Chuck Schumer says he was targeted on January 6 when a Capitol rioter spotted him and said: ‘There’s the big Jew, let’s get him!’

• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was targeted for his religion on January 6.
• He recounted being a mere 30 feet away from “nasty, racist, bigoted insurrectionists.”
• Schumer said he was told that a rioter who spotted him said: “There’s the big Jew. Let’s get him.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer revealed on the Senate floor on Thursday that he had a close call with a group of Capitol rioters, one of whom made an antisemitic comment about him. 

Schumer spoke about the events of January 6, 2021, recounting how he was hurried out of the chamber by a firearm-toting police officer. 

“A police officer in a big flak jacket and large rifle grabbed me firmly by the collar, like this. I’ll never forget that grip. He said to me, ‘Senator, we got to get out of here. You’re in danger.’ We walked out the Senate chamber door, made a right turn, went through another door,” Schumer said. 

He added that surveillance footage of him running from the rioters was shown at former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial. 

“I was within 30 feet of these nasty, racist, bigoted insurrectionists. Had someone had a gun, had two of them blocked off the door, who knows what would have happened? I was told later that one of them reportedly said, ‘There’s the big Jew. Let’s get him,'” Schumer said. 

“Bigotry against one is bigotry against all. And I saw something that I had been told later never happened before — the Confederate flag flying in this dear Capitol,” Schumer added. “That’s just one of many searing, grotesque images of that unimaginable, most un-American day.” 

The Senate majority leader is calling for “democracy reforms” to prevent another insurrection from happening again. Schumer said this week that he will push to change Senate rules if Republicans continue to block the passage of legislation designed to protect voting rights.