NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Queens Rep. Grace Meng was in a room near the Capitol building's House chamber on Wednesday afternoon when received an alert warning her to "stay away from the windows and the doors," she recalled in an interview with 1010 WINS on Thursday.
"Within 15 minutes, I started hearing loud chants and stomping from the room that I was in," the congresswoman said. "And when I looked at the television screen, I realized that they were right outside my room, so I didn't know what to do."
In separate interviews with 1010 WINS, Meng and her colleagues — Queens Rep. Gregory Meeks and Long Island Rep. Kathleen Rice — discussed the siege at the Capitol and shared their thoughts on President Donald Trump's remaining days in office.
Rep. Grace Meng: "I turned off the lights, I muted the television. I put in calls for help. And you know, I was very nervous. I tried to barricade and block the door from opening so I moved whatever furniture I could in front of the doors so that they wouldn't be able to get in.
Because I didn't want to talk out loud, I asked my staff to call the Capitol police, to let them know that I was in there, and I needed help. They did not come quickly. I think that they were just overwhelmed with the people that had invaded the complex. And I did get rescued, but after five hours or so.
What I will say is that in the last few years, regardless of what types of protests and rallies there were, there was always [a] strong police presence, and there were never instances where there would be one police officer by him or herself for a long space. And I thought that that was a little strange, what I was seeing on TV and even in the complex, that there weren't a group of them together, or they didn't seem to have more backup. I literally thought, what would happen if for some rare reason — I did not think it would actually happen — but I was concerned that a Capitol police officer could be easily overwhelmed if a group of rioters approached them.
I did see videos that seemed to show the officers moving the barricades and letting them pass certain points which really concerned me. I'm trying to find out the context of those, but that is very concerning. I think there needs to be a top-down investigation of what happened.
I do believe that [Trump] needs to be removed. I know that there are only 13 days left, but there needs to be consequences for [the] actions and words that led up to yesterday's violence.
I think yesterday, even in the hours after what happened, we saw a different tone coming from even the few Republican members that were, just hours earlier, much more strongly supporting the objections to the elections. And I hope that it really is some sort of reckoning for the Rrepublican party, and I really believe that we can and should come together."
Rep. Gregory Meeks: "It was quite a day yesterday — a day that I never thought I would see on the grounds of the United States Capitol.
I [want] to make sure that there is a complete investigation that takes place, why the Capitol police and others were not prepared for what took place yesterday. Surely there were warnings beforehand, and clearly the kind of presence of law enforcement was nowhere near the presence of law enforcement when they had Black Lives Matter rallies, things of that nature previously.
I know I talked to a number of my colleagues on the floor last night, and we all want to make sure there is a complete and through investigation to figure out what exactly took place. We know that this was incited — to me, it was an attempted coup d'état — incited by the 45th president of the United States. He clearly egged it on. He clearly never switched from that. Even when he was so-called trying to tell them to go home he was telling these individuals who had forced their way into the United States Capitol, into the... Chambers of the Senate, and into the offices of the Speaker, 'These are good people.' He was saying, 'We love you. America will never forget this day. They will never forget you.'
That was coming from the lips of the individual who is supposed to be the Commander-in-Chief of the United States of America. He, in fact, was the Commander-in-Chief of the Proud Boys, and those others that stormed and gave America a huge black eye, here as well as around the world.
I should hope that the people… who said they stayed in the White House because they think things could get worse with this president, because of his mental state, should, in fact, get together and implement the utilization of the 25th Amendment. Clearly this man is not fit to be president of the United States."
Rep. Kathleen Rice: "I think it's really important for us to call yesterday what it was, which was an insurrection of the U.S. Capitol Building, and... a domestic terror attack. And these domestic terrorists were incited by President Trump, and it was an outrageous assault on our democracy. The lead-up to yesterday was well-documented.
The president incited people to come, telling them to come, come to the Capitol. He spoke to them before, he told them to march down the street and go to the Capitol, and cheered them on as they breached the security of the Capitol Building. This is just an outrageous assault on our democracy. I personally think it's time that the president's Cabinet act and remove him from office. It's easy to say, well, what damage can he do in 13 days? Well, we saw yesterday what damage he can do, just by tweeting.
I've just had it. I'm sick and tired of my Republican colleagues making up excuses for what happened yesterday, blaming it on Antifa, when the president was praising his supporters, who showed up like a riotous gang, a seditionist gang. I'm just disgusted by my Republican colleagues and their failure to do something about this danger to our country who's sitting in the Oval Office.
"We're going to look into exactly how the planning went, with the Capitol police, and the D.C. police. I know that there was some hesitation to send the National Guard in but clearly they came in way too late. Every single person, we know who they are, none of them were wearing masks, of course, because they don't believe in wearing masks. We can tell who they are. They should all be arrested. There were only 52 arrests yesterday. There were tens of thousands of people storming the Capitol. We need to take action now."
Interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.
