Rep. Sewell Testifies at Hearing Marking Five Years Since the January 6th Insurrection

Washington D.C. - Today, in observance of the fifth anniversary of the deadly January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) testified at House Democrats' hearing entitled "After January 6th: Setting the Record Straight on the Capitol Insurrection." Rep. Sewell described her experience as one of 30 lawmakers trapped in the House Gallery as rioters breached the Capitol. She condemned President Trump's decision to pardon the violent criminals involved in the insurrection, commended the bravery of the Capitol Police and law enforcement officers who responded, and called on her Republican colleagues to work together to prevent such an attack from happening again.

Watch it on YouTube here.

Rep. Sewell: It's hard to believe that five years have passed since the horrific January 6th attack on our nation's Capitol. For me, it is a memory that will be seared in my brain forever.

As many of you know, I was one of the 30 Members of Congress trapped in the House Gallery as the Capitol was breached.

If I close my eyes, I can still hear the thundering sound of the mob and the pounding of the door of the House Chamber. I can still feel the sense of sheer terror as we struggled to fit on our gas masks and crawled on our knees toward the only open door at the opposite end of the gallery.

As I sat huddled with my colleagues, I remember trembling and softly weeping, not just for our safety, but for the devastating threat to our democracy. Many of us frantically dialed our loved ones, unsure of what the next hours would bring.

I don't think that any of us fully understood the magnitude of the danger that we were in until we got home in the wee hours of the morning and turned on the television.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined what I saw: the images of rioters waving confederate flags, smashing windows, assaulting police officers, and threatening to kill Members of Congress, and even the sitting Vice President.

What we saw on January 6th was an attempted coup. It was an effort to subvert the will of the American people and overturn the results of a free and fair election. It was incumbent upon all of us to condemn the violence we witnessed-and those who waged it.

There are moments throughout history that have tested us as a nation. January 6th is one of them, as was Bloody Sunday in my hometown of Selma, Alabama, and the bombing of the Four Little Girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, and so many other defining moments along the way.

Those moments can either make us stronger as a nation or they can tear us apart. We can use them as an opportunity to heal or to move forward, or we can sweep them under a rug for the sake of political convenience.

It's maddening that so many of my colleagues across the aisle continue to choose the latter.

I find it shameful that President Trump chose, as the first action of his second term, to condemn [sic] the criminals responsible for the violence.

I find it equally disturbing that Speaker Johnson refuses to honor the brave officers who defended our democracy by installing the plaque that Congress voted on and passed more than three years ago.

They say that if you don't know your history, you are bound to repeat your history. As a Member of Congress that represents Alabama's Civil Rights District, I often tell my constituents, "if we don't tell our stories, others will tell our stories, and they may not get it right."

I am grateful to Leader Jeffries, Chairman Bennie Thompson, for giving us this opportunity to tell our stories and to shine a light on the horrific events of January 6th.

In closing, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to the many Capitol Police officers and law enforcement officers who defended our democracy that day.

I also want to thank my fellow "Gallery colleagues," as we call ourselves. I want to thank them for checking on us, even now, five years later. This is the first time that I've been able to publicly speak about it because, frankly, I could not believe that in our place of work, in the People's House, we were threatened that way.

January 6th was a dark day in our nation's history, and I hope we can all work together to ensure that such a heinous attack never ever ever happens again.

I want to thank all of you for being here today and I want to thank my fellow Gallery colleagues for your courage.

Thank you.

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