LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Saturday marks the third anniversary of the events of January 6th.
This week FOX5′s John Huck sat down with Nevada’s senior senator, Catherine Cortez-Masto, to discuss the events of that fateful day.
She told him, on that day, she was preparing to debate a Senate colleague over the election results in Nevada and Arizona.
Cortez-Masto took us through how it all unfolded from her perspective, and where we are three years later.
“Oh, it’s vivid to me today, as it was back then. I just it’s something that because it was such an emotional, it was physical. It was something that was so unexpected, unexpected, and it was a shock that this would even happen in our country. It’s something you will never forget where you are.”
Senator Cortez-Masto was making her way to the Senate chambers for that debate on election results when she was confronted with the reality of what was unfolding outside the Capitol.
“I walk past a police officer Capitol police officer who’s leaning over the sink in a restroom and he’s flushing his eyes out with water. And my colleagues have called my colleagues were standing around like, what what’s going on? This is very unusual what’s happening? And they said, what we think it’s been pepper spray, and I said, can’t be we’re in the United States Capitol. There’s no way the Capitol is going to be members, right? So, I said to him, or if you’ve been pepper sprayed, and he said yes. He said the protesters are close enough. We’re keeping them at bay. Don’t worry, we’re going to take care of you. “
The Senator says she knew President Trump was holding a rally nearby on the Ellilpse, and it became clear the protestors were moving on the Capitol.
“And in the middle of that debate, the Capitol police officers came in and shut it down. And they literally said, they went they said, the protesters have breached the Capitol. We need you all to stay here. This is the safest place you can be right now until we tell you to move. And then you can start hearing what’s happening, but you can’t see. And then, sure enough, they said everybody out. And they took us to a secure location. And it wasn’t until we got to that secure location. And they brought video monitors in and we were actually seeing real-time what was going on in the Capitol had no idea until then. But we knew it was bad. And to for all of us. I don’t care whether you’re Republican, Independent Democrat, everybody in that room, except for those who were still challenging the election. But everybody else said, we’re going to finish our job, no matter how long it takes, no matter how long it takes for us to get back to that Senate chambers. We will stay here all night into the next day or the next two days. We’re going to finish this, because we were just that adamant that showing the strength of our democracy and the peaceful transfer of power was important at that moment, not just for those people living in the United States, but for those around the world.”
“Is it disappointing though, that three years later this country seems to be just as divided as it was on that day? Am I overstating?” Huck asks.
“No, no, you’re not. If you’ve watched, if you watch national news, and you see, yeah, you’re going to say think it’s just as divided. What people don’t see is when I’m in the United States Senate, a lot of the legislation that we pass that you don’t hear about is bipartisan. There’s a lot of support and trying to get and work together in a bipartisan way to get things done. “
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