AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) – During Friday’s campaign kickoff event at Hodgetown, U.S Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas District 13, relived his experience at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, one year later.
According to previous reports by MyHighPlains.com, the U.S. Capitol was breached by protesters as representatives debated the certification of November 2020’s election. Hundreds of individuals marched through the halls of the U.S. Capitol, calling for the overturning of the presidential election as well as making violent threats against elected officials.
Since that day, numerous attendees have been charged with their participation in the insurrection, including the Munn family from Borger as well as Leonard Gruppo of Clovis, New Mexico.
At the time, Jackson shared with MyHighPlains.com his experience at the U.S. Capitol that day, saying that Capitol Police came to the floor of the House of Representatives as the vote was being debated. After a while, the situation escalated quickly, with individuals attempting to beat the door down, and lawmakers stacking furniture to protect the elected officials inside.
“American heroes have died on battlefields all over this world to protect our freedoms and allow peaceful debate in this very building. Today that was taken away from us. Those involved should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” a statement from Jackson given to MyHighPlains.com read at the time. “…The Constitution protects our right to peacefully protest injustices, but violence has no place in our civic discourse. America is better than this.”
When asked about the anniversary of the events on Jan. 6, 2021, Jackson said he was not focusing his time looking back on that day. However, he criticized the current efforts to find out what happened that day, saying that lawmakers have turned it into a partisan battle.
“I thought there were going to be some legitimate efforts to dissect what happened that day and get to the root of the problem there and figure out why that happened because I obviously didn’t support forcibly entering the Capitol. I was on the inside, as you might remember,” Jackson said. “Unfortunately, the Dems have made every day, since then, Jan. 6. You turn on the TV and look at MSNBC or CNN, that’s all they talk about, all day long every day. They’ve made a complete circus out of this. They put together a completely partisan, sham, investigation on this… I think the American people are done with this. They want to move beyond that. They want to move forward, not look backward, and not continue to try to hype up the things the way the Dems are doing right now.”
At the time, Jackson stressed that the individuals participating in the events in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, were “not protestors” but “domestic terrorists.” In the statement, Jackson called the overall event “a stain on our nation.”
A year later, Jackson said he still believes that individuals who broke the law should be held accountable for their actions that day.
“Look, I don’t think anybody was a domestic terrorist, that I’m aware of, yet,” he said. “That hasn’t been proven at all. I think that the people who entered the Capitol forcibly, the people who destroyed property, the people who broke windows and knocked down doors, they need to be held accountable, absolutely. They broke the law and they need to be held accountable. But this whole pursuing this thing like it was Pearl Harbor or 9/11, which is what the Dems are pushing out today, is absolutely ridiculous.”