Members of the House and Senate were evacuated from their respective chambers when the rioters forced their way into the building, knocking over barricades and forcing their way past police in an attempt to stop the counting of state electoral votes.
"When you come into the chambers, when you start opening members' desks, when you stand up in their balcony, to somehow put that in the same category as permitted protest is just a lie," Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota told reporters.
Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina called Carlson's claims "bulls**t."
"I was down there, and I saw maybe a few tourists, a few people who got caught up in things," he said. "But when you see police barricades breached, when you see police officers assaulted, all of that, or you had to be in close proximity to it, if you were just a tourist, you should have probably lined up at the Visitor Center and came in on an orderly basis. I just don't think it's helpful."
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said that the events of Jan. 6 were "an attack on the Capitol."