By Blake Haas
BLOOMINGTON – On the first anniversary of the U.S. Capitol Insurrection, Illinois’ Senior Senator says he still can’t get past the images and pictures of that day.
Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Chicago) said the investigation into the riot has shed light on numerous attacks on law enforcement officers in the capitol.
“When I have seen the images, the photographs the videos of people who were clowning in this chamber, posing for photographs. Going through my desk and another desk taking photographs with their phones. (Then) sitting in that chair, posed for pictures for back home. It makes me sick to my stomach.”
Over the past year, the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged 725 people for their role in the insurrection that left five dead.
“This is a sacred place,” Durbin said during a speech on the Senate floor. “It is not sacred because I serve here or anyone else does. It’s sacred because it was built via symbol of this great nation. It was during the administration of a man from Illinois named Lincoln who completed the Capitol dome in the midst of a civil war so that this building would always be a symbol of the unity of our nation and the promise of our nation.
That symbol was desecrated on January 6th.”
At last count, 165 people have pleaded guilty to charges related to the insurrection, 20 of them to felony charges.
Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].
