So I was actually one of the members who was on the House floor when this
occurred. Obviously, the House floor was not filled with members and
senators because of covert restrictions and social distancing. I would say
there were probably 120 to 150 members on the floor out of the total. We
should have been 535 in a joint session. But we were about one hour into the
debate on the Arizona, the counting of the Arizona electors. And when you know
when the first thing that happened was, you know, I noticed that the Capitol
police came in and escorted leadership off the floor. Eso Mr Hoyer, Speaker
Pelosi, Mr Scalise. And normally, when that happens, you have an idea that
there's some security issue going on. We knew that there was a protest in
town. We were told a few minutes later that someone that some of the
protesters had breached the Capitol building that entered the Capitol
building unauthorized. Uh, and we went into a recess briefly. Ah, few minutes
after that, we were told that tear gas had been used in the rotunda, which, of
course, is right down the hall from the house chamber and to prepare ourselves
to use our gas, our gas hoods if necessary. Uh, in a few minutes after
that, we heard knocking on the house door, something on the house door, and
the Capitol police at that time just evacuated All the members and all the
members who were left on the floor just had to go back to the house office
buildings where, of course, it was much acquired and much safer. So were you
there when people started actually take over the chamber? I was there when?
When The thumping. When when thumping occurred on the door. You know, anyone
who's been in a State of the Union address knows what that thumping sounds
like. When they when they announced the senators coming into the Supreme Court
or the president, that's exactly what it sounded like. People just thumping
on the door. Uh, Capitol police did a great job of securing the chamber of
keeping you know, everyone out of those protesters out until they evacuated the
chamber of all the house members. What was going through your mind when this
was all going on? Well, you know, the Capitol police does such a great job
that I never felt insecure. Ah, lot of you know, I was in the military. I'm a
veteran, you know, tear gas does. Doesn't frighten, May I mean, obviously,
later, we heard that, you know, there was a gunshot, But other than that,
there was no indication that this was was a truly violent protest as violent
as as one that you would worry about. But again, this this should never have
occurred in the U. S. Capitol. You know, I'll never support a you know, a
protester breaking a window to break in the capital or disobeying, you know, a
lawful command of the Capitol police officer not to enter the building s Oh,
it definitely got out of hand. No question about it. It shouldn't happen
like that. But, you know, again, people are people are very discouraged.
They're disappointed. Uh, the country is polarized. People have watched riots
over the summer that have that, you know, for for valid reasons. But they
have turned violent with with no repercussion. And I think the message
has gotten out to Americans. I'm sad to say that violent protests are somehow
acceptable in America there never accept. Well, I would never urge
someone to protest violently. I would urge them toe protest peacefully.
That's your right. It's an American, but never to protest violently. So it's
not violent. But people did storm the capital like they have never done in,
you know, hundreds of 102 100 years. I mean, there's nothing right about that.
I mean, you're not You're not supporting that, But no, not not at all.
You know, people have the right to the Capitol grounds. We have protesters
every day on the Capitol grounds. But when you break a window to break into
the capital and you disobey a police order to stay out of the capital, you
have crossed the line that you should never cross. So you were then taken
back to your house office building. You were in Rayburn. I take it That's right.
And you know they're again. They're Capitol police all along the way.
They're securing the route. They just did a great job. You know, I've heard
some criticism today at the Capitol police, but to be honest with you, you
know, this was a very, very large crowd. Uh, the Capitol Police, I think did a
great job of protecting the members and making sure that this didn't escalate,
that this didn't escalate as far as it could have escalated. And that's all we
can ask from our law enforcement in a situation like this. So I I got I have
to commend them. I think they did a great job. Why were they not better
prepared for this? I mean, we have known for some time that there were
going to be a lot of people in D. C. Today for this and there this could
have happened. We've seen large police responses throughout the summer for
other protests and other big events in town. Why not today? Well, the Capitol
Police was out in full force. I mean, I've asked some police officers this
was that this was the same staffing they have for a State of the Union
address. But they do depend upon d C. Police, and if necessary, you know the
mayor asking for the d. C. National Guard to get called up? The mayor did
not ask for that. We did not see a large D C police presence or on the
Capitol grounds eso the Capitol police did everything they could, but at some
point, they have to depend on outside help. I mean, when you're faced with,
you know, I don't I don't know what the numbers were, protesters, they but tens
of thousands of protesters. You need a lot of police presence if what you're
gonna dio is pretty is actually prevent entry into the building. Now again, I
think they prevented the violence from escalating a lot. Obviously, no one
should have entered the building, but again, knock on wood. It seems like the
injuries were kept to a minimum. Congressman Andy Harris talked to me
about the president's response to this today. He spoke to the group on the
Ellipse, Uh, just outside the capital earlier today across from the White
House. Talk to me about that. Do you think his words of condemnation have
been strong enough for sure they'd be stronger.
Look, I think he basically he made it very clear that people should leave
peacefully. I mean, I think he made it clear that that they should always
respect the law enforcement officers orders they should leave peacefully. I
think that that's probably the best he could have done. I'm glad he delivered
it on a Twitter address because that's what his followers watch. Eso. I think
he did what needed to be done. I think I honestly think what was missing from
all of this is the recognition that again, just like we saw in the summer
when when a group of individuals felt that, you know, police may have
overstepped their bounds on on a racial basis, we all got together and said,
Okay, let's look into this. Let's see what we can do about this. What was
lacking in this case is when the president called for an investigation
into an election that has a lot of irregularities again, he called for
this. He's been calling for this for two months now. He's not been joined by
people on the left and by former Vice President Biden, who I think two months
ago, she said, You know what? Let's look into all these allegations because
none of them are going to turn out to be true. Let's look into him. I think
people feel that there's been no transparency, and if there's one thing
Americans demand of, of public officials, it's transparency s so I
think that if we want to defuse this as soon as possible, what the President
Trump and former vice president Biden should do is get together and say, You
know what? Let's appoint a blue ribbon commission tonight. Let's have them
start looking into all the allegations over the next 10 days. So the in
January 20th, every American agrees there needs to be a trans a free. It
was a free and fair election, and the transition of power should occur. But
short of that, I'm not sure that we're that we're going to get out of this
with without some people still feeling they've been wronged. But clearly
that's not going to happen at this point, either. Well, it could. I mean,
this is what this is, what Senator Cruz has called for a commission, but I
think it should be even higher level commission than he's called for. I
think it should be at the highest levels to it to address the concerns of
Americans have in the election. I think these things could be done very rapidly.
I think we could answer most of the questions that air that are unanswered
in four or five days of investigation. And I'm afraid that barring that kind
of investigation, uh, that we're gonna have people who feel aggrieved. I mean,
you know, 74 million people voted for President Trump that we know that about
two thirds of those people feel that there were election irregularities that
have not been addressed properly. There's a lot of Democrats out. There
are a lot of some Republicans out there calling this an insurrection and a coup.
Do you see it that way? No. This is, you know, no more than the BLM movement
was a coup earlier when they earlier in the summer, when they bring the White
House, I think that's pretty strong language. These were demonstrators who
I feel have have felt there. The transparency has not been present on. I
think transparency and investigation will go a long way toward addressing
their concerns. That's the appropriate thing to Dio. Again, I agree with you.
It's probably not going to be done, but I think that that's what it would take.
And and we should be looking for solutions right now how to unify the
country and and if if we know that there are 50 million Americans out
there who feel then election has been done. That it was not a just was not a
just election. We should address those concerns as quickly as possible. One
final question for you. Do you plan to go back to the house floor to finish
the electoral college process today? Well, you know, we're hearing that
there is a move. Thio, continue the process tonight. I'm just, you know,
from a practical point of view, I mean, you've seen pictures of what the house
chamber looks like. It needs to be cleaned up. There is, You know, I don't
know if because we don't have details on the shooting. We don't know where it
occurred, but obviously have occurred there. There needs to be an
investigation. I'm not sure that realistically, it could be resumed
tonight if it can. That's great. I'm here. You know, we're going to continue
the debate. We were one hour into a very, very interesting debate about
Arizona and the constitutionality of what was done there. I think the debate
should be done at some point. If it's done tonight, I'll be there tonight. If
it's done tomorrow, I'll be there tomorrow. Mhm.