La. lawmakers condemn chaos at nation’s Capitol

BATON ROUGE (WAFB) - Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La) tweeted a video following Wednesday’s chaos at the nation’s Capitol.

“This is wrong. It is absolutely wrong. It is un-American,” Cassidy said. “Period.”

Angry supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday in a chaotic protest aimed at thwarting a peaceful transfer of power, forcing lawmakers to be rushed from the building and interrupting challenges to Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. Trump issued a restrained call for peace but did not call on his supporters to leave.

“They should stop. Period,” he continued. “This is about our country, it is not about hooligans.”

Senators were being evacuated. Some House lawmakers tweeted they were sheltering in place in their offices.

Senator Bill Cassidy gave us a first-hand account about what he witnessed on Wednesday while he was inside the House Chamber.

“And all of a sudden, Mitt Romney walked behind me very quickly. I heard someone say, hey look, the Capitol’s been breached. Then quickly within 30 seconds, the rumor went through the word went through that indeed there were protestors that had broken into the Capitol, damaging the building as they came in,” said Senator Bill Cassidy.

Sen. Cassidy tells WAFB, Vice President Mike Pence had already been evacuated at that point. And then when there were too many rioters inside, members of Congress and staff, were forced to head ot a safe location as well.

WAFB asked the senator about where that secure location members of congress went to was, and he could not tell us for safety reasons.

“There are different places where people are, but it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, it doesn’t matter your status, you’re an American. And Americans take care of each other. We don’t riot, we don’t act like we’re a third world country, we don’t attempt to disrupt a constitutional process,” said Cassidy.

“This was a fraudulent election, but we can’t play into the hands of these people, we have to have peace,” said President Trump in part, in a video released to his social media accounts.

Cassidy pressed President Trump on Twitter to come out on TV and to condemn the violence.

WAFB’s Lester Duhe’ asked Cassidy whether he thought the video the president posted was enough.

“He needs to speak, because the president can speak as no one else can to these folks. And he needs to speak in a way which unequivocally, without justification for any bad activity, condemns this activity and tells it to stop,” said Sen. Cassidy.

“Whatever party you are, whoever you are, we have common ground that this must stop. It is to be condemned, it is to be prosecuted, it should not be tolerated, it is sedition,” Cassidy also echoed.

Other Louisiana congressmen tweeted about their support for the Capitol Police Wednesday.

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