WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 26: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a news conference in opposition to the Graham-Cassidy health care bill, September 26, 2017 in Washington, DC (Image: Getty)
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) was trying to count the ballots on the Senate Floor for the 2020 presidential election when he was grabbed by the collar by an officer and told “Senator, you’re in danger. We got to get out of here.”
Schumer sat down with USA Today in a video interview to discuss his perspective of the moment rioters broke into the Capitol building around 2 p.m. on Jan 6, 2021. He says as he was being evacuated he was “within 20 feet” of the violent protestors.
“Had one of them had a gun. Had two of them blocked off the door, who knows what would have happened,” said Schumer. “One of them was reputed to see me and say ‘there’s the big Jew.'”
Schumer went on to say he made repeated calls to former President Donald Trump, who “wouldn’t talk to me.” He claimed that he along with then-acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen, and then-Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller were all trying to get Trump to call off the protestors, but he didn’t make any statements until he posted a video to Twitter at around 4 p.m.
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Despite the chilling scene, Schumer stated that he and fellow lawmakers “resolved that we were gonna come back that night and continue to count the ballots. We were not gonna let these insurrectionists deter us from what our Constitutional duty and job was.”
They ratified Biden’s electoral victory at “about three or four in the morning,” according to Schumer.
Schumer wrapped the interview with a stark declaration. “For the first time ever, and I’m a natural optimist, I’m worried about the future of our democracy. Something is out of whack in a way it never has been before.
Five people died before, during and following the violent events, while hundreds of officers were injured. Trump continues to downplay the attack and deny that they were storming the Capitol in his name, despite the riot beginning as a “Save America” rally where he gave a speech decrying the election results.
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