(CAPITOL CITY NOW) – A hearing about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol – on its fifth anniversary – carried an Illinois flavor.

Former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the Jan. 6 commission, said President Trump’s actions to try to reverse the 2020 election results were un-American. “The votes are counted, and the winner wins, and when you violate that, you create real damage to the American people,” said Kinzinger. “How can we ever ensure that our votes matter if we bow to the narrative of a president who incites an insurrection, denies doing it, and then pardons the insurrectionists?”

U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Matteson) said political violence has only gotten worse. Calling the pardons “an outrageous decision,” Kelly said, “He let criminals loose in our country, because he doesn’t care for law and order, unless it serves him.”

Kelly said she will never forget being on all fours, hiding in the House gallery.

And Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul was not at the Capitol five years ago, but he did file several lawsuits against Trump. He quoted Alexander Hamilton: “Just the suggestion that one state’s militia could be sent to another state for the purpose of political retribution was inflammatory, and that it is impossible to believe that a president would employ such preposterous means to accomplish their designs.

“Yet, that is exactly what President Trump did.”