If we give an inch, they will take a mile. We have to make a stand.
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After the Watergate scandal, a bipartisan Congress passed a series of laws to ensure that the abuses of the Nixon Administration were never repeated.
Now we must do so again. Thanks so much for your help and for standing by my side.
— Adam