This afternoon, Congresswoman Joyce Beatty was conducting a virtual first meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus from her office in Washington, D.C.
As she was leaving her office to cast her vote to confirm the 2020 election for Joe Biden, she received an internal alert to stay where she was because it was unsafe.
She and her team hunkered down in her office.
“We have been barricaded. Doors locked for our own protection,” she said.
Hundreds of Pro-Trump supporters swarmed the U.S. Capitol and managed to breach the U.S. Senate chamber.
"It has been unbelievable, unacceptable, and unimaginable to watch these individuals break out windows, destroy the Capitol, to actually scale up the walls to many of our buildings break the glass and come in, to break into Speaker Pelosi's office, and to get onto the House floor. They are now taking podiums and statues and destroying property,” Rep. Beatty said describing the chaos.
She says she is more angry than she is scared and will be calling for a full-scale investigation as it relates to safety and how we move forward because racism is still a national crisis.
Rep. Beatty compared today’s incident to the Black Lives Matter protest in Washington, D.C. several months ago and pointed out the stark differences in how the crowds were handled.
"When we had members of BLM who came with t-shirts, signs, they didn't come with weapons, or flags and they came to march for change and stand up for George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and all those who came before them. When you look at how they were treated, you ask where is law enforcement now?” said Beatty.
“This is the work of this president,” she said. “This president invited and sent people here. This to me is equivalent of treason for you to come and deface and destroy the Capitol and to have members of Congress, and young staff have their lives threatened?"
Beatty says she is prepared to stay all night and work through the fear if it means Congress can do the peoples’ work.
“I think this has only encouraged me more to fight more and make sure that this president is no longer in the White House or having an effect on how we lead this country,” she said.