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“We save democracy for today, and for the next century, by making government work; by showing people in the most meaningful way that their votes matter, and that their votes count. … And right now, that means a wartime-level mobilization to get Americans vaccinated and get our country through this pandemic. The best chance for our democracy lies not with the vain hope that Republican leaders will grow spines, but with Democrats’ ability to show Americans that they do not have to settle for a government that’s set up to fail.”
— Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), writing for NBC News
“I apologize. I was searching for a word for extremist, which I think is more neutral. And I should have said extremist. I never should have said whack job.”
— Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) apologized for calling President Joe Biden’s embattled budget chief pick, Neera Tanden, a “whack job,” Politico reports.
Kennedy explained that he was searching for another word before calling her “a neo-socialist, left-of-Lenin whack job.”
41
Acting Capitol police chief Yogananda Pittman told a congressional hearing there are 35 officers under investigation for the January 6 insurrection “and we do have six police officers that have been suspended with their police powers being revoked, so those investigations are ongoing at this time.”
“Democrats won the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, so if there’s one party that’s doing an autopsy, it should be the Republicans. I’m not working on an autopsy.”
— DCCC Chair Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), in an interview with Politico, when asked if he should do an autopsy on the 2020 election since Democrats lost a dozen House seats.
“I didn’t vote to overturn an election. And I will not be lectured by people who did about partisanship.”
— Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) in a confrontation with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) during today’s House Oversight Committee hearing.
$30 million
NPR: “The cost of repairing damages from the attack on the U.S. Capitol and related security expenses have already topped $30 million and will keep rising, Architect of the Capitol J. Brett Blanton told lawmakers on Wednesday.”
5.6%
Gallup: “Gallup’s latest update on lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender identification finds 5.6% of U.S. adults identifying as LGBT. The current estimate is up from 4.5% in Gallup’s previous update based on 2017 data.”
$28 billion
“Texas’s deregulated electricity market, which was supposed to provide reliable power at a lower price, left millions in the dark last week. For two decades, its customers have paid more for electricity than state residents who are served by traditional utilities,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
150
“More than 150 senior executives from some of the largest American companies across several major industries have lined up behind President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package,” CNN reports.
“You certainly saw anti-Semitism. You saw the symbols of Holocaust denial… you saw a Confederate flag being carried through the rotunda. We, as Republicans in particular, have a duty and an obligation to stand against that, to stand against insurrection.”
— Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), the third ranking House Republican, called on the Republican party to “make clear we aren’t the party of white supremacy,” CBS News reports.