As a mob of Trump supporters roamed the halls of the Capitol building Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, was holed up in Room H-208 alongside other members of Congress and staff, with a heavy desk blocking the door.
“They were pounding at the door, pushing at the door,” Neal recounted on Thursday.
The protesters who invaded the Capitol, opposed to the election of Joe Biden to the presidency, and their overrun of the building, caused a delay in the certification of his Electoral College win until the early hours of Thursday morning.
Neal put blame for what happened squarely at the feet of President Donald Trump, who has been falsely claiming that he won the 2020 presidential election.
“He clearly incited that mob yesterday with his incendiary comments,” Neal said.
Neal also said he supports invoking the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to remove Trump from office.
The 25th Amendment allows for the vice president to step into the presidency if the vice president and a majority of the presidential cabinet determine the president is unable to discharge his duties.
U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Worcester, chose not to mince words when describing Wednesday’s events.
“A group of domestic terrorists came into the Capitol, which is a citadel of democracy, and desecrated this place,” he said. “They tried to instigate a coup at the request of Donald Trump.”
McGovern also called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked.
“If not that, then we should bring another impeachment resolution to the floor,” he said.
McGovern said the president could incite more violence or even start a war. But he also noted that Biden’s election had been certified.
“The cowards and the domestic terrorists lost,” he said.
During the Capitol building takeover, McGovern was asked to preside over the House of Representatives, following the evacuation of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He and others in the House chambers were eventually escorted out, with each member being instructed to grab a tear gas mask.
As he was leaving the chambers, McGovern said he saw the Confederate flag among the protesters.
“It made me sick to my stomach,” McGovern said of seeing that flag flying in the Capitol.
Neal said that prior to the incident he was on the phone with the secretary of state for Northern Ireland. As he was talking to him, however, his staff passed him notes about the situation.
“As I went to the window, there they were,” he said about the protesters. “They were literally pounding on the window.”
The congressman and others eventually escaped through tear gas under police escort. When he returned later, he found the window he’d been looking through had been smashed.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.