The Senate will vote on—and Republicans are expected to filibuster—a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Before that Thursday vote, at least a dozen Republican senators have agreed to meet with Gladys Sicknick, the mother of fallen Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, along with her son’s longtime girlfriend Sandra Garza, and D.C. Metro Police officer Michael Fanone. But most of them are likely to go on to filibuster the bill.

Brian Sicknick’s family and Fanone are speaking out publicly, with Gladys Sicknick saying, “Not having a January 6 Commission to look into exactly what occurred is a slap in the faces of all the officers who did their jobs that day.” But they’re not alone in their anger at Republicans. 

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”We have heard all of this support for police, police, police, and then your own police force is battered and bruised and now you drag your feet?” one Capitol Police officer said to CNN on condition of anonymity. 

“I kind of got lulled, I got fooled, I listened to [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell’s words that same night when they reconvened [on January 6],” the officer said. “I bought into it, I thought, ‘Wow, we are really going to get some answers.’”

“We are political pawns,” an officer said. “Now the people we are sworn to protect and did protect on the 6th don’t want to fund us or figure out what really happened that day.”

The sentiments echo those in an anonymous letter written by one or more Capitol Police officers with the support of others, who wrote last week, “On Jan 6th, where some officers served their last day in US Capitol Police uniform, and not by choice, we would hope that Members whom we took an oath to protect, would at the very minimum support an investigation to get to the bottom of EVERYONE responsible and hold them 100 percent accountable no matter the title of position they hold or held.”

As Republicans prepare to filibuster a Jan. 6 commission, using excuses about the composition of the staff to hide the fact—which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has voiced in a private meeting—that they think it would hurt their reelection chances, consider the disillusionment of the officers expressed in that letter: “It is inconceivable that some of the Members we protect, would downplay the events of January 6th. Member safety was dependent upon the heroic actions of the USCP.” Inconceivable, and yet totally happening every day.

Also angered and saddened by Republican opposition but with much, much more power to do something about it is Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who tweeted a brief statement. “There is no excuse for any Republican to vote against this commission since Democrats have agreed to everything they asked for,” Manchin said. “Mitch McConnell has made this his political position, thinking it will help his 2022 elections. They do not believe the truth will set you free, so they continue to live in fear.”

There’s a fair bit of truth in that statement, but Manchin is not going to let the truth of Republican partisan motivations in this vote set him free to abolish or reform the filibuster. He can see what’s going on, but “I’m not ready to destroy our government,” he told reporters. “I’m not ready to destroy our government, no.” 

In reality, he’s ready to stand by while Republicans destroy our government and he refuses to act to stop them because he falsely believes that the filibuster is essential to the government.

In the House, 35 Republicans joined Democrats in voting for the independent investigation. In the Senate, the number may be as low as two.