Outgoing Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (NC) wants to inflict as much damage on the Trump administration as possible during his last year in office. Thanks to his efforts, a deeply controversial new plaque now hangs in the Capitol Building.
NBC News reported that in January, Tillis and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced a resolution instructing the Architect of the Capitol to install a plaque honoring the U.S. Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies who defended the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.
Incredibly, the resolution passed the Republican-controlled Senate by unanimous consent.
The plaque, which was installed at 4 a.m. Saturday morning, reads, “On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended this symbol of democracy on January 6, 2021. Their heroism will never be forgotten.” A list of all police departments and law enforcement agencies that took part in the government’s response follows.
According to NBC:
Since the start of the second Trump administration, the president and his allies have sought to downplay the severity of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by his supporters, which happened at the tail end of the president’s first administration as he sought to overturn the 2020 election results.Shortly after he was sworn in last year, Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 criminal defendants who were charged for their actions at the Capitol that day.
The Washington Post reported that in March 2022, both the Democrat-controlled House and Senate passed a law requiring the plaque to be installed by March 2023. Due to the controversy that followed, the deadline came and went and the plaque remained in storage — until now.
Here is the Post’s version of the story:
The police officers were taunted and beaten. Some were knocked unconscious and dragged down stone steps, tear gas stinging their throats, to chants of “U.S.A! U.S.A!” on Jan. 6, 2021, as hundreds, then thousands, swarmed the citadel of American democracy.Now, more than five years later, and three years since Congress ignored its own deadline to install it, a memorial plaque recognizing the service of law enforcement that day is finally on display in the very building they defended from a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters intent on overturning his 2020 election loss.
Conservative activist and founder of the group WalkAway Brandon Straka pointed out the irony of the situation in a weekend post on X: “Senate Republicans will not pass the SAVE Act, however DID vote in unison to have this plaque hung in the halls of Congress today. It honors Capitol police officers who killed supporters of Donald Trump and lied on witness stands to have them imprisoned and civilly sued.”
The new plaque is already sparking debate. Conservatives, myself included, see it as a clear attempt by the Democratic Party to rewrite history.
What makes it even more galling is that it passed a GOP-led Senate.
Yes, it really is Orwellian.
Virginia Democrats just passed a bill that will require public schools in the state to teach students that Jan. 6, 2021 was an insurrection. Mike reported on this story.
At any rate, the plaque may be small, but the message behind it is not. It represents the latest step in Washington’s effort to lock in a single, politically convenient version of Jan. 6. That it happened with the consent of a Republican-controlled Senate makes the episode even more infuriating. For all the talk about draining the swamp, moments like this are a reminder that the swamp still knows exactly how to take care of itself.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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