The mother and partner of the late Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick on Friday say they are disappointed with Republican senators who blocked legislation to form an independent bipartisan Jan. 6 commission to investigate the deadly insurrection.
Gladys Sicknick and Sandra Garza, Officer Sicknick’s partner of 11 years, appeared on CNN for an exclusive interview with Jake Tapper on Friday after Senate Republicans filibustered the bill to create the 9/11 style commission to investigate the riot.
“I think you know it’s all talk and no action. Clearly, they’re not backing the blue,” Garza said. “It’s just unbelievable to me that they could do nothing about this.”
Sicknick suffered two strokes and died in the hospital one day after helping to defend the Capitol against the mob of Trump supporters storming the building intent on stopping the certification of the election for President Joe Biden. Nearly 140 officers were injured during the attack.
Garza and Gladys Sicknick met with nearly a dozen Republicans senators on Thursday ahead of the vote. Both women described the meetings as “tense,” because they knew the Republican senators were not being sincere.
“They went through their motions, but you can tell that underneath they were being nice to us,” Gladys Sicknick said.
“They were very charming, they knew what they were doing, they knew how to talk to us, but we kind of held back,” Sicknick said. “It was just, it was tense, and we made believe everything was fine and we were very nice to them, for the most part.”
Six Republicans voted with Democrats to advance the legislation to form the bipartisan commission, but the vote of 54-35, fell short of the 60 votes needed to move forward.
According to the Washington Post, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday that the probe was “extraneous” and would not shed light on what happened Jan. 6.
But Garza and Sicknick argued Friday that Republican senators are making the country less safe by opposing the formation of a commission to ensure such an attack never happens again.
“For them to vote ‘no’ it’s not protecting law enforcement,” Garza said. “And more importantly, it’s not protecting our democracy.”
Another reason Garza said Republicans gave for not supporting the measure was that it is partisan. She called this “baloney” and pointed to an amendment from Sen. Susan Collins of Maine that would allow both sides to select the commission staffing.
“I think they just don’t want to do the right thing,” Garza added. “I think what you’re seeing is elitism at its finest.”
The Justice Department has charged at least 400 people in connection with the January 6 insurrection so far.
