Dem Leaders Hold Jan 6 Prayer Session, Rip Republicans During Trump Certification

 On Monday, while much of the nation celebrated Donald Trump’s certification as the President-elect, Democrat leaders Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries held a prayer session commemorating January 6, 2021, while ripping Republicans.

The session started with House Chaplain Margaret Kibben intoning a prayer that included her saying, “What was intended to be a historical parliamentary procedure turned quickly into turmoil and frustration and anger and fear.” Kibben then went on to discuss “enemies within” the country.

“Wherever we find ourselves to be today we ask that You would in some way transform our memories, that the blessing we would have would be to be the reminder of the calling to which You have called us,” Kibben said. “To serve You carefully and faithfully; to deal with all that comes across the threshold, enemies within, enemies from without our own country.”

Schumer then said: “We’re also here because we must never forget: Right in this area is where the people who sought to intimidate and also use violence to overturn our government breached the Capitol walls and the Capitol barrier. And there’s lots of people who want us to forget; who want to sweep it under the rug, who want to change the story. We will never forget. … We hope also we serve as an example to our Republican colleagues. We are not election deniers.”

Jeffries followed with his own hyperbolic statement, using the opportunity to leech President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s statement after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, when the Japanese killed over 2,400 civilians and military personnel. Roosevelt had stated, “Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

“January 6, 2021, is a day that will forever live in infamy,” Jeffries declared. “A violent mob attacked the Capitol as part of a concerted effort to halt the peaceful transfer of power in the United States of America for the first time in our history.” He called the protests of January 6 “unconscionable, unacceptable, and unAmerican.”

Jeffries, however, has a history of questioning election results.

In March 2019, Jeffries stated on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,”  “The American people deserve to know whether Donald Trump is either A) A legitimate president B) A Russian asset C) The functional equivalent of an organized crime boss or D) Just a useful idiot who happens to have been victimized by the greatest collection of coincidences in the history of the republic.”

Schumer concluded, “And one more thing I’d like to say, and that is: to those who used violence and intimidation to threaten our government, to hurt our government, particularly to those who threatened police officers, pardoning them would set a terrible example for the future in American and for the world, that it was okay, that it was forgivable to do this.”

With reference to “threatening the government,” in March 2020, at a rally hosted by the far-left Center for Reproductive Rights near the Supreme Court, Schumer, then-Senate minority leader, appeared to threaten U.S. Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

“Inside the walls of this court, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments, as you know, for the first major abortion rights cases since Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Gorsuch came to the bench,” Schumer said. “We know what’s at stake. Over the last three years, women’s reproductive rights have come under attack in a way we haven’t seen in modern history. Republican legislatures are waging a war on women, all women, and they’re taking away fundamental rights. I want to tell you Gorsuch; I want to tell you Kavanaugh; you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”