WASHINGTON — Representative Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado, kept the pen he was prepared to brandish as a weapon if the rioters who stormed the Capitol in the name of Donald J. Trump made it to where he was in the House chamber last Jan. 6.Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, framed an official tally certifying President Biden’s electoral victory, along with a pen used to sign it, after the tear gas had cleared following the assault.And upon request, Representative Andy Kim, Democrat of New Jersey, donated to the Smithsonian the blue J. Crew suit he wore during the attack, though he kept a broken golden eagle he gingerly removed from the debris while picking up trash in the Rotunda after the mayhem.“They’re artifacts of the day and what happened,” Mr. Crow said in a recent interview. “I think it’s important for my family to be able to have those things as part of the ability to tell that story in the future.”In the days after the attack, many who lived through it clung to tangible relics of the day — from panicked text messages they sent their families to the crumpled escape hoods they hurriedly unwrapped inside the House chamber — assembling their own makeshift memorials to one of the most destructive events in the history of the building.But one year later, lawmakers and historians are still debating how Congress itself should memorialize the riot at the Capitol, which is both a working legislative body that came under attack and a living museum of American history. They are grappling with the thorny question of how, if at all, to officially mark an assault whose victims cannot agree on the basic facts of what happened.The National Museum of American History, a branch of the Smithsonian, collected protest signs, posters and banners from the assault. Some of the debris and damaged items from the Capitol complex were handed over to the Justice Department. And a spokeswoman for the Architect of the Capitol, which oversees the building and its grounds, said the agency was examining options to display a collection once prosecutorial work against those who breached the building had concluded.Understand the Jan. 6 Investigation
Both the Justice Department and a House select committee are investigating the events of the Capitol riot. Here's where they stand:
Inside the House Inquiry From a nondescript office building, the panel has been quietly ramping up its sprawling and elaborate investigation.Criminal Referrals, Explained Can the House inquiry end in criminal charges? These are some of the issues confronting the committee.Garland’s Remarks: Facing pressure from Democrats, Attorney General Merrick Garland vowed that the D.O.J. would pursue its inquiry into the riot “at any level.”A Big Question Remains: Will the Justice Department move beyond charging the rioters themselves?Some lawmakers are pressing for a far more detailed accounting of the day. House Democrats have introduced legislation that would require a permanent exhibit in the Capitol. A similar resolution was used to install a plaque that pays tribute to two Capitol Police officers killed defending the building from a gunman in 1998.“It’s going to have to be told, and we have to make sure that we’re preserving that, because ultimately, what it shows is that democracy can be fragile if people don’t reinvigorate it and fight for it,” said Mr. Crow, a sponsor of the bill. “You have to make sure we’re telling that story to ensure that we have the resolve to do what’s necessary to preserve our democracy.”Multiple lawmakers have called for the preservation of damaged items, particularly a cracked window in the Rotunda doors that open onto the plaza. That window has since been replaced, but it is unclear whether the shattered pane was kept.“Hopefully, they will preserve some of what happened here so that the people can come and see it and remember what happened,” said Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, who broke with his party to support forming a bipartisan commission to investigate the attack.But Republicans blocked that inquiry, and most of them have spent the past year downplaying or denying the significance of the assault, making it unlikely that they would back legislation to memorialize it.Some Republicans argue that they have already paid appropriate tribute to what happened by supporting legislation that awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the officers who responded. That measure ensures that medals will be displayed at the headquarters of the Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department, one at the Smithsonian and one at the Capitol. A plaque at the Capitol will list all the law enforcement agencies involved in protecting the building.Democrats plan to spend the anniversary onBy: Emily Cochrane
Title: One Year Later, Congress Weighs How to Memorialize Jan. 6 at the Capitol
Sourced From: www.nytimes.com/2022/01/06/us/politics/jan-6-capitol-memorial.html
Published Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2022 10:00:11 +0000
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