President-elect Donald Trump won't have to walk under it plaque Honoring the heroes of January 6 while taking the oath of office on the west front of the Capitol on Monday.
That's because more than four years after the Capitol riot, a new controversy is emerging over a plaque honoring the heroes and victims. assaultA 2022 law passed by Congress and signed by President Biden required a plaque to be placed on the west front of the Capitol complex by March 2023. Republican House leaders, all of whom are closely aligned with Trump, have not yet installed the plaque, nor have they offered a timetable for doing so.
In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday, a group of about 60 House Democrats wrote, “As members of Congress, we express our gratitude to these brave officers who protected the Capitol and allowed us to reach safety.” Allowed. We request an update from you regarding your timeline for complying with the law and installing this plaque.”
House Democrats pushing for the plaque include Representative Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado, who was among those trapped in the upper level of the House chamber as rioters laid siege to the Capitol. Crowe and colleagues wrote to Johnson, “Every day Congress fails to deliver on the actions we have promised, we do an injustice to our men and women in uniform who serve as members of Congress, congressional staff, our constituents, and the American Help protect people.”
Other Democrats who signed the letter to Johnson include former House Speaker nancy pelosiOn January 6, some members of the House Select Committee and other Democrats who were trapped near the violent mob.
Johnson's office did not respond to CBS News requests for comment or updates about the plaque or its timetable. He also refused to answer questions about the status of the project last week.
The letter from House Democrats said that a House administrator had testified that “the plaque was completed,” and that its placement “continues to await action by Speaker Johnson.”
More than 140 police officers were injured during the Capitol attack. Several others died by suicide in the days following the riot.
Many Democrats and staff who were at the Capitol on January 6 have accused Republicans of caving to Trump by downplaying or ignoring the violence of the siege. Former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn“Speaker Johnson has not given, and cannot give, any reason,” he told CBS News.
“Right now he's doing nothing but obstructing,” Dunn said.
Democrats have been pressing House leaders for months about delaying the plaque, without success. In May, Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California, who was on the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack, wrote to Johnson asking him to respond about “the failure to install the plaque.”
Lofgren told CBS News, “I sent a polite letter to Speaker Johnson last May asking about the delay, and he never responded. My office followed up, and we were first sent a vague press reply. Then, crickets.”
Representative Joe Morrell, a New York Democrat who is the ranking member of the Committee on House Administration, told CBS News, “The plaque should be installed as required by law. The refusal to display the January 6 plaque is part of that denialism. “Is what Republicans have made a central part of their existence: deny the events of January 6 and the damage it has done to the U.S. Capitol Police force and our American democracy.”
