Congressman reflects on the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
United States Rep. Eric Swalwell, JD ’06, has feared for his personal safety only twice. First on Sept. 11, 2001, when, out of concern that a plane might strike the Capitol building, he was turned away from his job there as an intern. The second time was on Jan. 6, 2021, when insurrectionists surged into that same building as Swalwell and his congressional colleagues counted the Electoral College votes from the 2020 presidential election.
“After 9/11, I saw the country come together. We created the 9/11 Commission, and we’re safer from terrorism because of those bipartisan efforts,” says Swalwell, a Democrat who represents California’s 15th District. “Twenty years later, I felt the same sense of terror and fear inside the chamber. What we do next will decide if this is the new norm — that the loser of an election can send a mob to the seat of government — or if we say this can never happen again and strengthen our democracy.”
You can read more about Swalwell’s experience on Jan. 6, his work as an impeachment manager, and what he hopes to accomplish as he moves forward in the Spring 2021 issue of UMB’s CATALYST magazine.
The issue also highlights how students have received invaluable hands-on experience preparing COVID-19 vaccines and vaccinating patients at the SMC Campus Center as well as the important COVID-19 research being done across all of our schools. We also share the stories of our graduates, the first recipient of The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings ’76 Scholarship Endowment, the National Center for School Mental Health, and much more.