Only twice has our nation’s Capitol building been under direct attack. The first came in 1814, when British redcoats marched into Washington, D.C., burning multiple federal buildings and setting fire to the White House and the Capitol.
The second attack came 207 years later, not by a foreign power but from within. January 6th, 2021, is a day that will remain scorched in my memory for the rest of my life. I remember the shattered glass littering the halls of Congress, the violent mob encircling lawmakers trying to advance a peaceful transition of power, and the screams of police officers as they put their bodies in between members of Congress and rioters intending to topple our government.
I remember being forced to flee the Senate chamber for fear for my life. The United States Capitol was under siege, and I remember looking at my colleagues; some were shaking, and others were making phone calls to loved ones back home who were anxiously following the news.
I remember sitting in my office, attempting to catch my breath and process what was happening. Soon, I turned on my television to witness an insurrection that was still going on just steps away from my door.
And then, I remember the Confederate flag flashing on my screen, waving inside the Capitol building. The presence of that flag, along with the violent actions of rioters, brought to my mind some of the darkest chapters of our nation’s history. I remembered the stories my father had told me about my Black ancestors who endured terrorism at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan, lynchings as white supremacists looked on with approval, and the bombings of Black churches, Black homes, and entire Black communities.
The sobering fact is that America has not yet fully confronted the threads of domestic extremism that have existed since its very beginnings. The failure to do so has meant that, in recent years, domestic terrorism has been on the rise again.
By large margins, far-right groups are the perpetrators of most domestic terrorist incidents in the United States. The Center for Strategic and International Studies labeled these groups as responsible for 67% of the terrorist plots and attacks in the country during 2020. Another study by the Council on Foreign Relations noted that 71% of extremist-related fatalities between 2008 to 2017 were attributable to white supremacists and other far-right groups.
Emboldened by the rhetoric of some elected officials and coordinating their actions through the dark web, extremist groups have sought to disrupt our elections and undermine fundamental freedoms. For example, ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, members of right-wing extremist groups harassed election chiefs, intimidating many into leaving their positions. In Arizona, armed vigilantes stood in tactical gear mere feet from ballot boxes during early voting, stoking fear in voters.
We’ve also seen individuals who subscribe to white supremacist views perpetrate horrific attacks on houses of worship that have resulted in the tragic loss of life–from the slaying of nine Black souls at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston to the 2018 terrorist attack at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh that left eleven dead. These mass shootings have heightened fear among ethnic and religious minorities in the United States, depriving them of the chance to worship or gather safely.
Given the threat far-right groups pose to constitutional rights, it is up to the federal government to safeguard the fundamental freedoms we cherish. Congressional action must focus on protecting targeted communities, developing better coordination amongst federal agencies, and preventing the recruitment of young followers by far-right groups.
We must take immediate steps to protect targeted communities. Resources allocated to houses of worship through federal efforts such as the Nonprofit Security Grant Program have helped enhance security at churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples in recent years. Such initiatives should be continued, especially as the rates of hate crimes rise across the country.
To further protect Americans from such attacks, there’s a dire need to coordinate interagency efforts to monitor, investigate, and prosecute domestic terrorism. Recently, I joined Senate Democrats to introduce the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022, which would authorize the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to begin such an effort.
Equally important is the need to respond proactively, to stamp out hate before it gets a chance to fester and grow. Online websites, including popular social media sites, have been used to recruit followers into far-right groups. We must hold tech platforms accountable for monitoring hate speech on their sites. We should also build relationships between the federal government, institutions of higher learning, and nonprofit organizations that will enable us to positively reach out to children during their formative years when they are most at risk of being recruited into hate groups.
Every member of Congress, including myself, has taken an oath to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” We often turn our attention to the myriad of foreign threats our country faces, and rightfully so. Yet, at the same time, we cannot ignore the growing danger far-right groups constitute to our country. The violence we have seen in past years against minorities and lawmakers threatens our very democracy.
When people cannot worship safely, when a violent mob stages an attempted coup that almost prevents the transition of power, it should draw our concern. Such violence, alongside myths of voter fraud, the embrace of racist conspiracy theories, and the appeals by elected officials and candidates to stoke white nationalism, crude nativism, and demagoguery, have contributed to the erosion of the democratic ideals we cherish.
We stand at a dangerous precipice. Safeguarding our democracy is not the sole responsibility of Democrats or Republicans. It is the burden we carry as Americans. We must shoulder it today and every day after.
