U.S. Rep. Manning: Trump Should Be Held Accountable For 'Appalling,' 'Criminal' Acts

Sixth District Congresswoman Kathy Manning, a Democrat who represents Guilford and most of Forsyth County, was in the U.S. Capitol Building when people taking part in a violent insurrection stormed the building.

In an interview with WFDD, Manning talks about the experience, and the consequences she wants to see for those involved. 

Interview Highlights

On her reaction when insurgents started pounding on the doors:

There was shouting back and forth from the police officers trying to figure out what was going on. At one point they told us that we should be prepared to take cover and we waited. And then they told us that they wanted us to move as quickly as possible to the other side of the gallery. We had to step over the debris from all of the gas mask packages, and we had to duck under handrails that are separating each of the seating areas. They told us to duck down and take cover; to take off our member pins so that they would not be able to identify who the members were if they broke through. That was the moment that I realized that they were after us.

On Seeing her GOP colleagues voting to oppose Biden certification:

It was appalling. I think that they have taken no responsibility for the fact that they have lied to people about what happened, there was not broad spread fraud in this election. This was a fair and free election. They have continued to promote lies and they've gotten people upset about what happened.

On her thoughts about impeachment:

I think we saw this president incite an attack on our democracy, an attack on the Capitol. He has been promoting this false narrative, this charade for months now. And on the sixth, he had called a crowd of people to come to the Capitol armed. And he stood in front of them and he incited what happened. He told them to fight and fight hard. And that's exactly what they did. And that was appalling. It was criminal. It was a betrayal of his oath of office. Five people died. Many were hospitalized. And he needs to be held accountable for that.

On what it will take to bring unity and healing to the country:

First of all, impeachment would not be a barrier to healing if the Republicans would stand up and acknowledge that what this president did was criminal and was an attack on our country, an attack on all of us, there should be no reason that this president is not immediately removed from office because he presents a clear and present danger. Now, what we need to do moving forward is the work that the people have sent us to Washington to do. We need to work with Joe Biden to get a handle on this pandemic, to make sure that we get relief to people who are struggling because of this pandemic. We need to get those vaccinations out there and in people's arms much more quickly so that kids can go back to school safely. People can get back to work safely. We can get this economy going again. Those are the things we will be focusing on once we can get past this total disaster that was caused by this president.

Click here to watch Paul Garber's full interview with U.S. Representative Kathy Manning.