WASHINGTON — As congressional Democrats spent Thursday in Washington solemnly, and at times angrily, recalling the chaos and violence that enveloped the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Mitch McConnell was more than 600 miles away.
The Kentuckian’s absence from the anniversary of the insurrection was explained by a case of serendipitous timing.
The funeral for a former Republican colleague, Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson, began at 2 p.m. in Atlanta, almost precisely the same time the first rioter broke through a window and climbed inside the Capitol building one year ago.
McConnell’s feelings about Jan. 6th and the events that precipitated it have taken a winding journey over the last year as he’s sought to balance unity among his 50-member caucus against an aggressive Democratic agenda with his private disdain for former President Donald Trump.
But it was clear that on Thursday, the Senate Republican leader was content to be far from the string of floor speeches and vigils that recalled the harrowing scenes of senators scurrying down hallways and staffers barricading themselves inside offices, many fearing for their safety – if not their very lives – from the approaching roaming mob.
McConnell’s only remarks on the day came early in the morning through a statement. While he recognized the severity of the event as “dark” and “antithetical to the rule of law” and heralded law enforcement’s “brave” actions in protecting lawmakers, he also leveled a partisan broadside against the opposing party.
Democrats, he charged, were using the anniversary to further their long-term political wishlist.
“It has been stunning to see some Washington Democrats try to exploit this anniversary to advance partisan policy goals that long predated this event. It is especially jaw-dropping to hear some Senate Democrats invoke the mob’s attempt to disrupt our country’s norms, rules, and institutions as a justification to discard our norms, rules, and institutions themselves,” McConnell said.
He added, “A year ago today, the Senate did not bend or break. We stuck together, stood strong, gaveled back in, and did our job. Senators should not be trying to exploit this anniversary to damage the Senate in a different way from within.”
McConnell is referring to Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer’s plans to bring up sweeping federal voting reforms for yet another vote later this month and the possibility that he’ll try to break the filibuster in order to muscle it through.
Schumer sees comprehensive changes to elections as a necessary response to the ongoing threat to democracy, encouraged by Trump, who again on Thursday falsely claimed the 2020 election to be rigged.
McConnell, who recognized Biden’s victory shortly after the electoral college convened to affirm the results on Dec. 14, 2020, has said 2020’s record turnout demonstrates that the current state-based system is working.
“There’s been a lot of talk about big lies, well the big lie on the other side is that state legislatures controlled by Republicans are busily at work trying to make it difficult for people to vote,” McConnell said on Tuesday. “This is an excuse to try to break the Senate.”
Republicans largely embraced McConnell’s posture, underscoring the partisan hue over Jan. 6 that did not exist in the aftermath of another dark, but far more deadly day in American history, Sept. 11, 2001.
“Democrats are overreaching and using the day for partisan purposes,” said Brian Darling, a former aide to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. “As someone who worked in the Senate for years, I honor the Capitol police and other law enforcement who fought hard to protect the Capitol, yet I also think that Democrats are trying to use the anniversary to divert attention from the deficiencies of the Biden administration.”
“McConnell is justified in objecting to Democrats using this solemn anniversary to bully Republicans to pass a radical left wing agenda,” said Cesar Conda, a former chief of staff to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
With McConnell out of town, Schumer took to the floor Thursday to liken the Jan. 6 mob that overwhelmed the Capitol to a “quieter and much more organized effort” in GOP state legislatures to make it more difficult for ballots to be cast and counted.
He dismissed an effort to reform the Electoral Count Act — something McConnell said he’s open to — as a worthwhile pursuit, given the largely symbolic role it plays. Although the act allows members of Congress to challenge presidential election results — like many Republicans did last year — Schumer casted it as a cynical idea designed to distract from what’s occurring at the state legislative level.
“The McConnell plan — that’s what it is — is unacceptable. Unacceptably insufficient and even offensive,” Schumer said.
Norm Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, similarly declared McConnell’s interest in the Electoral Count Act as genuine. “He will float tiny changes in the ECA to head off real election and voting reform. And likely resist meaningful reform in the act,” Ornstein said.
Since pinning responsibility on Trump for the Jan. 6th attack and then declining to convict the former president in his impeachment trial, McConnell has moved to a non-confrontational approach, preferring to let Trump’s continuous attacks on him go unanswered.
After being against the commission to probe the details of how the Jan. 6 assault came together, he granted the House’s ongoing inquiry some legitimacy last month when he told reporters that he was watching it.
“I think what they are seeking to find out is something the public needs to know,” he said.
Now in an election year, McConnell wants the conversation to center solely around Democratic policy —not the actions or words of the past president. So even a funeral in Georgia was a better place for him to be on Thursday, to avoid the swarms of Washington reporters consumed with Jan. 6.
Still, an advertising campaign by the anti-Trump Republican Accountability Project served to not allow McConnell to completely escape the day.
The group’s television spot, which ran digitally and on Fox News, included McConnell’s remarks from a year ago saying, “President Trump is … responsible for provoking the events of the day.”
“McConnell is trying to have it both ways,” said Bill Kristol, the neoconservative writer and commentator now at the helm of a group designed to protect the right to vote. “That’s better than being a cheerleader for the attack on democracy, but it’s not good enough.”
