Dear friend,
This week’s House Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol hearings had me in tears. And I know I am not the only one.
Since the attack, I have shared with many my own personal experience on January 6, 2021. It is important for me to do, of course, because I am an eyewitness to the attack, an attack some of my House colleagues have now sought to minimize as a “tourist visit” and others have belittled as a “dustup.”
January 6 was an attack on the Capitol. But it was much more. It was an attack on America. It was an attack on Americans. And it was an attack on democracy itself. And this week’s hearings have brought that home.
It is so important to know what January 6 and all that surrounded it meant for people across the country, from elected leaders to election administrators. This week, we heard from them. I can’t imagine there was a dry eye in the hearing room as Shaye Moss testified about her love for helping people exercise their right to vote, about her grandmother’s lessons about the importance of voting, or about what President Trump and his supporters did to her and her mother in 2020. If you missed it, go watch it. It is as moving, as heartbreaking, as terrifying, and as infuriating as it gets.
We saw in her what our country is supposed to be. And we saw in her story a warning of what it could be if we do not do everything we can to protect our elections and our democracy – starting with the people who make it possible in every precinct and every polling place in the country.
We are learning so much about the sinister plot to overthrow the election, and the many ways it was carried out. The lies. The pressure campaign. The violence. And the promise of more.
I am so grateful to my House colleagues for their diligent work and their commitment to the truth. Each of us has work to do, too. Watching the hearings, educating ourselves, and sharing what we learn with others is an important start. Committing ourselves to vote for people who are on the side of democracy – from county clerks to secretaries of state to legislators – and getting other voters to the polls who will do so, too, is critical.
It is not an exaggeration to say that this year’s election is essential to protecting democracy itself. That’s why I am so grateful for all the people who have been working together on this team to do this since 2018, and you are why I believe we can do it.
Together, we can do anything,
