Impeachment

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, ``Remember this day forever.'' That is what Donald Trump said on January 6, in a tweet to his supporters after they had attacked the U.S. Capitol.

I certainly will never forget what happened that day. I will remember the Vice President being removed from the Chair and whisked off the floor of the Senate by the Secret Service. I will remember the law enforcement officers, holding automatic weapons, standing guard in the well of the Senate while the mob spread through the Capitol building.

The entire country and the world will remember the now infamous images of a murderous mob rushing the barricades, attacking police officers, breaking into this building, and rampaging through these hallowed halls.

We will remember the incredible acts of heroism by Officer Eugene Goodman and others, to protect and defend those who work in this building. And we will remember the lives lost, including Officer Brian Sicknick, and the 140 police officers who were injured in this attack.

On February 3, Officer Sicknick's ashes rested in honor in the Rotunda of this Capitol. He died defending this building and this democracy. I have thought about Officer Sicknick and his family often in the past few weeks.

During the week of February 8, Senators served as jurors in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. Former President Trump was impeached on January 13 by the House of Representatives in a bipartisan vote, 10 Republicans joining with Democrats to impeach.

The Senate had a constitutional obligation to conduct a trial on this Article of Impeachment. We also had an obligation to make clear for the record and for history what happened on January 6 and the days leading up to it.

What did the record show over the course of this trial?

First, it showed Donald Trump's big lie: his claim that the only way he could lose an election was if it were stolen. When he lost the 2020 election in a landslide to Joe Biden, Donald Trump refused to accept the will of the American people. He tried to challenge the election in the courts, losing over 60 times. He tried to bully State officials into overturning their States' election results.

And when that failed, he invited his followers to come to Washington, DC, on January 6, the day when Congress would assemble to certify the States' electoral votes. He invited them to come to DC to interrupt that process and, in his words, ``stop the steal.''

Donald Trump knew what his extremist followers were capable of. Over the summer, when armed extremists stormed and occupied State capitols, demanding an end to COVID-19 safety restrictions, he had cheered them on.

On January 6, he whipped his followers into a frenzy. ``We have to fight like hell,'' he told the crowd he had invited and assembled. ``If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.'' Then he told his followers--angry, inflamed, many of them armed--to go to the Capitol where the Vice President and Congress were certifying the votes.

Donald Trump was not shocked what happened that day. He was excited. We now know that he ignored pleas from Members of Congress in the Capitol--members of his own party--who begged him to calm the mob and stop the attack.

To this day, Donald Trump has not showed one ounce of remorse or regret. He later described his speech on January 6 as ``totally appropriate.''

For 5 days, the House Managers meticulously laid out an overwhelming case for conviction. The managers had the facts, the law, the Constitution, and a mountain of evidence on their side. The former President's defense team did not have much to work with. They only spent a couple of hours making their case and spent much of that time showing cartoonish videos on repeat. The House Managers effectively rebutted all of the former President's defenses. The managers' case was clear, and it was compelling.

That is why I voted to convict Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection against our government.

I regret that more of my Republican colleagues did not join me in voting to convict and disqualify Donald Trump from holding future office. I wish the Senate had sent an unequivocal message that it is unacceptable for Presidents to incite violence in order to stop the peaceful transition of power. But that said, history will show that this was the most bipartisan impeachment vote against a President in American history.

And it should not be lost that a majority of Senators--including seven Senators from the President's own party--voted to convict him. Donald Trump is no longer President of the United States, but the poison he has injected into our national bloodstream remains, and it is still toxic.

As Americans reflect on the horrific, deadly events of January 6 and Donald Trump's role in inciting them, I hope we will remember that democracy and our Constitution do not defend themselves. They must be protected, preserved, and defended by ``We the People.''

On January 6, that greatest tradition of American democracy, the peaceful transition of power that had taken place in every Presidential transition since George Washington's, was broken. Our democracy, our Constitution, and this Capitol building were attacked on January 6, 2021. Brave Americans were wounded and killed defending them. And thanks to that bravery, our democracy endures.

We must learn our lessons from this. We will remember January 6, 2021, forever. And we must not repeat it.

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