The attack on the U.S. Capitol was on the minds of lawmakers at the Iowa Capitol as the 2021 legislative session got underway yesterday.

Opening day speeches at the Iowa legislature are typically congenial, with bipartisan cooperation as a common theme. That was not the case. House Democratic Leader Todd Prichard of Charles City says as a 25-year Army veteran he was outraged by what happened in the U.S. Capitol. He criticized Republican Representative Dean Fisher of Montour for a now-deleted Facebook post suggesting Republicans would prevail   because, in Fisher’s words, “our side has the guns and the other side doesn’t know which bathroom to use.” House Republican Leader Matt Windschitl of Missouri Valley, a Marine Corps veteran, spoke seconds after Prichard.

Windschitl added our state and country are going through extremely unprecedented times.