KANSAS CITY, Mo. — January 6th is a day emblazoned into the memory of some lawmakers who represent the Kansas City metro.
KSHB 41 News reached out to Missouri Sens. Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley, Kansas Sens. Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran, and Reps. Emanuel Cleaver II, Sam Graves, Vicky Hartzler, Jake LaTurner and Sharice Davids to ask about their experiences and reflections from the day a protest turned deadly in the U.S. Capitol.
Hawley, Cleaver and Davids all agreed it was frightening.
"I'm going to say something that I only said to my wife, I was scared," Cleaver said.
And since that day, Cleaver said the uneasiness has continued.
"This is a nightmare," he said. "The problem is that usually when you wake up from a nightmare, you can move on. When I came to my senses, the monsters were still there. The nightmare never ended, and it hasn't ended yet."
Davids said initially, members of Congress were not fully aware of what was unfolding outside.
“I can only imagine what it was like for people who were watching, and just the unbelievable circumstances that were playing out," she said.
For her, the images are still so jarring she hasn't looked at them since.
“It’s still just a bit much, so I don’t watch the videos or look at the pictures and that sort of thing. It was a traumatizing event for the entire country,” Davids said.
Hawley, the lone Republican representing the Kansas City area who agreed to talk with KSHB 41, maintains, “I’ll defend anybody’s right to protest as long as they do it peacefully because it’s in the Constitution. Now, when you cross that line and you turn to violence and you break the law, then you’re going to go to jail.”
When it comes to the response and subsequent investigations, Davids is placing her trust in a House committee tasked with looking into the events.
“That will be the way that we help make sure that nothing like this happens again," she said.
Meanwhile, Hawley called it, "A 100% partisan exercise to try to help them keep the House, control the House of Representatives and politicize an issue that should not be politicized,” highlighting a Senate committee that reviewed the security failings on Jan. 6.
Cleaver believes the failings are much deeper and dangerous than that.
"We were polarized before January 6th. Now, we are devilishly divided," Cleaver said, issuing a cautionary tale as the country marks this somber anniversary. "I hope that we will never forget that democracy, based on what happened January 6th, is delicate."
The House committee is expected to release an interim report this summer.
