supporters, whom he has deliberately misinformed for the past 2 months and stirred to action this very morning. What happened here today was an insurrection that was incited by the President of the United States. Those who choose to continue to support his dangerous gambit by objecting to the results of a legitimate and democratic election will forever be seen as being complicit in an unprecedented attack against our democracy. Fairly or not, they will be remembered for their role in this shameful episode of American history. That will be their legacy.
I salute Senators Lankford and Loeffler and Braun and Daines and, I am sure, others who, in light of today’s outrage, have withdrawn their objections. For any who remain insistent on an audit in order to satisfy the many people who believe the election was stolen, I would offer this perspective: No congressional audit is ever going to convince these voters, particularly when the President will continue to say that the election was stolen. The best way we can show respect for the voters who are upset is by telling them the truth.
(Applause, Senators rising.)
That is the burden. That is the duty of leadership. The truth is that President-Elect Biden won the election, and President Trump lost. I had that experience myself. It is no fun.
(Laughter.)
Scores of courts, the President’s own Attorney General, and State elections officials, both Republican and Democrat, have reached that unequivocal decision.
In light of today’s sad circumstances, I ask my colleague: Do we weigh our own political fortunes more heavily than we weigh the strength of our Republic, the strength of our democracy, and the cause of freedom? What is the weight of personal acclaim compared to the weight of conscience?
Leader McConnell said that the vote today is the most important in his 36 years of public service. Think of that after his authorizing two wars and voting against two impeachments. He said that not because the vote reveals something about the election but because this vote reveals something about us.
I urge my colleagues to move forward with completing the electoral count, to refrain from further objections, and to unanimously affirm the legitimacy of the Presidential election.
Thank you, Mr. President.
The Vice President. The Democratic leader.
Mr. Schumer. The Senator from New Hampshire, Senator Shaheen.
The Vice President. The Senator from New Hampshire.
Mrs. Shaheen. Mr. President, on January 3, I, along with 31 of my colleagues, stood in this Chamber and swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. It is both ironic and deeply disappointing that only 3 days after swearing these oaths, some of my colleagues are coming close to breaking this promise.
Since 1797, each U.S. President has peacefully handed over power to the next, and that will happen again on January 20, when Donald Trump, despite the protesters today, the violence today—when Donald Trump leaves the White House at noon and Joe Biden becomes President.
We have heard tonight from both Democrats and Republicans about the importance of the voters speaking in the election and about the fact that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. But this is not just an issue for us here in the United States; this is an issue for nascent democracies around the world, which, as Senator Romney said, look to the United States as an example. We are the shining city on the hill. We give those struggling under oppression hope for a better future.
Now, like so many of us in this Chamber, I have traveled to developing democracies around the world—to Afghanistan and Iraq, to the Western Balkans, to Africa, to the country of Georgia. I went there with my colleague Senator Risch.
In 2012, we went to Georgia to observe officially, on behalf of the Senate, the election between outgoing President Mikheil Saakashvili and his United National Movement Party and the challenge by Georgian Dream, which was a newly formed party supported and funded by billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili. It was a battle for Parliament, but also for control of the government.
Senator Risch and I visited multiple polling places on election day, and we agreed with the international assessment that that election was free and fair and that Georgian Dream were the winners.
But there was real concern in the country that Saakashvili was going to refuse to give up power—that that would lead to violence, and it would end the nascent democratic reforms that were happening in that former Soviet Republic.
So Senator Risch and I, the day after the election, went to visit President Saakashvili to try and talk him out of staying in power. I remember very clearly going to his home, and we sat down with him, and we pointed out that the hallmark of a democracy—what he had worked so hard for in his 8 years as President of Georgia—the hallmark of that was to turn over power in a peaceful election to the person the voters chose. Well, President Saakashvili listened to us, and he did leave office peacefully.
But it is important that future generations recognize that America—like democracies everywhere—depends on a peaceful transition of power, on believing in what the voters say, and ensuring that happens.
Unfortunately, we have heard from some Senators today who have been enabling President Trump’s willful disregard of the votes of our citizenry, even as they speak out against foreign leaders who ignore their own people.
They will fail, and history will remember them.
I hope that future generations will view the actions of some of those folks today as little more than an unfortunate anomaly.
Future opportunists may use this ill-fated effort to seek short-term political gain over the long-term stability of our Republic. But for the sake of our great country and America’s standing in the world, I ask my colleagues today to fully endorse the results of the free and fair election and set aside this partisan attempt to subvert the will of the people. We should be venerating the peaceful transition of power, even if our own preferred candidate didn’t win. That is, after all, who we are in the United States of America.
Thank you, Mr. President.
The Vice President. The majority leader.
Mr. McConnell. Mr. President, I yield up to 5 minutes to the Senator from Ohio, Senator Portman.
The Vice President. The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. Portman. Mr. Vice President, you have fulfilled your duties as President of the Senate tonight with distinction, and we all appreciate it.
I thought about changing my mind and not speaking tonight, given the lateness of the hour, and I know all of my colleagues would have appreciated that greatly. But I thought it was necessary to speak because I want the American people, particularly my constituents in Ohio, to see that we will not be intimidated, that we will not disrupted from our work, that here in the citadel of democracy, we will continue to do the work of the people. Mob rule is not going to prevail here.
Now, let’s face it. We did not reclaim this Chamber tonight. Brave and selfless law enforcement officers stood in the breach and ensured that the citadel of democracy would be protected and that we would be defended, and we are deeply grateful for that—as is the Nation.
I have listened carefully to comments of my colleagues, and I have listened over the past couple of weeks as this issue has been discussed, and I tell you, for me, it is not a hard decision. I stand with the Constitution. I stand with what the Constitution makes clear: The people and the States hold the power here, not us.
My oath to the Constitution and my reverence for our democratic principles make it easy for me to confirm these State certifications.
By the way, I opposed this process some 15 years ago, when some Democrats chose to object to the electors from my home State of Ohio after the 2004 elections. I opposed it then, and I oppose it now. I said at the time that Congress must not thwart the will of the people. That is what we would be doing.
