One could still hear the anger in the voice of U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, more than one year after an angry mob breached the U.S. Capitol building in a failed attempt to stop the certification of Electoral College votes in the 2020 presidential election.

You could see it in her eyes, in the way she softly banged on the table to emphasize her points, in the way her teeth almost clenched when she recounted the events of that day, when she, her husband and a staff member were caught in the middle of it all.

Her visage changed when she was asked how she felt later that night, when, after a joint session of Congress had to literally take cover in secret rooms from the rampaging mob for hours, they reconvened in the Senate chambers to finish the job they started earlier that day.

Her face softened, and she smiled slightly.

“I was proud,” she said.

“I felt like one of the best efforts ever to destroy us was defeated and we are here to do our job and come hell or high water, we were going to do our job, and we did it,” said Watson Coleman (D-12). “And we showed all of those people around this country that love this country and respect this democracy and needed us to show up and be strong and be united that we the members of the congress that went there and cast that vote the right way stood up for our country.”

Watson Coleman appeared on the Franklin Reporter & Advocate News Hour to give her thoughts and recollections on the Capitol riot, one year later: