Exclusive: 'All talk and no action': Sicknick's mother and girlfriend say they were disappointed by GOP senators
The mother of fallen US Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick says she was disappointed that Senate Republicans blocked a bill Friday to create a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection after what she described as "tense" meetings with many GOP senators on Thursday.
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In an exclusive interview with CNN's Jake Tapper Friday, Gladys Sicknick and her son's girlfriend Sandra Garza said they were clinging to hope that they could change the minds of senators opposed to the independent commission, but were still not surprised at the ultimate outcome.
"They went through their motions, but you can tell that underneath they were being nice to us," Sicknick said of her meetings Thursday.
"I don't understand it. They are elected for us, the people, and they don't care about that," she added. "They care about money, I guess, their pocketbooks. So they'll be in front of the cameras when they feel like it. They just don't care, and it's not right."
Garza said of the Republicans who opposed the commission: "I think you know it's all talk and no action. Clearly, they're not backing the blue."
"It's just unbelievable to me that they could do nothing about this," she said.
Sicknick, Garza, Capitol Hill Police Officer Harry Dunn and DC Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone met with more than a dozen Republican senators Thursday ahead of the Senate's vote Friday on creating a commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection. They had requested meetings with all 50 GOP senators.
Sickinck said that the senators were nice to them, but that the meetings were also tense because they knew that many of the senators weren't sincere -- and were not going to budge in their opposition to forming the commission.
"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, for a vote of 54-35, but leaving it short of the 60 votes needed to move forward.
Sicknick said she was hopeful that some of the senators who voted for the legislation, including Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, were swayed in part by their meetings.
"Maybe we changed their minds. That would be great," Sicknick said.
This story is being updated
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