During a discussion Friday on the latest COVID-19 relief package, Congressman Henry Cuellar (TX-28) also took time to give a firsthand account of the attack on the Capitol building and to discuss how he believes President Donald Trump should be impeached.

“I am on the third floor… and I could see what was happening such as people gathering first in the hundreds and then in the thousands,” Cuellar said. “I have seen different protests in Washington, many different protests. I think that the biggest we had was in 2010 during the Tea Party as I think that was a larger crowd, but that crowd was different. The difference is that they never rushed in or made an attempt to rush into the Capitol.”

Cuellar condemned the attack and called the rioters “traitors” even though they called themselves patriots. He said all these individuals should be prosecuted for the felonies they committed in entering a government building and doing the damage they did.

As they rushed in, which included a smaller group of the much larger group that remained outside, Cuellar said they began breaking windows and storming into offices as well. He said the security perimeter that usually is put into place to protect the Capitol from such attacks is placed in front of the building by Capitol police and other members of law enforcement that are called for reinforcements. However, he said this it was not the case.

Cuellar believes the security breach deems an investigation into what really happened.

“We will find out what happened in this particular situation as the hardline was very close to the Capitol, and once they got past through that, they went to the doors. Had never seen anything like this, people breaking windows, people climbing windows and doors,” Cuellar said.

He said there are videos and pictures providing evidence that these individuals committed crimes which can be prosecuted, and officials continue to search for and arrest these individuals in the days following the attack.

Cuellar said he believes the president directly incited the crowd to storm the Capitol during the rally held just before the group marched to the front steps of the Capitol where the electoral college votes were being certified. He also said he believes certain lawmakers, including Texas Senator Ted Cruz, are culpable because of their rhetoric leading up to the attack.

“The president got up there and in my opinion incited the crowd, because from my office I could see first a few hundred people, then after they finished the rally they all came in,” Cuellar said.

Since he believes the president is directly related to the events that unfolded Wednesday, Cuellar said Trump should be impeached for a second time. Although there is not much time to complete the process and he does not know how the Senate will respond, he believes a vote should at least be made to impeach him for a second time as soon as possible.

“I am calling for the impeachment of of the president after everything is taken into consideration,” Cuellar said.

While Cuellar also placed blame on Cruz for inciting the rioters by continuing to claim it was a fraudulent election, he stopped short of calling for him to resign.

“That is his decision to resign, but I would say that I highly disagree by the position that he took,” Cuellar said. “We had Senator Cruz, and we had Senator (John) Cornyn, and I would have to say that I listened to the statement that Senator Cornyn gave before when he said he was not going to support what certain Republicans took. I’ve got to hand it to Senator Cornyn as I think that he understood in the disputes by states like Arizona and Pennsylvania that it was fraudulent are not true after over 60 investigations and decisions.”

According to Cuellar, many of the judges Trump appointed to office are the same ones declaring there is no evidence of fraud.

During the days following the attack and after coming into contact with many of his networking partners and colleagues throughout Latin American, he said many have been surprised by what happened in the United States. Cuellar said many of these individuals mocked the fact that something only seen in countries where coups happened could be seen in the United States.

“The images that we have seen are similar to other countries in which we see people going into presidential palaces and legislative buildings,” Cuellar said. “Never did I think that this would happened in the United States.

Another issue Cuellar mentioned about the rioters going into the Capitol was many of them were not wearing face masks as he said many of them do not believe in wearing them.