Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) urged House Republicans to install a plaque honoring the service of law enforcement on January 6th, 2021.
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00:00And law enforcement officers from around the United States and around the world come here to honor those who work every day, who walk the beat, who protect us in our communities, but also to remember those who we've lost in the prior year.
00:16We are here today, my Democratic colleagues, although colleagues from both sides of the aisle were invited to make sure that we do not forget the heroism that took place just over our shoulders on the Capitol steps on January 6th.
00:33And we're joined by two police officers who work to defend the Capitol that day.
00:39They were not the only ones, but they embody the bravery that day in Officer Danny Hodges of the Metropolitan Police Department and Sergeant Gunnell from the Capitol Police Department.
00:53We are here to ask the question, how much more do these officers have to do?
01:00What else do they have to give to be properly honored and to have this plaque, which is two years overdue, put inside the Capitol to memorialize what happened that day?
01:18Blessed are the peacemakers.
01:20Blessed are the peacemakers.
01:23They are the children of God.
01:24And our Republican colleagues are very good about talking about backing the blue, but backing the blue is not a t-shirt.
01:30It's not a slogan.
01:33It's a deed.
01:35And what we see too often is that they don't back the blue.
01:39They back the coup.
01:41In some warped way, the heroes of January 6th, through the acts of President Trump, have become the villains.
01:50and the villains through the acts of President Trump have somehow been sold
01:57to the American people as the heroes but we know the truth we know what these
02:03officers did and we know what was done to them and so in every three act story
02:10the second act is always the hardest and that's where we find ourselves right now
02:14with the president and our Republican colleagues refusing to honor and
02:20acknowledge what these officers did but there will be a third act and it will
02:24come soon and I promise you in 2027 in early January we will not meet out here
02:33we will meet inside and we will put this plaque in the Capitol and it will stay
02:40there for all of time to honor these officers what more must they do they
02:46shouldn't have to do another act it's on us a Republican Congress and Republican
02:53president to act and to honor them I want to bring up our lead manager from the
03:01second impeachment where these officers acts were played out for the country and
03:07the Senate jurors and the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee who also
03:11represents in his congressional district many of the officers who were hurt that
03:16day our ranking member Jamie Rask