Congresswoman Ashley Hinson held her first weekly press call on Friday morning. She said her first week in Washington D.C. was an eventful, challenging week.
“It was a really trying week for our country,” Hinson said. “After being in the middle of it, it took some time to really process everything that happened on Wednesday. We were locked in our offices for several hours.”
Hinson said she FaceTimed with her family to let them know she was OK and to explain what was taking place.
“I’m willing to bet a lot of families had to have some very tough conversations around the kitchen table on Wednesday night,” Hinson said. “But we all pushed through and I would like to extend my thanks to the Capitol Police and all the law enforcement. We were able to get back into the chamber and we were able to do our job.”
Hinson voted to certify the election results and pointed out the entire Iowa delegation did so as well.
During the call, she offered condemnation of the “violence” that was seen in the Capitol on Wednesday.
“It was a true disruption to our democratic process and that was unacceptable to me,” she said. “Words matter and rhetoric matters and we saw that really firsthand at the Capitol this week. I was disappointed in how the President handled the situation. As a leader, I will always work to unite us, and especially that’s important right now.”
Hinson was “proud” that Congress returned to work on Wednesday and continued what it “needed to get done for the American people.”
“Which was certifying this election this week,” she said. “It was our job.”
Now, Hinson said, is the time for America to come together and move the country forward.
“There are a lot of pieces of legislation that I know we can still work together on,” she said. “I want to focus on the things that we do agree on.”
One of those is to address election reform. Hinson said Iowa has a good model for the rest of the country to follow when it comes to election security.
This week revealed the importance of working to restore confidence in the electoral process.
“It makes doing our job that much more important — protecting our democracy that much more important,” Hinson said. “That’s what I will continue to do. It’s not lost on me what happened here this week. I’ve done a lot of praying, a lot of soul searching.”
In her first week, Hinson cosponsored 13 pieces of legislation — seven pro-life bills, three government transparency bills, a Second Amendment rights bill, a veterans bill and a constitutional amendment to prevent the packing of the Supreme Court.
Moving forward, Hinson said she is working to make sure her team is ready to get to work when Joe Biden begins his presidency in 12 days.
“We can all agree that further dividing the country right now would serve no one,” she said.
