Congressional leaders on Tuesday honored the fallen law enforcement officials who protected the U.S. Capitol through the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, presenting them with the best honor that Congress can provide, the Congressional Gold Medal.
However some award recipients didn’t need something to do with the Republican leaders able to greet them. The household of fallen U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died of a stroke after the riot, refused to shake palms with Home Minority Chief Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Minority chief Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). McConnell supplied his hand as they walked by, whereas McCarthy didn't.
Video footage of the occasion within the Capitol Rotunda reveals Sicknick’s members of the family — his dad and mom and two brothers — warmly greeting Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and strolling proper previous McConnell’s outstretched hand with out even McCarthy.
After the occasion, Ken Sicknick, Brian Sicknick’s brother, informed HuffPost that his household didn’t suppose that McCarthy and McConnell even cared about honoring those that protected the Capitol that day.
“I feel no matter they stated at that podium was as a result of they had been pressured to,” he stated. “They needed to present face as a result of they had been the leaders of their respective events. However was it honest? I doubt it.”
The Sicknicks stated they hadn’t deliberate to disrespect the Republicans on the occasion and solely realized there may be a face-to-face encounter after they sat throughout from celebration leaders firstly of the ceremony.
Sicknick’s mom, Gladys Sicknick, has been outspoken about her need for Congress to launch an impartial fee to research the Capitol riot. She referred to as it a “slap within the faces of all of the officers who did their jobs” final yr when McConnell and McCarthy opposed such a fee. The Home created a particular investigative committee with seven Democrats and two Republicans.
Within the days after the November 2020 presidential election, McCarthy went on nationwide tv and instantly started spreading Trump’s lie about widespread election fraud and the election being stolen from Trump. The identical lie fueled the riot two months later. And hours after the Jan. 6 assault, McCarthy was one in every of 147 Republicans who nonetheless voted to overturn the presidential election outcomes primarily based on the identical lie.
McCarthy initially blamed Trump for fueling the tried coup, which he did, however after just a few weeks sought to get again into the previous president’s good graces. He has since sought to deflect blame from Trump and prompt that Pelosi left the Capitol weak.
On Tuesday, the Sicknicks had been one in every of 4 households who accepted the Congressional Gold Medal, which honored fallen U.S. Capitol Law enforcement officials and D.C. Metropolitan law enforcement officials. Different members of the family had been there on behalf of Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood, who died from suicide within the days after the riot; D.C. Police Officer Jeffrey Smith, who additionally died from suicide quickly after the riot; and Capitol Police officer William Evans, who died within the months after the riot after a person intentionally rammed his automobile right into a Capitol barricade the place Evans was posted.
The Sicknicks stated they couldn’t consider that Republicans appeared hesitant to sentence Trump for suggesting over the weekend that the Structure be thrown out so he could possibly be reinstated as president.
“After I grew up, there was a second World Struggle happening,” Sicknick’s father, Charles, informed HuffPost. “And Adolf Hitler had these guys, they referred to as them brownshirts. That’s very comparable. If you happen to didn’t agree with them, they got here in and beat you up.”
In the course of the ceremony, McConnell paid tribute to the officers who defended the Capitol and thanked them for serving to lawmakers certify the 2020 presidential election outcomes. The Kentucky Republican denounced Trump following the riot but went on to defend him throughout his impeachment trial.
“When an unhinged mob tried to come back between the Congress and our constitutional obligation, the Capitol Police fought to defend not simply this establishment, however our system of self-government,” McConnell stated. “Due to your bravery and professionalism, Congress completed our job that very evening.”
McCarthy, alternatively, gave a speech honoring all law enforcement officials, not simply those that responded to the assault on the Capitol.
“To all of the legislation enforcement officers who preserve this nation secure: Thanks,” McCarthy stated. “Too many individuals take that as a right, however days like in the present day pressure us to understand how a lot we owe the skinny blue line.”
The GOP chief didn’t point out that only a few weeks after the Jan. 6 assault, he met and reconciled with Trump at this Florida property.
“I’m simply bored with them standing there and saying how great the Capitol Police is, after which they flip round and… go all the way down to Mar-a-Lago and kiss his ring and are available again and stand right here and sit with — It simply, it simply hurts,” Gladys Sicknick informed CNN.
McCarthy’s efforts to get into Trump’s good graces have paid off for McCarthy personally: The previous president endorsed his bid to turn into Home speaker when Republicans take management of the decrease chamber subsequent month.
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