From the house of Michigan, Rep. Dan Kildee was requested to defend the presidential election held on Jan.6 last year. However, there had been investigations, recounts, and court cases, but many Congress Republican members were not only refusing to certify but planning to raise objections to the results which showed Joe Biden won the presidential elections overwhelmingly.
This is why Kildee had remained candid over the past several months about what he had experienced in the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol and situations after that he had to deal with.
“This was one of the most traumatic things I’ve been through,” he told ABC News.
In the same interview to ABC News, the Michigan Congress Rep. said that he was sitting in the gallery when he saw the attackers collide with the security and invade the Capitol. The gallery of the Capitol is normally designated for visitors but due to the pandemic, the area was occupied by the members to follow SOPs.
He added that he still remembers the roars and murmurs of the crowd, but nor he not any of his colleagues could figure out how large the group would be and how violent they might become.
The Chief Justice went to use the main lectern microphone which normally the Speaker of the House uses and announced that the Capitol has been attacked.
“I just remember thinking to myself, ‘What the hell is going on? Why isn’t this, why isn’t this being put down more quickly? How could this happen?'” he said. “Obviously, it still bothers me.”
The situation became dangerous especially when the invaders reached outside of the House floor where the president normally enters the house. They were banging and knocking on the doors brutally, he said.
“Our officers had their guns drawn and had barricaded that door, but [the attackers] had broken the glass, and we didn’t know what was going to happen,” Kildee said. “I called my wife, and as soon as I heard her voice, it just hit me that I was having that phone call you hear about. From the building that’s about to collapse or from the airplanes going down.”
He said he lied to his wife that he’s okay and everything is under control. All of a sudden there were fires around. In total, 5 people died and over 150 police officers were seriously injured.
After the attack, he said he had countless sleepless nights. Dan Kildee admits that both he and the Capitol have changed after the attack. After a year, he said he has no respect for many of his Republican colleagues who rumored that the elections were nothing but a fraudulent act and objected to the fair election results. He believes that these conspiracies became the reason for the event of that day.
Dan Kildee is planning to visit the Capitol on Jan. 6 this year as he believes that Congress came back to certify the results, denying all the anecdotes.
“We finished our work over the objections of the majority of one of the two political parties in this country. If they had had their way, we would not have certified that election,” Kildee said. “The insurrection would have succeeded.”
