U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., was in the gallery of the House chamber Wednesday afternoon when he had to hit the floor, prepare to don a gas mask and escape through a Capitol complex tunnel along with his colleagues as a mob backing President Donald Trump stormed the building.
“We were all in fear of our safety. The moment that was most scary was when we were on that balcony and we were told to lie down” by Capitol Police who had their guns drawn, Welch said in a conference call with Vermont reporters around 4 p.m.
“At that moment I heard the efforts to batter down the entry door, and I saw a Capitol Police officer in front of the doors with a gun drawn, and I saw something come through the door itself … that was scary.”
“Police ordered all of us to lie on the ground behind our seats, and they made it clear that they were preparing for potential gunfire, and all of us did that,” Welch said.
Capitol Police had also told lawmakers to prepare to put on gas masks becaus tear gas may have been deployed, Welch said.
The representative said he and his colleagues were ultimately able to “make a dash for it” through a side door and down some stairs in the Capitol, leading to the complex’s tunnel system, where small subway cars carry members of Congress to their nearby office buildings.
Welch said he and his House colleagues were in a secure location, waiting for a resumption of the certification of the Electoral College vote, but he had not heard of the fate of his Vermont colleagues, U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, and independent Bernie Sanders.
Leahy shortly thereafter tweeted out: “Safe with other Senators. We are eager to get back on Senate Floor when safe and resume the certification of the election.”
And Sanders later tweeted, “The man directly responsible for the chaos of today is Donald Trump, who has made it clear that he will do anything to remain in power — including insurrection and inciting violence. Trump will go down in history as the worst and most dangerous president in history.”
New Hampshire’s U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, both Democrats, also tweeted out that they were OK.
“My staff and I are safe. We are heeding the safety guidance from Capitol Police. We will not be stopped from doing our Constitutional duty,” Shaheen said.
U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., was also in the House balcony and escaped with a gas mask on.
She said, “We crouched behind the balcony wall and then scrambled through the rows of seats and under the railings all the way to the far corner of the chamber.”
Welch said Trump deserved full blame for the mob’s actions, which he called “criminal conduct,” and said the historic chamber where Abraham Lincoln once debated weighty matters of war and peace “was overtaken by people who had been incited by President Trump to come here and do harm. There is a lot of damage done.”
Welch said he would support removing Trump from office but doesn’t think realistically it would happen before Jan. 20, but said he was committed to vote to uphold the Electoral College victory of President-elect Joe Biden.
“This Congress is going to do its job of certifying that decision,” Welch said.
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican who voted for Biden, called for Trump to be removed from office because of the violence by “rioters” and said he had “orchestrated a campaign to cause an insurrection” to overturn the election.
“The fabric of our democracy and the principles of our republic are under attack by the President,” Scott said in a statement. “Enough is enough. President Trump should resign or be removed from office by his Cabinet, or by the Congress.”
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, also criticized the violence, but did not single out Trump in a midafternoon tweet.
“What is going on at the United States Capitol Building is not Democracy, it is chaos and violence. It is un-American, and must stop immediately,” Sununu said.
John P. Gregg can be reached at jgregg@vnews.com.