HARTFORD, Conn. — In a 54-35 vote on Friday, Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan effort to probe the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The attack shocked the nation, as millions watched supporters of former President Donald Trump violently break into the Capitol and interrupt the certification of President Joe Biden's win.
Leaders and lawmakers from Connecticut are reacting to the latest developments coming out of the Senate.
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy released a statement saying the vote was a disgrace.
"I wish it weren't true, but the Republican Party is still effectively a cult of personality that cannot break from its morally bankrupt deposed leader," Murphy said. "On January 6, the seat of our democracy was laid siege for the first time in over 200 years. The insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol were hunting for both Republicans and Democrats—and especially former Vice President Mike Pence."
Murphy continued: "If we want to ensure the insurrection doesn’t repeat itself, we have to understand what went wrong and why. But despite this bill being forged through bipartisan compromise, the vast majority of Senate Republicans decided to put their loyalty to one person over their oath to the Constitution in order to protect former President Donald Trump."
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal said the vote was despicable and he is ashamed of his Republican colleagues.
"We cannot allow Republicans to stifle and suppress the truth. Republican intransigence leaves us with only one option: a Select Committee to investigate and make specific recommendations about how to prevent another violent attack on democratic institutions," Blumenthal said.
He added: "A full accounting of what happened on January 6 in the Capitol isn’t about the former president or the next election – it’s about white supremacy and violent extremism, and how to stop it from destroying our democracy. It’s about the police officers who died, the lawmakers who barricaded themselves in their offices, and the staff who had to scrub Nazi slogans and blood off the walls. I agree with Gladys Sicknick, whose son Brian was killed defending us, that voting down the January 6 commission is a ‘slap in the faces of all the officers who did their jobs that day.’”
Though the Jan. 6 commission bill passed the House earlier this month with the support of almost three dozen Republicans, GOP senators said they believe the commission would eventually be used against them politically. And Trump, who still has a firm hold on the party, has called it a “Democrat trap.”
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