Four years later, WA Democratic lawmakers recall Jan. 6 Capitol riot as ‘dark day’
Congress met Monday, Jan. 6, to certify the results of the 2024 presidential election. The date also marked the four-year anniversary of the U.S. Capitol riot, which some Washington lawmakers are decrying as a “dark day” and a “direct assault” on democracy.
On Jan. 6, 2021, supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building as Congress gathered to certify the results of the 2020 election making Joe Biden the 46th President of the United States. At least nine people died, including five police officers, during and in the weeks after the attack.
Now that Trump is returning to the White House, some U.S. Congress members from Washington state are commemorating the day’s events with stinging statements.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray called the 2021 Capitol raid a “dark day” in a post on X (Twitter). The Democrat said the process of certifying election results is one that should not be taken for granted.
Murray recalled being locked in her office at the Capitol after the majority of her colleagues had been evacuated. She said she heard insurrectionists banging on her door and yelling, “Kill the infidels.”
Rioters broke windows, erected gallows and plastered feces inside the Capitol, Murray noted. Officers suffered serious wounds, including brain injuries and cracked ribs. Some later took their own lives.
“It’s already painfully clear [Trump] hopes he can paper over the dark chapter he wrote in our nation’s history,” Murray said. “But no action he takes can erase the past, unless we let it — and as long as I can stand, as long as I can speak, as long as I am here, I will not let him, or anyone, rewrite the history of the January 6th Insurrection, or erase the important lessons we must learn from it.”
Trump’s transition team did not immediately return McClatchy’s request for comment.
U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, whose district stretches across the central Puget Sound region, wrote on X that the violent pro-Trump mob conducted “a direct assault on our nation’s freedoms and democracy, putting the future of our country at risk.”
The Democratic Congress member acknowledged the bravery of the U.S. Capitol Police, including the 140 officers who were wounded. He called on people to work together and commit to protecting and preserving democracy.
“We must never forget January 6 and ensure that such an attack on our democracy is never allowed to happen again,” Smith said.
U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, whose district covers most of Seattle and surrounding areas, wrote on X that she was stuck in the Gallery during the raid. She said she clearly remembers “how close we came to not making it out alive.”
“If Donald Trump moves forward with pardoning the January 6 rioters, as he has pledged to do, he will once again be doing violence to our country and our democracy and encouraging it again in the future,” Jayapal wrote.
But others in Washington are commemorating Jan. 6 in a different way.
Tri-City Herald reported that Jerrod Sessler, the failed Central Washington conservative congressional candidate, planned to travel to the nation’s capital to honor the anniversary. Sessler, who previously said he went to the Capitol rally Jan. 6 but did not enter the building, has referred to the day as a “setup.”
On Monday, Sessler posted a video of himself walking through the airport.
“I feel like today should be a memorial to everyone who has worked so hard to overcome the tyranny in America and throughout the world,” he said in the video, wearing a hat with an American flag. “Very excited to see President Trump’s election certification today.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2025 at 12:13 PM with the headline "Four years later, WA Democratic lawmakers recall Jan. 6 Capitol riot as ‘dark day’."
.jpg)