House Dems reflect on Jan. 6th, steel their resolve to defeat Trumpism
“We are the fight of our lives,” Rep. Jamie Raskin said. “But it is a fight that we are determined and resolved to win.”

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For Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the cause of the violent insurrection on the US Capitol almost three years ago has always been obvious: Donald Trump and his followers have yet to accept the former president lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden by more than seven million votes and a 74-vote margin in the Electoral College.
“The struggle that began on January 6 in this building continues to this day,” Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said during a press conference with members of his party and democracy advocates at the US Capitol. “Donald Trump is out there saying he will issue a pardon to the more than 700 people who were convicted of participation in the violent insurrection against the union. We must take him at his word.”
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) argued the violence on Jan. 6th was worse than it should have been since Trump was unwilling to deploy the National Guard and the mayor of Washington, DC lacked the authority to do so.
“Had DC’s mayor had control of DC’s National Guard that day, the response would have been hours earlier, potentially saving lives,” Holmes Norton said. “DC residents, a majority of whom are Black and brown, are worthy and capable of governing themselves. I will not stop pushing for enactment of my DC statehood bill, which would give DC full equality with the states, including a governor with power over their own state’s National Guard so that it can respond swiftly when confronted with future crises.”
Holmes Norton, who introduced her DC statehood bill in 2019, added that until it passes, she’ll keep pushing for legislation to empower the city’s mayor with control of the National Guard.
Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) worked in the private sector on Jan. 6th and called the insurrection a wake-up call to the fragility of American democracy.
“But today, three years later, we need a true call to action to address this. We’ve got to get back on track with respect to making sure that the Big Lie that’s been told over and over again by Donald Trump and many of his members of the Republican Party, the public needs to hear the truth about that,” Ivey said. “We got to make sure that they get that information so that they can make the right decision based on the correct information.”
The Big Lie has caused enormous trauma for the police officers who put themselves in harm’s way to protect members of Congress and their staff and the reporters who cover Capitol Hill.
Aquilino Gonell a former US Capitol Police sergeant and one of 174 police officers injured during the insurrection, called out House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for requiring the faces of the rioters be blurred out in the footage of the attack.
“I risked my life, my colleagues risked their life protecting [members of Congress] on January 6th and that’s not how you support the police officers,” he said. “You claim to be the party of law in order and you're not proving that you are.”
The hour-long event was disrupted in its entirety by pro-Palestine protesters calling on lawmakers to hold Israel accountable for the civilian deaths the country is responsible for in its war against Hamas after the Oct. 7th terrorist attacks. The protestors also demanded members support an immediate ceasefire, a move critics oppose because Hamas is unlikely to honor the truce.
“Genocide Joe must go,” the activists also said of President Joe Biden despite him following decades of US foreign policy advanced by former presidents and backed by billions of congressionally authorized dollars.
“In case it’s not totally obvious to everyone here, there is no one at this event who supports genocide. There is no one at this event who supports racism. There is no one at this event who supports apartheid. There is no one at this event who supports terrorism,” Raskin, who is Jewish, said at the outset of the question-and-answer portion of the press conference. “And I cannot imagine a group of two people who thinks that somehow it’s an effective tactic to come and interfere with an assemblage of progressive, Democratic people standing up for freedom.”
Raskin told reporters that he envisioned a day, once Democrats defeat Trump and his movement, when the Capitol would host tours of an exhibit honoring the law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line on Jan. 6th.
“But this is a struggle that is continuing to this very day,” he said. “My friends, we are the fight of our lives, but it is a fight that we are determined and resolved to win.”
The economy ended on a strong note in 2023
With 216,000 jobs created in December, last year was the best full year of job growth since Obama was president.

If 2022 will go down as the year the vaunted “red wave” never materialized, 2023 will be remembered for the recession that never happened.
The economy added 216,000 jobs in December, according to the Labor Department’s latest jobs report, capping off the best full-year job growth since 2015 when Barack Obama held office. In fact, the last negative jobs report was December 2020, the final full month of former President Donald Trump’s single term.
The unemployment rate clocked in at 3.7 percent, the same as November; the rate was at 5.2 percent and 5 percent for Black and Latino people. Overall, the unemployment rate has been four percent or lower for 23 straight months.) And wages were up 4.1 percent last month, outpacing inflation at 3.1 percent.
But these strong economic indicators have yet to translate into higher confidence in Biden, the man who has overseen the historic growth.
His approval rating sunk to an all-time low in December due in part to the high food and housing costs too many Americans still face.
However, White House officials and Biden campaign aides maintain that the president is focused on implementing the major laws congressional Dems signed in the first two years of his term, preventing Republicans from undoing those laws and laying out his economic vision on the trail as he seeks a second term this November.
“I won’t stop fighting for American workers and American families,” Biden said in a statement. “I know that some prices are still too high for too many Americans, and I am doing everything in my power to lower everyday costs for hard-working Americans—from bringing down the price of insulin, prescription drugs, and energy to addressing hidden junk fees companies use to rip you off, to calling on large companies to to pass on savings to consumers as their costs moderate.”
Congressional Democrats worry the economic progress could be jeopardized by a handful of House conservatives who have publicly expressed a willingness to shut down the government
The first of two funding deadlines is Jan. 19, giving lawmakers less than two weeks to avoid a partial shutdown and less than a month to avoid a full shutdown.
“We already have a budget agreement,” Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the ranking member on the House Budget Committee said in a statement referring to the deal President Biden and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached last May on funding caps for the 2024 fiscal year. “It’s time for House Republicans to honor that deal, pass full-year government funding bills, and allow Congress to get back to work for the American people.”
New Jersey Democrats send letter to Gov. Murphy as the state steps up response to migrant crisis
The members affirmed their commitment to support state and local officials and asked to meet within a week.

A group of lawmakers from New Jersey’s congressional delegation sent Phil Murphy, the state’s Democratic governor, a letter on Thursday affirming their commitment to supporting his administration’s response to the migrant crisis that has now spilled into the Garden State.
The letter, written by Democratic Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Bill Pascrell, Donald Payne Jr. and Robert Menendez, come as an estimated 1,000 migrants, originally bound for New York City from Texas, have been dropped off in New Jersey in an improvisation of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s busing program to comply with new restrictions on when the city will allow buses of asylum seekers to arrive.
The New Jersey lawmakers accused Abbott of exploiting the lives of those escaping from hardship and turmoil for political purposes but affirmed their responsibility to do what they can to help those fleeing from conflicts, wars and disasters.
“Our priority is to ensure the humanitarian needs are taken care of and our state and local officials have the proper resources at their disposal as more migrants arrive,” they wrote. “We are ready to work with you.”
The members also requested responses to a list of five questions, including what resources are being provided to migrants staying in New York, and asked to meet with Murphy’s office within a week.
A spokesperson for Murphy did not respond when asked to confirm if the governor received the letter.
Abbott has sent buses with migrant passengers to blue cities like New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles since April 2022 to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis at the southern border.
Conservative lawmakers and anti-immigrant activists have lauded the busing program for dividing Democrats on immigration policy and forcing sanctuary cities to exhaust their limited resources. New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking $700 million from 17 charter bus companies used by Texas to reimburse the city for the cost of sheltering migrants.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan trio of senators continues to negotiate an agreement to update border security measures, a demand from House conservatives to unlock billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan that President Joe Biden requested in October.
CORRECTION: This post has been corrected to reflect the letter was signed by Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) A previous version of this item reported Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) did so.
Happenings: January 5, 2024
Three years later, Democrats say the horrors of Jan. 6th are still worth remembering.

👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! It’s Friday, January 5, 2024. Here’s what’s happening in Congress and across national politics today:
The House and Senate are out. Rep Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) will host a press conference (11 a.m.) with House members, advocates and experts on Republican threats to mark the three-year anniversary of the January 6th insurrection.
President Joe Biden will receive his daily intelligence briefing (9 a.m.) before leaving the White House (11:55 am) to travel to New Castle, Delaware en route to the Philadelphia area, where he and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden will arrive at 1:20 p.m. The president will give a campaign speech on democracy at 3:15 p.m. before leaving Philly with the first lady (5:50 p.m.) to return to New Castle (6:10 p.m.).
Vice President Kamala Harris will receive briefings and hold private briefings with her staff.
All times Eastern
That’s all for now! Watch this space for more live updates and subscribe to the Once Upon a Hill newsletter for in-depth and independent coverage of all things Congress.