WASHINGTON — Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) complained Thursday that Democrats keep bringing up the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where President Donald Trump’s nominees routinely, and alarmingly, refuse to answer questions about the violence of that day and about who won the 2020 election.

Schmitt, a close ally of Trump, griped about having to keep talking about the violence of Jan. 6 in the middle of National Police Week, a time when lawmakers in both parties play up their support for law enforcement officers and honor those who have died in the line of duty.

A number of police officers died by suicide after the events of Jan. 6, when Trump incited a mob of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol and brutally beat dozens of law enforcement officers in an attempt to stop lawmakers from certifying Joe Biden as president.

Schmitt’s comments came during a Thursday hearing where senators were voting on a batch of the president’s nominees. He brought up that Feb. 2 is the birthday of Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), a committee member, and pointed out that the day is also Groundhog Day.

“I think that we ought to change the date of Groundhog Day to January 6, because every time I walk into this committee hearing – it’s everything,” said the Missouri Republican. “Everything stops and starts with January 6.”

A Schmitt spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

It’s true that Democrats routinely ask the president’s nominees about Jan. 6, and their reason is entirely relevant to the business before this panel: All of Trump’s picks for lifetime federal judgeships and U.S. attorney posts have to clear this committee before being confirmed by the Senate, and all have been refusing to affirm basic facts about Trump fueling the violence of Jan. 6 and about his loss to Biden in the 2020 election.

Apparently afraid of angering Trump and having their nominations withdrawn, his nominees have given nonsensical reasons for not being able to talk about either subject, or have given repeated responses that avoid answering the actual question — all of which raises red flags about where their loyalties lie, with Trump or with the Constitution.

This trend has played out with Trump’s judicial picks, his U.S. attorney nominees and people up for high-level executive posts, like Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

Schmitt may have expressed his annoyance with talking about Jan. 6 because one of the nominees getting a committee vote Thursday was Justin Smith, who is up for a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit.

In addition to being Trump’s personal lawyer in both his presidential immunity and E. Jean Carroll sexual abuse cases ― a troubling qualification in its own right ― Smith previously served under Schmitt when he was Missouri’s attorney general.

During his March nomination hearing before the committee, Smith repeatedly refused to say who won the popular vote in the 2020 election and would not say there was an “attack” on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, instead saying the Supreme Court called it “a breach of the Capitol.” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a committee member, told Smith at the time that his responses made him look “ridiculous, if not pathetic.”

The committee advanced Smith’s nomination on Thursday, in a 12-10 party-line vote.

Schmitt, who first came to the Senate in 2023, was not in the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack. But Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), also a member of the Judiciary Committee, was there. He seemed stunned by Schmitt’s comments and later responded to them, even though the Missouri Republican had left the room.

“I, too, believe you should have two birthdays,” Booker said to Britt. “One of them should definitely not be Jan. 6.”

“The reason why we bring up Jan. 6 on – especially moments like this, Police Week – is because of the tragedy of having our officers in this building, sacrificing, putting their lives on the line to protect us – savagely beaten, viciously,” he said. “Some of them would go on and soon after die. And yet, we have a president who pardoned every one of them.”

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