Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Stephen Colbert mark GOP coup day with stories of violence and resolve

Marking the one year anniversary eve of that time the Republican Party revealed just how shaky is its commitment to American democracy, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and Stephen Colbert weren’t so much breaking out the party hats as busting some GOP chops. With a clearly furious Colbert ripping into those Republicans (essentially all of them) who are “clearly fascist-curious if not fascist themselves,” Klobuchar asserted her and the Democrats’ firm intention to make sure Thursday’s grim anniversary doesn’t pass without her spineless (at best) GOP colleagues in the Senate getting re-exposed as the accomplices to insurrection they were, and almost entirely remain.

“What they didn’t get done with bear-spray and bayonets and flagpoles, they are now trying to do with laws,” Klobuchar asserted of her Republican colleagues’ full-on assault on voting rights in preparation for the next attack on our republic. Noting the country-wide blitz by the GOP to both make it harder to vote and for Republican-held state election bodies to turn every election night into a blatantly partisan hostage situation for the ballots that actually manage to get cast, Klobuchar said that it is, indeed, time to kill the filibuster, at least when it comes to passing the Freedom To Vote Act. “When our very democracy is at risk. I think now is the time to make an exception to the filibuster,” stated Klobuchar unequivocally, noting that there are some 160 exceptions already in place for the filibuster rule.

As for Thursday’s ugly anniversary, Colbert once more went after those still-serving Republican legislators (calling out Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Lindsey Graham by name) who “will never live down their shame, but don’t care because they have none.” In response, Klobuchar once again recalled her time under siege by violent, Trump-worshipping insurrectionists on January 6, 2021, telling Colbert about her insistence on the day that, as lawmakers from both sides huddled under guard in very unsafe-seeming safe rooms, the election would be certified.

“No matter what is going on right now in that chamber, we are going back,” Klobuchar quoted herself on the night, even as armed yahoos were smearing shit all over the halls of government and assaulting Capitol Police officers with thuggish violence and racial slurs. Noting that the TVs in the room were tuned to the chaos outside their very door (at Klobuchar’s insistence, as it happens), the Senator recalled how everyone there cheered President-elect Joe Biden’s televised call for calm (Trump was watching his coup unfold in the Oval Office), while not letting those Republicans off the hook for everything they’ve done to all but guarantee a repeat of this democracy-imperiling bullshit.

“It’s not pleasant,” Klobuchar admitted about having to go to work every day with those Republicans still sowing Trump’s Big Lie. (Colbert noted that “not pleasant” is about as harsh as someone from Minnesota gets.) Calling out the GOP’s in-progress assault on the right to vote all over the country, Klobuchar stated, “This is our moment to step in.” Telling Colbert that, when state legislatures start monkeying around with the central pillar of our democracy (looking at your vote-suppressing asses, Georgia Republicans), Klobuchar asserted that it’s the role of the federal government to ensure that another gang of white supremacist fascist dipshits (not her exact words)—whether in surplus tactical gear or expensive suits—can’t overturn the will of the American people.