Gas masks, broken glass, and silence: How Minnesota lawmakers remember Jan. 6

Hanging in the corner of Senator Amy Klobuchar’s capitol hill office is one of the official Electoral College roll call forms certifying Joe Biden as the next president of the United States.

Klobuchar, who was in charge of the Electoral College for the Democrats in the Senate that day, signed the form around 4 a.m. on January 7th after a whirlwind day and night that shook democracy to its core.

“That was a night that wasn’t easy for anyone,” she said. “It changed lives forever.”

5 INVESTIGATES recently traveled to Washington D.C. to hear what Minnesota’s elected officials remember from the traumatic events that day and the scar it left on the institution where they were elected to serve.

Every Republican member of Congress from Minnesota was invited to share their experiences from that day. Not one of them responded to requests for an interview.

Their silence is indicative of how politically charged the attack has become, let alone the investigation into who inspired it.

“We can’t normalize what happened on January 6, we just can’t as a nation,” said Rep. Angie Craig, who at one point retreated under her desk in her office nearby after receiving an alert from Capitol police on her phone.

“In hindsight, I was very lucky to be back in my office when the Capitol was breached, and when the lockdown happened,” she said.

Looking back at the deadly attack, members of Congress described the day that is just as surreal a year later. While trapped inside the Capitol, they walked over broken glass and blood, and desperately called loved ones because they were unsure of how it would end.

Videos later revealed how rioters rushed police lines, assaulted officers, and broke down windows as public officials barricaded themselves inside.

The U.S. Capitol Building had become overrun by an angry mob determined to halt the peaceful transfer of power from the Trump administration to Biden’s administration.

“It started with the noise, pounding on the doors, breaking of glass,” said Rep. Dean Phillips. “Furniture was shoved in front of the seats. The house chaplain was issuing a prayer and people were crying. Many were making phone calls to their family saying goodbye.”

The Minnesota congressman was in the house gallery that day to witness the certification of the Electoral College results.

Phillips and his colleagues in the gallery ended up reaching for gas masks under their seats, an extraordinary safety precaution put in place following the terror attacks on 9/11.

He was among those who reached out to loved ones amid the chaos.

“My disposition was to reassure my family, I’d be okay,” he said. “But the truth is, I didn’t know if I would be.”

One year later, many members of Congress have held on to various mementos from that day — Phillips keeps the gas mask he used in his office cabinet, Craig has a framed picture of her walking through the tunnels in the early morning hours on the 7th, and that official tally of the Electoral College is a constant reminder for Klobuchar of what she and her colleagues endured that day.

The fact that Congress still tallied the votes, despite the angry mob’s best efforts, is what Klobuchar calls her single most memorable moment in the senate.

“That Republican senator from Missouri, Roy Blunt and I and Vice President Pence… walked over the shattered glass to the house and finished our job,” she said.