Connect the Dots 101

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Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible – there will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain….

I ask all of our fellow citizens as you watch our hearings over the coming weeks, to remember what’s at stake. Remember the men and women who have fought and died so that we can live under the Rule of Law and not under the rule of men. I ask you to think of the scene in our Capitol rotunda on the night of January 6th.

There, in, a sacred space in our constitutional republic, the place where our presidents lie in state, watched over by statues of Washington and Jefferson, Lincoln and Grant, Eisenhower, Ford and Reagan, against every wall that night encircling that room, there were SWAT teams, men and women in tactical gear with long guns deployed inside our Capitol building.

There in the rotunda, these brave men and women rested beneath paintings depicting the earliest scenes of our Republic, including one painted in 1824 depicting George Washington resigning his commission, voluntarily relinquishing power, handing control of the continental army back to Congress. With this noble act, Washington set the indispensable example of the peaceful transfer of power. This is what President Reagan called, “nothing less than a miracle.” The sacred obligation to defend this peaceful transfer of power has been honored by every American president. … Except one.

As Americans, we all have a duty to ensure what happened on January 6 never happens again, to set aside partisan battles to stand together to perpetuate and preserve our great republic….

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/22057402/cheney_openingremarks_preparedfordelivery.pdf