WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Angus King issued the following statement after the majority of Senate Republicans voted to block bipartisan legislation that would create a bipartisan commission that would examine the facts surrounding the Capitol insurrection of January 6th:

“On January 6th, the world watched as those who sought to interfere with and invalidate our electoral process attacked the U.S. Capitol, leaving law enforcement officers dead and injured in the wake of their insurrection,” said Senator King. “This was one of the darkest moments in American history, the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War, and we need to understand what went wrong so we can prevent similar crises in the future. This bipartisan legislation was negotiated by both parties in the House, and is closely modeled after the successful, bipartisan commission that was created to uncover facts surrounding the September 11th attacks.

“However, today the majority of my Republican colleagues in the Senate made it clear that they have little interest in looking at the facts; instead, they’d rather ignore or minimize the whole event. Some of them have openly acknowledged they think this commission would be bad for their political messaging, but what is the message we send to enemies of democracy, at home or abroad, by failing to ask hard questions and confront the truth? When people are moving heaven and earth to block an investigation, you’ve got to ask what it is they’re afraid will be revealed.”