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By PJ Grisar January 7, 2021

Before the Senate resumed its certification of the 2020 election, a process delayed hours by a crowd of pro-Trump protestors storming the Capitol, Sen. Chuck Schumer made his first speech as the presumptive majority leader, laying the blame for the siege at Trump’s feet.

“This will be a stain on our country not so easily washed away,” Schumer said. “The final, terrible indelible legacy of the 45th President of the United States, undoubtedly our worst.”

After describing the “desecration” of the House and Senate chambers and the mass evacuation of lawmakers and their staffs, Schumer didn’t mince words about the perpetrators.

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“These were rioters and insurrectionists, goons and thugs, domestic terrorists,” Schumer said. “They must and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, hopefully by this administration, certainly by the next. They should be provided no leniency.”

Schumer claimed that Trump was the engine that drove the attack by promoting conspiracy theories and calling the protestors to Washington, D.C.

“This mob was in good part President Trump’s doing, incited by his words, his lies,” Schumer said. “This violence in good part his responsibility, his everlasting shame.”

In the day’s violent events, which left one woman dead, Schumer saw “a final warning to our nation about the consequences of a demagogic president, the people who enable him, the captive media that parrots his lies and the people who follow him as he attempts to push America to the brink of ruin.”

Schumer ended his speech by addressing the American people alarmed about the state of the country, and offered them reassurance before yielding the floor.

“The divisions in our country clearly run deep,” Schumer said, “but we are a resilient, forward-looking, optimistic people and we will begin the hard work of repairing this nation tonight, because here in America we do hard things.”

PJ Grisar is the Forward’s culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected].

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