January 6, 2021 6:10 p.m.

Oregon’s U.S. Senators have weighed in on the protest actions that took place in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.

Senator Ron Wyden said what happened was “…a direct assault on democracy, a riot by insurrectionists that caps off four years of Donald Trump fanning the flames of fanaticism”. Wyden said that every Republican lawmaker “…who supported his efforts to overturn a legitimate election shares responsibility for the violence at the heart of our democracy”.

Senator Jeff Merkley said “Americans have witnessed many foreign strongmen ignore elections to cling to power. I never thought we would see this kind of attempted coup in our most hallowed temple of democracy, but that’s exactly what happened today”. Merkley said “We now have a tremendous amount to do to restore our institutions so deeply damaged over the last four years”.