Congressman Mike Doyle Recalls Horror Of Jan. 6 But Worries Lessons Haven't Been Learned

WASHINGTON, D.C. (KDKA) - Most local members of Congress were deeply affected by the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. A year later, one local member worries some Americans have still not learned the lesson.

On Jan. 6 a year ago, KDKA political editor Jon Delano interviewed U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, a Forest Hills Democrat, before the session to certify President-elect Biden's election. A few hours later Jon was back on a Zoom call with Doyle, hearing in real-time some frightening details of the insurrection to stop the Congress from doing its job.

"We've been ordered to shelter in place," Doyle told KDKA in that interview. "These protesters have breached the Capitol, and they are literally steps outside the door of the House of Representatives and there are people actually in the Senate."

"Members that are in the House chamber have been ordered to hide under their desks. Guns are drawn and there's a standoff going on as we speak," Doyle said on that day.

We all know what happened. Lives were lost, many police were injured and over 700 law-breakers face prosecution with more to come.

WATCH: KDKA's Jon Delano reports

And, of course, Congress returned late that night to finish its certification of Biden's win even though eight of Pennsylvania's nine Republican congressmen, including U.S. Reps. Mike Kelly of Butler and Guy Reschenthaler of Peters, voted not to count Pennsylvania's vote.

"After the Capitol had been attacked and defiled and they were screaming to hang the vice president and looking for Speaker Pelosi to kill her, after all that happened, these guys had the audacity to come back into the Capitol and dispute the votes in Pennsylvania," said Doyle on Thursday. "I thought it was a shameful moment."

KDKA reached out to both Kelly and Reschenthaler but neither were available to go on camera.

Doyle says his Republican colleagues know the election was not stolen, certainly not in Pennsylvania, since they were elected on the same ballot as Biden.

"They don't seem to have the courage to confront what they know is not true, but because this former president has such a stranglehold on so many of their constituents, they're afraid to stand up to them," said Doyle."But deep down inside when they go home and look in the mirror, they know the truth."

The state's most senior member of Congress says repeating former President Trump's big lie about election fraud in Pennsylvania is un-American.

"Even more shamefully, some members of Congress and some elected officials that are running for governor and the U.S. Senate and in these state legislatures that continue to perpetuate this lie which causes distrust in the basic institutions of democracy which is dangerous for our country," says Doyle."So they need to stop it."

Doyle says some folks just refuse to believe facts. President Biden won Pennsylvania by over 80,000 votes. County election officials identified only 26 votes cast fraudulently, and the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, rejected all the claims of fraud raised by President Trump and his supporters.