OPINION: Column: Rep. Robin Kelly Describes Terror As Rioters Stormed Capitol

Jan. 15—The Jan. 6 terrorist attack on our nation's Capitol has produced images as powerful as planes striking the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.

An insurrectionist strolled through the rotunda carrying a Confederate flag. Police officers shot through a door and killed a woman outside the House chamber. A noose hung from a gallows on the Capitol grounds.

The purpose of the attack was to make members of Congress afraid to affirm the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, said U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Matteson.

"People are afraid," Kelly said Thursday by phone from Washington. "We need extra protection. This has truly been an assault on democracy."

Kelly recounted her experience eight days earlier, when rioters stormed the Capitol, smashed doors and windows and assaulted police officers. Congress was in session to count Electoral College ballots that certified Joe Biden had beaten Donald Trump to win the presidency.

Kelly was in the gallery above the House floor when insurgents breached the building as members debated counting votes in Arizona. Kelly said she followed the instructions of Capitol police officers who were in the gallery with members.

"They told us we might have to hide under our seats and to get a gas mask," she said. "Then they told us to get up and run to the other side of the gallery, the more Republican side. By the time we got there we heard a gunshot. I'm assuming that was the shot where the woman was killed."

Video posted on social media by Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., showed Kelly and other House members crouching below a partition and sheltering as the commotion began. Kelly said at that moment, she feared for her life.

"We all jumped up and ran out. It felt like we were running through a maze until they got us to an undisclosed location," she said. "Needless to say, our hearts were pounding. We didn't know if this was going to be it, or what the situation was."

Thousands illegally entered the Capitol. Several brandished various weapons. A few dozen were apprehended that day. Several more have been identified and taken into custody across the country since then.

Kelly said she saw police detain a few insurrectionists as she hurried through the halls to a secure location.

"There were five guys laying flat on the floor," she said. "The police had guns pointed at them. Then we stayed in the undisclosed location for four or five hours."

Video has since emerged showing Republican members of Congress refusing to wear masks while in a secure location during the tumult. At least three Democratic members of Congress have since tested positive for COVID-19, including Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois.

"Unfortunately, that is becoming a super spreader event," Kelly said. "It has also affected members' spouses. It's very selfish."

The House and Senate eventually resumed their business late in the evening and affirmed the certified results. Six senators and 121 House members objected to counting Arizona. Seven senators and 138 House members objected to counting Pennsylvania.

Kelly criticized Republicans who supported Trump's unfounded claims that the election was stolen from him. Courts rejected 61 attempts to claim fraud or other improper election conduct. Anarchists howled about the Constitution, but no court found sufficient evidence to overturn results.

Members of Congress who went along with the charade must answer for their actions, Kelly said.

"My colleagues have to take responsibility for enabling this man for four years in his hatred and his fear mongering and his racist condescension," she said.

Some analysts have discussed how unsuccessful legal challenges by Trump and his supporters sought to disenfranchise Black voters in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and other states.

When some talk about legal votes, do they mean white votes? Are those calling for improved election security really advocating for voter suppression measures? To what extent does their strategy for winning future elections hinge on depressing voter turnout?

"I think that's a big part of it. The places he's come after are places where there are a lot of Black voters," Kelly said. "That's why it's so hard to get through his head that he lost Georgia."

When Trump talked about winning by a landslide, in his mind he may have meant the overwhelming support he won among white voters. The mob that came from all parts of the country to overrun the Capitol and terrorize members of Congress included white supremacists, Kelly said.

"When I think about the racist hatred, what Black people have been living with, (Trump) has doubled down on some of those things," Kelly said. "The people who came were calling Black police officers the N-word."

Reports have emerged that some Republicans in Congress have said they were unable to vote for impeachment or to recognize certified election results as legitimate because they were afraid that Trump supporters might physically harm them or members of their families. Trump has stoked fear to command party loyalty, Kelly said.

"He did that when he tweeted attacks on people unless you were 100% loyal to him," she said. "Look what he did to (Vice President Mike) Pence. Those people were coming in saying, 'Hang Pence,' and Pence has been so loyal to him. It's absolutely ridiculous."

Trump called out "weak Republicans" and mentioned Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., by name in his rally speech before the assault on the Capitol. Cheney and nine other Republican House members, including Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, voted Wednesday to impeach Trump. It was the most bipartisan impeachment vote in American history.

"Some of them, because of their base, they're a little fearful of voting what is really in their hearts because privately some of them say something different," Kelly said of Republican colleagues.

The House voted to impeach Trump for inciting an insurrection. He is the only president to be impeached twice.

"The president's actions amount to treason," Kelly said in a statement late Wednesday. "He incited a deadly insurrection against the American government to stop the peaceful transfer of power."

In addition to Trump, some members of Congress must be held accountable for their roles in the deadly insurrection, Kelly said.

"Some of them definitely recognize, some of them know, as they should, that they should be getting in trouble, that they need to be named along with President Trump, because they incited this also," Kelly said.

Some have called for censure or expulsion from Congress. Some calls for accountability mention Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri. There are calls to investigate House members who may have given guided tours of the Capitol the day before the violent insurrection or otherwise provided aid or comfort to domestic terrorists.

"One of their members said as much to me, that there were a couple of them on the inside who incited what was going on," Kelly said. "Hopefully after this is dealt with we can look at those members, too. They put us in harm's way."

The shocking violence at the Capitol hopefully signals the end of Trump's reign of terror, Kelly said. In the week since the riot, Americans have seen images of troops sleeping in the Capitol, barricades across Washington, D.C., and new metal detectors in the Capitol. America seems to be projecting a reassuring sense that security has been restored.

"I hope the 117th Congress and 2021 bring brighter days," Kelly said. "I know it's the dark before the light, but hopefully this is the ending of the dark and we can get into the light. Hopefully we can move forward."

Ted Slowik is a columnist at the Daily Southtown.

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