Congress was suspended in the nation’s capital on Wednesday, as armed protesters forced their way into the US Capitol Building, with both the US Senate and US House of Representatives in session counting Electoral College votes. Democratic Congresswoman Cindy Axne, who represents Iowa’s Third Congressional District, sent a tweet stating her and her staff are safe and sheltering in place under the protection of US Capitol Police, and asked President Trump to tell them to stop.

Axne tells KNIA News she is witnessing something she wishes she had never seen.

“What we are seeing here in Washington is something that I thought a country like the United States would never see, which is essentially Americans trying to overturn their elected officials and their government body. They are staging a coup, they have made it into the Capitol, onto the chamber floor, into Statuary Hall. The last thing I saw was someone coming out bloodied on a stretcher. We are in complete lockdown, we are to stay away from windows, stay away from doors, do not leave, surrounding the Capitol within a two-block area the place is in lockdown.”

Newly elected Republican Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks, representing Iowa’s Second Congressional District, also sent a tweet that she and her staff are sheltering in place, and stating it is OK to protest peacefully, however storming government buildings and attacking law enforcement officers is unacceptable.

To listen to the full interview with Congresswoman Cindy Axne, click below.