Demonstrations outside Democratic National Committee headquarters Wednesday night "rattled me more than Jan. 6 did," Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., said.
"I was scared. Someone is going to get hurt at one of these things. They can get out of control," Dingell, who was briefly trapped with other lawmakers inside the building on Capitol Hill when police and protesters clashed outside during a demonstration for a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas, told the Detroit News Friday.
Scores of Democrat representatives and candidates, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., were inside the building for a campaign reception when it was interrupted by chanting outside. Protesters said they wanted to block entrances and exits to force politicians to encounter their candlelight vigil and their calls for an end to the fighting. Many of them wore black shirts saying, "Cease Fire Now."
However, the situation swiftly devolved. Capitol Police said about 150 people were "illegally and violently protesting" in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington. But protesters blamed police for the violence, saying officers rushed them without warning.
According to the Detroit News, Dingell tried to exit the building through multiple doors, but protesters had blocked her and others in. She told the news outlet that a police officer stopped her at the front and pointed to a medic treating an officer who had been pepper-sprayed.
Protest organizers said the intent in blocking entrances "was to make one path for Congress people and elected officials coming and going, so that we could speak to them. We've been calling their offices every day for months, desperately trying to get meetings and ... often ignored."
"Instead of being able to actually talk to our elected officials and pray with them and sing with them and ask them for a cease-fire, the police shoved people down the steps," said Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg of Minneapolis, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and its Rabbinical Council.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.