Msg ID:
2732734 |
Shark, Old Dude & Obsy All Refuse To Answer This Simple Question... +4/-0
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Author:Jett
6/17/2022 10:55:26 AM
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Why were all of those people in DC on Jan 6?
Because donnie told them to come! Why would he do something so irresponsible?
There was absolutely no reason to hold that rally in DC on Jan 6, UNLESS YOU WANTED TROUBLE.
Why were all of these people in DC? Everyone knows that if they wouldn't have been there, then there would have been no riot. You bitch about Pelosi and security and the National Guard, but again if those people hadn't been encouraged to go to DC none of those things would have been an issue.
You also don't address the overthrow attempt that happened in the White House, where as far as I know, no one was wearing a buffalo suit. They did have a clown with orange makeup on hand.
I'll agree with you that those who violently attacked the Capitol were idiots with very little capabilities, that's a typical trump supporter. We'll never know if they had gotten to Pence if they would have hung him or not, but they did have gallows.
Amateurs? Absolutely, but there only to protest democracy? No way...
PICTURED: Mike Pence in a secure location under the Capitol after telling Secret Service he didn't want rioters to see him 'fleeing' - as Proud Boys say they would have killed him if they found him |
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Return-To-Index
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Msg ID:
2732739 |
Shark, Old Dude & Obsy All Refuse To Answer This Simple Question... +3/-0
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Author:TheCrow
6/17/2022 11:27:37 AM
Reply to: 2732734
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It was just a peaceful picnic...
If that's the case, Trump screwed the pooch and is not cqapable of POTUS/Commander in chief.
If that's not the case, Trump refused to intervene in a violent mob attack and congress and should never ever be in position of power.
President Donald Trump had just returned to the White House from his rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6 when he retired to his private dining room just off the Oval Office, flipped on the massive flat-screen television and took in the show. At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, thousands of his supporters were wearing his red caps, waving his blue flags and chanting his name.
Live television news coverage showed the horror accelerating minute by minute after 1:10 p.m., when Trump had called on his followers to march on the U.S. Capitol. The pro-Trump rioters toppled security barricades. They bludgeoned police. They scaled granite walls. And then they smashed windows and doors to breach the hallowed building that has stood for more than two centuries as the seat of American democracy.
The Capitol was under siege — and the president, glued to the television, did nothing. For 187 minutes, Trump resisted entreaties to intervene from advisers, allies and his elder daughter, as well as lawmakers under attack. Even as the violence at the Capitol intensified, even after Vice President Mike Pence, his family and hundreds of Congress members and their staffers hid to protect themselves, even after the first two people died and scores of others were assaulted, Trump declined for more than three hours to tell the renegades rioting in his name to stand down and go home.
Key findings
- Escalating danger signs were in full view hours before the Capitol attack, but did not trigger a stepped-up security response
- Trump had direct warnings of the risks, but stood by for 187 minutes before telling his supporters to go home
- His allies pressured Pence to reject the election results even after the Capitol siege
- The FBI was forced to improvise a plan to take back control of the Capitol
As Trump watched on television as rioters broke into the Capitol, he raged to those around him about the vice president. At 2:24 p.m., the very moment that Pence and his family were endangered by violent marauders calling him a traitor — “Hang Mike Pence!” some of them chanted — Trump made clear in a tweet whose side he was on:
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!
Jan. 6, 2:24 p.m.
Two minutes later, Trump called Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a newly elected Republican from Alabama who had been one of the president’s more outspoken allies propagating election fraud claims. “Coach, how’s it going?” Trump asked the former Auburn University football coach.
“Not very good, Mr. President,” Tuberville responded. “As a matter of fact, they’re about to evacuate us.”
“I know we’ve got problems,” Trump responded.
Amid the mayhem, Tuberville abruptly ended the call. “Mr. President, they just took our vice president out,” the senator said. “They’re getting ready to drag me out of here. I got to go.”
“You know what I see, Kevin? I see people who are more upset about the election than you are. They like Trump more than you do,” the president replied.
“You’ve got to hold them,” McCarthy said. “You need to get on TV right now, you need to get on Twitter, you need to call these people off.”
Trump responded, “Kevin, they’re not my people.”
We have sworn an oath under God to defend the Constitution. We uphold that oath at all times, not only when it is politically convenient.
Congress has no authority to overturn elections by objecting to electors. Doing so steals power from the states & violates the Constitution.
Jan. 6, 7:11 a.m.
On the drive to work, Cheney spent much of her time trying to lock down assurances from fellow House leaders that she and any other Republican voting to certify Biden’s victory would be able to speak on the House floor during the day’s proceedings.
The crowd gathered to hear Trump speak stretched to the Washington Monument. (Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post; Ray Whitehouse for The Washington Post; Matt McClain/The Washington Post; Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
“We have about 300 people up here, they’re all refusing to leave.”
Within minutes, the dispatches from officers on the scene worsened.
“There’s a large crowd that’s following us. We’re going back into the monument with the individual that’s under arrest. They’re breaking through the bike fence.”
“Units are backed into the monument. Everyone’s breaking through the bike racks.”
Then, at 9:46 a.m., an even more frightening report came in from the Lincoln Memorial. Park Police officers radioed in to say there were 500 to 800 people gathered, some with giant banner flags.
“113, we have individuals with shields and gas masks at the statue.”
“OK, they’re at the Lincoln statue with shields and masks?”
“10-4, and taking pictures right now with a flag that says ‘F--- antifa.’”
Just then, another officer at the Washington Monument radioed in:
“Just for safety, there’s a guy, a White male, walking around the flag circle with a pitchfork.”
These were bright red flags presaging the bloodshed to come. There were still two hours to go before Trump addressed the rally — and three hours before Congress was to convene to formally certify Joe Biden’s election as president. And yet law enforcement authorities declined to take action.
Instructions came over the radio to all Park Police officers:
“Ac direct for the units at 1 41: Monitor only. Do not take any type of enforcement action. Let it happen.”
“Yeah, we’re waiting on y’all.”
“Even when react gets there, monitor only. Let it happen unless we have major, major issues.”
An officer explained the strategy of restraint: “We’re not going to agitate them.”
At the White House, Trump issued an unambiguous instruction at 8:17 a.m. to Pence, who was preparing to preside over the joint session of Congress at 1 p.m.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!
Jan. 6, 8:17 a.m.
FIVE HOURS TO GO
Around the city, there was a carnival atmosphere at the various gatherings of protesters who believed they were not just witnessing history, but helping create it, with Biden’s victory about to be undone.
Employees from D.C.'s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency fanned out from the White House to the Capitol in “mobile situational awareness teams” around 9 a.m. Teams near the White House reported an unusual sight: piles of backpacks, hundreds of them, from rallygoers leaving them outside rather than taking them through magnetometers and Secret Service checkpoints for Trump’s speech. The report resonated at D.C.’s homeland security center. During a tabletop exercise that the department had held a week earlier, discarded bags were an indication of possible concealed weapons.
In the Oval Office later that morning, Trump hung around with family members and aides, alternating between watching the television in his private dining room to check on the size of the crowd assembling at the Ellipse and reviewing with speechwriter Stephen Miller the scripted remarks he was set to deliver. Some of those around Trump, including Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., indulged the fantasy that Pence would help overturn the election results.
Outside the Capitol around 11:30 a.m., a conspicuously large contingent of Trump supporters arrived with a rowdy swagger: the Proud Boys, a far-right group that engages in political violence. They stood out from the rest of the MAGA crowd, dozens moving in semi-organized formation — loose columns of five across — as if they were militiamen. They were overwhelmingly male and almost exclusively White. Body armor bulged from under hoodies and jackets. They wore patches or gaiters with Confederate flags, Punisher skulls and other extremist symbols.
As they arrived on the scene, murmurs of “the Proud Boys are here” went through the crowd, and people moved to make a clearing. “Praise God!” one woman said.
At 11:39 a.m., Trump departed the White House by motorcade for the quick drive to the Ellipse, where he gathered with aides, allies and family members beneath a white tent before taking the rally stage.
A carnivallike atmosphere permeated the crowd, who believed Biden's victory was about to be overturned. In his speech, Trump pressured Pence to “come through for us.” (Eric Lee/Bloomberg News; Ray Whitehouse for The Washington Post; Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg News)
TWO HOURS TO GO
Around noon at the Capitol, Rep. Liz CheneyRep. Liz CheneyThe GOP congresswoman from Wyoming worked behind the scenes to make sure the Jan. 6 electoral count was not disrupted. Afterward, she paid a steep political price. headed into the GOP cloakroom, an anteroom just off the chamber floor where members gather to relax. Inside, along the wall, sat tables with stacks of paper on them. Republican members lined up to sign the sheets. Cheney poked her head around to see what they were signing. They were registering as co-sponsors to contest Biden’s victory in six key states.
“Should it affect what you’re going to do?” her father asked.
After some discussion, they agreed she should press on.
As Pence entered the Capitol, his office released the letter to Congress. The finality of its conclusions sent shock waves through Trump’s orbit and beyond.
“As a student of history … I do not believe that the Founders of our country intended to invest the Vice President with unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted during the Joint Session Congress...”
Vice President Pence
Midway through Trump’s speech, about 12:45 p.m., Capitol Police officers, along with agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, were dispatched to investigate reports of a pipe bomb with a timer found outside the Republican National Committee headquarters and suspicious packages at the Supreme Court and near the Democratic National Committee headquarters — all offices close to the Capitol.
The activity proved a distraction for officers guarding the Capitol. A D.C. homeland security official assigned to keep eyes on the swelling crowd was sitting in a black SUV on the east side of the Capitol, by a row of Capitol Police bomb-squad trucks. Suddenly, officers jumped into several of the trucks near him. Half pulled away to the south. Several more took off to the west. The official realized his SUV was now one of the last remaining vehicles and that fewer than 10 officers remained between the Capitol and the growing number of protesters.
The official called Donell HarvinDonell HarvinAs the head of intelligence at D.C.'s homeland security office, Harvin led a team that spotted warnings that extremists planned to descend on the Capitol and disrupt the electoral count., who said the bomb squads were responding to the suspicious package reported near the RNC building. The two flashed back to their tabletop exercise on Dec. 30, and how an analyst had imagined a scenario in which improvised explosive devices could be used to distract law enforcement before an attack on the Capitol. “Is this really happening?” the official asked Harvin.
The president commanded the crowd to march to the Capitol to give lawmakers the “boldness” needed “to take back our country.” A limited number of police officers were there to meet them.
(Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post; Joy Sharon Yi/The Washington Post; Matt McClain/The Washington Post; Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post; The Blaze; Amanda Voisard for The Washington Post)
Trump continued roaring at the Ellipse, but some in the crowd there started migrating to the Capitol. At 12:46 p.m., Capitol Police began executing protocols to keep the peace. Officers were dispatched to block side streets as a precaution against possible vehicle rammings. This essentially created a protected funnel for the protesters, straight toward the Capitol.
Just before 1 p.m., at D.C.’s homeland security agency headquarters, about four miles south of the Capitol, Harvin and his analysts were watching a variety of live-stream footage broadcast from some of the people they had been most concerned about coming to the city. One angle showed rioters pushing in toward the scaffolding for the inauguration stage. Harvin ran out to the larger emergency operations center room. The crowd looked like it was storming the Capitol.
A city official pointed to CNN, which was displaying images of Pence and Congress meeting inside. “That’s not what’s on television,” the official said.
“It’s going to be,” Harvin fired back.
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At 1:03 p.m., Capitol Police found an unoccupied red pickup truck with Alabama tags containing a trove of weapons, including an M4 carbine assault rifle, loaded magazines of ammunition, and components to make 11 molotov cocktails.
Back at the Ellipse, Trump was finishing his speech, and the leader’s edict rang through the city like a call to arms.
“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he said. “We are going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue — I love Pennsylvania Avenue — and we are going to the Capitol.”
And then, at 1:10 p.m., he told the crowd to march to “try and give [lawmakers] the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”
Trump's edict rang through the city like a call to arms. People began to amass around the Capitol, easily pushing through barrier after barrier. (Amanda Voisard/for The Washington Post; The Washington Post; Joy Sharon Yi/The Washington Post; Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post)
60 MINUTES TO GO
Douglas Jensen hadn’t come to Washington planning to enter the Capitol, but he obeyed Trump’s call to march down Pennsylvania Avenue. Jensen hadn’t slept in more than a day when he started walking toward the white dome and was determined to make it inside and witness what he called “the storm” — a declaration of martial law and the arrests of lawmakers who insisted on certifying Biden as the next president.
That's all about to change ;)
Near the Capitol, a throng of Proud Boys stood around listening to a live stream of Trump’s speech. It was hard to hear the president’s words over the noise of the crowd, but when he urged demonstrators to descend on the Capitol, the news quickly spread from person to person. It was received as a command among the Proud Boys, who were openly radioing with each other over the walkie-talkie app Zello and casting themselves as revolutionaries.
“1776!” one man called out.
“1776!” fellow marchers responded.
“Whose Capitol? Our Capitol!” they chanted.
Law enforcement officials heard people chant “F--- Biden” and “Pelosi’s a pedo,” a reference to baseless claims about pedophilia that had spread widely among QAnon followers. Inside the FBI’s decaying concrete Brutalist headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, agents and analysts working at their desks could hear the loud chants of Trump supporters walking toward the Capitol. “FBI traitors!” they shouted. “F--- the FBI!”
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The closer people got to the Capitol building, the more frenzied and out of control the mob became. The only visible security were police in the distance. Largely unimpeded, protesters pushed through barrier after barrier. At 12:55 p.m., Capitol Police directed all available units to the western front of the Capitol to assist with breaches, and officers inside were instructed to lock some doors. Protesters clashed violently with the few police officers they encountered on the scene.
Pence presided over the certification process. Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.), in video, challenged his state's tally. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), left, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) bumped elbows after the Texan challenged results. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post; The Washington Post; Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
This is seriously crazy. Police have been breached. Chaos is going to break out and violence too.
Williamson
Babe, you should head back to your office, right?
No I am in the Capitol right now. Best for me to stay here.
We have a lot of security because the speaker is here.
What is your best move? Do not stay there just to watch!!!
About 1:30 p.m., Capt. Carneysha MendozaCapt. Carneysha MendozaA 19-year veteran of the Capitol Police, Mendoza led officers battling rioters in the Rotunda of the Capitol on Jan. 6. was at home in suburban Maryland. She had just pulled meatloaf from the oven and sat down with her 10-year-old son, Christian, before he was to spend the rest of the day with babysitters. The commander for a Capitol Police civil disturbance unit, Mendoza was about to head into work for her shift in the Capitol starting at 3 p.m.
“Break open the gate!” one man yelled, his voice bellowing over the crowd. “We're not going to be scared! We're not backing down! You mess with American people, this is what you get!”
This was a full-blown riot.
Largely unimpeded, protesters pushed through barrier after barrier. (Joy Sharon Yi/The Washington Post; Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post; Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post; Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post; Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/For The Washington Post)
Trump did not join his adherents in marching. Despite having said he would go to the Capitol, there was no apparatus set by the Secret Service or White House staff to make his movement happen. Some aides checked to see whether there had been a change of plan, but there was not one.
At 1:50 p.m., the D.C. police commander declared a riot at the Capitol.
Outside the Capitol, some rioters tried to reason with about 10 officers who were struggling to stand their ground on the building’s steps. “This is not going to end well for you,” one of them told the officers. “Look at the numbers. Just go now before it gets ugly. Just stand down.” The officers smirked but kept fighting to hold back the rioters. Within minutes, however, they were overpowered. The path to the doors was clear.
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“Get ’em!” people shouted, charging into battle. “Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!”
At 1:59 p.m., the first rioters reached the Capitol’s windows and doors and attempted to break inside. At 2:05 p.m., the first fatality was declared: Kevin Greeson, a Trump supporter from Alabama, suffered a heart attack just outside the building on the Capitol grounds.
By now, the joint session had disbanded over objections from Republicans to Arizona's vote tally, and the two chambers split to debate the matter individually. In the Senate chamber, where Pence was presiding at the rostrum and Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) was delivering a speech arguing against certifying the vote, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) received a text message from aide Chris Marroletti: “They're inside the Capitol.”
At 1:59 p.m., the first rioters reached the Capitol’s windows and doors. They broke inside within minutes. (House impeachment managers; Amanda Voisard for The Washington Post; Michael E. Ruane/The Washington Post: Brent Stirton/Getty Images)
THE CAPITOL IS BREACHED
At 2:11, the first rioters gained access to the building by using lumber and a police shield to break a window. Romney walked off the floor and headed in the direction of his small hideaway office but, at 2:12 p.m., encountered Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, who had been running down a second-floor hallway outside the Senate chamber. Goodman motioned for Romney to turn around to avoid rioters. “There are people not far. You’ll be safer inside,” Goodman told Romney. Shaken, he returned to the Senate floor.
At 2:13 p.m., Pence was hastily removed by his Secret Service detail and rushed through a side door to his ceremonial office nearby, along with his family members. The Pences came harrowingly close to danger, as rioters chanting his name charged up the stairs to that precise landing about a minute later. The Senate went into an emergency recess.
“Hit me, I’ll take it,” Jensen said. “I will take it for my country.”
Goodman turned again to run. “Second floor!” he shouted into his radio as he took the stairs two at a time, warning fellow officers that the crowd was on the move. Jensen ran after him, his arms pumping.
At 2:14 p.m., Goodman reached the second floor. He turned around again to face Jensen and the crowd. He was standing only a few feet away from a set of doors to the Senate chamber, and less than 100 feet from the office where Pence was hiding.
Goodman looked to his left, toward that office. Then he pushed Jensen in the chest and started walking toward the right, where a line of police officers was waiting. Jensen followed, and so did the rioters behind him.
“What’s the point of stopping us at this point?” Jensen said to one officer, in an exchange captured on video obtained by The Post, as rioters’ yells echoed off the marble walls.
“That's as far as it's going to go,” the officer declared.
“Then go arrest the vice president!” Jensen said.
The Senate and House adjourned as rioters marched through the Capitol and eventually entered the chambers and lawmakers' offices. (The Washington Post; Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock; Roberto Schmidt/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images; Win McNamee/Getty Images; Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock; Win McNamee/Getty Images; Igor Bobic/HuffPost; Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)
About 2:15 p.m., officer distress calls crackled over Capt. Carneysha MendozaCapt. Carneysha MendozaA 19-year veteran of the Capitol Police, Mendoza led officers battling rioters in the Rotunda of the Capitol on Jan. 6.’s radio. “Capitol Rotunda.” “10-33.” That is the department’s call of last resort, alerting that officers are in trouble. Mendoza turned around and sped to the southeast corner of the Capitol. She wanted to get to the Rotunda stat. She entered through a ground-floor entrance known by Capitol Police as Memorial Door, because of a plaque affixed to a wall there honoring two officers killed in 1998.
Mendoza stepped through an inner set of glass doors and came face-to-face with a crowd of roughly 200 rioters blocking her path to the Rotunda. She turned back to exit and find a safer route. But in the seconds that had elapsed, the crowds were now outside. Mendoza could hear banging on the door and yelling outside. She was trapped. With no protective gear, Mendoza raised her arms and started pushing her way through the crowd, yelling as she had taught her riot-control teams to do: “Get back! Get back! Get back!”
Mendoza made her way through a hallway to a line of police officers near the Rotunda who were trying to keep the crowd from penetrating deeper into the building. She fell in line and tried to help, but the police were already being pushed back. Mendoza’s arm got wedged between a railing and the wall, but a sergeant was able to pull her free.
At 2:19 p.m., Capitol Police emailed an urgent bulletin to all congressional staff:
From: U.S. Capitol Police
To: All congressional staff
Sent: Jan. 6, 2:19 p.m.
Capitol staff: Due to a security threat inside the building, immediately: - Move inside your office or the nearest office. - Take emergency equipment and visitors. - Close, lock and stay away from external doors and windows. - If you are in a public space, find a place to hide or seek cover. - Remain quiet and silence electronics. - Once you are in a safe location, immediately check in with your OEC. - No one will be permitted to enter or exit the building until directed by USCP. - If you are in a building outside of the affected area, remain clear of the police activity. - Await further direction.
On the House side, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had been presiding when her security detail pulled her from the rostrum, and the House suddenly adjourned at 2:20 p.m.
At the White House, Trump was watching the spectacle play out on television. He was pleased by thousands of his supporters storming the Capitol. Trump tweeted at 2:24 p.m.:
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!
Jan. 6, 2:24 p.m.
At this very instant, the Secret Service was scrambling to keep Pence safe, producing a remarkable moment of tension between agents and their protectee. Tim Giebels, the lead special agent in charge of Pence’s protective detail, had twice asked the vice president to evacuate, but he refused.
“I’m not leaving the Capitol,” Pence had told Giebels. He feared the image of his departing motorcade might provide vindication to the insurrectionists.
When Giebels asked a third time, at 2:26 p.m., it was an order. “They’re in the building,” the special agent told Pence. “The room you’re in is not secure. There are glass windows. I need to move you. We’re going.”
The vice president and his family and aides were led on a safe path down a staircase to a secured subterranean area that rioters couldn’t reach. Pence’s armored limousine was parked there, and Giebels asked him to get inside.
Meanwhile, Eastman, a conservative attorney advising Trump on how to try to overturn the election results, emailed Jacob, Pence’s counsel. He accused the vice president of causing the violence by refusing to block certification of Biden’s victory.
Eastman, who had been working out of a “command center” of rooms in the Willard hotel with Rudolph W. Giuliani and other Trump lawyers and advisers, wrote to Jacob, who was hiding from the mob with the Pences and other senior aides: “The ‘siege’ is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened.”
30 MINUTES IN
Inside the House chamber, scores of lawmakers were worried for their own safety and unsure what to do. Some members of Congress rapidly lost faith about their security when they saw Capitol Police officers stationed with them anxiously trying to determine who had the keys to lock the doors from the inside.
“It seemed like they knew less about what was happening than we did,” Jayapal said. “Everyone felt unprotected, but we were stuck there.”
The House chaplain led a prayer. A Capitol Police officer said that the backs of lawmakers’ seats were bulletproof and that if rioters broke into the chamber, people should hide behind them. “Get down under your chairs if necessary,” the officer instructed. “Just be prepared. Stay calm.”
The Capitol Police directed members to put on their gas masks because tear gas had been deployed outside. The order was met by blank stares from members who had never been trained to use the masks. Some did not even know where they were located. Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.), a trained emergency room physician, helped Wild rip off the zipper and remove thick foil inside the bag to unveil the mask. As Rep. Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.), a Trump acolyte who just before the attack had led an objection to the certification of Arizona’s results, struggled with his, Rep. Liz CheneyRep. Liz CheneyThe GOP congresswoman from Wyoming worked behind the scenes to make sure the Jan. 6 electoral count was not disrupted. Afterward, she paid a steep political price. walked over and helped him get it out of the bag and put it on.
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At 2:44 p.m., a shot echoed in the halls. A Capitol Police officer killed Ashli Babbitt as she attempted to force entry into the Speaker’s Lobby adjacent to the House chamber.
Inside the chamber, lawmakers assumed the worst and realized they could soon be overrun by violent intruders. Jayapal thought the rioters were shooting into the chamber.
Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) comforted her friend Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) in prayer.
Rep. Terri A. Sewell (D-Ala.) called her mother.
Rep. Daniel Kildee (D-Mich.), who has since disclosed lasting mental trauma sparked by his experience, called his family and began to say goodbye after understanding the gravity of the situation; there was a chance he would not make it out alive.
Wild pulled out her phone to find dozens of texts from her son and daughter as they watched news reports from home. She surprised herself as she figured out how to FaceTime her 28- and 25-year-olds. Her son said, “How can you say you’re okay if we can hear the gunshot and the glass shattering?”
After hanging up with her children, Wild homed in on possibly dying and becoming “a source of worry” for her children. Wild told herself: “You’re going to make it out of here, Susan. You’re going to get out of here because your kids need you to get out of here.”
Soon Wild was lying on the ground. Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) held her hand.
Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) comforted Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.). (Tom Williams/CQ/Roll Call/Getty Images)
Suddenly, pounding noises were coming from the opposite side of the chamber doors closest to members. Fight-or-flight instincts began to kick in for Jayapal as she moved her walking stick to her right hand — her dominant one — so she could hit anyone who came near her. “I was starting to plan that I might die, and if I was going to, then I was going to go down fighting,” she said.
Members discussed how they would position themselves if the mob were to burst through the doors. Crow suggested that members take their pins off so that the rioters could not identify them as the elected officials they wanted to kill.
Just removing a pin was not a solution for every lawmaker, however. While all were under threat, the danger was particularly acute for lawmakers of color, whose identity made them a visible target for the overwhelmingly White throng.
“For many of us, we can’t hide what we look like,” Jayapal said. “We can’t run over and hide in a group of Republicans, and we can’t take off a jacket to blend into a White crowd, which was a very, very real dynamic as we were watching Confederate flags being raised with horrible racist messages.”
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As rioters pushed their way into the Speaker’s Lobby, their hatred and zeal was evident. When Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn ordered them to leave the Capitol, some yelled back:
“President Trump invited us here!”
“Nobody voted for Joe Biden!”
In a rare instance of injecting politics into his job, Dunn replied: “I voted for Joe Biden. Does my vote not count? Am I nobody?”
Rioters then hurled racial epithets at Dunn, who is Black.
“You hear that, guys?” one woman said. “This n----r voted for Joe Biden!”
45 MINUTES IN
Law enforcement authorities scrambled. In the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, as the FBI had received more and more reports of threats of violence on far-right online forums and social media channels, Bowdich, the agency’s deputy director, had decided to have three tactical teams ready to deploy — a SWAT team in Washington, a Baltimore-based SWAT team positioned just outside the District, and a Hostage Rescue Team also a short drive away. They all responded to the Capitol that day, but they were small, specialized teams, not the kind of overwhelming manpower necessary to turn the tide of a riot.
“FBI and ATF agents can be accountants, lawyers, chemists,” said Marc Raimondi, a former longtime Justice Department spokesman. “They’re not trained in riot control or traffic control. Obviously they are versatile, but when the Justice Department is your 911 plan for a riot, something’s gone drastically wrong.”
The federal government’s top law enforcement official, acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, was alone in his office. He’d given much of his staff permission to work from home, on the assumption that street closures, the rally and general concern about possible unrest could make it difficult to get downtown, in addition to the preexisting coronavirus concerns. But now, with the siege beginning, Rosen juggled an onslaught of phone calls, hopping back and forth between his desk phone in one hand and cellphone in the other.
Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called Rosen from their secure location to ask him to urgently send reinforcements to the Capitol. Rosen assured them that he already had instructed any nearby federal agent to rush to the scene.
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Some lawmakers who were unable to reach Rosen called others they knew who used to work at the Justice Department — anything to get a live voice on the line and ask for help. And it was hard at times for senior Justice Department officials to understand exactly what was happening from the chaotic images on television. Rosen’s top deputy, Richard Donoghue, went to the Capitol to try to get a better understanding of the situation and to coordinate with lawmakers and law enforcement agencies.
At 2:52 p.m., the first FBI SWAT teams arrived at the Capitol. In total, 520 federal agents from a hodgepodge of agencies responded to an urgent call to help at the Capitol from the Justice Department. It was throwing bodies at a crisis.
60 MINUTES IN
Also around 3 p.m., Paul HodgkinsPaul HodgkinsThe 38-year-old crane operator from Tampa traveled to Washington to show his support for Trump after absorbing false claims that the election was rigged — a decision that would drastically upend his life., who had watched Trump speak at the Ellipse, made his way into what he eventually realized was the Senate chamber. Police had locked the doors, but mistakenly left one in the gallery unlocked, which some of the rioters used to enter. The chamber looked smaller in real life than it did on television. About two dozen other Trump supporters were inside. “Guys, please don’t wreck anything in here,” Hodgkins told his compatriots.
“Let’s all say a prayer in this sacred space,” declared the shirtless, face-painted “QAnon Shaman,” Jacob Anthony Chansley, who stood behind the desk wielding a bullhorn as several other men bowed their heads.
“Thank you, heavenly father, for gracing us with this opportunity. … Thank you, heavenly father, for this opportunity to stand up for our God-given, unalienable rights. … Thank you for filling this chamber with patriots that love you and that love Christ.”
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Trump’s refusal to act to stop the siege and his continuing abuse of Pence resonated among Republican lawmakers, some of whom privately confided that the president’s utter absence of empathy for his loyal No. 2 was appalling. “They never did anything about it, but it turned them off,” said one House Republican, describing a consensus view among many of his colleagues.
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, Trump’s longtime friend and adviser, tried but failed to reach the president, and so sought to deliver a message to him through the television by calling into George Stephanopoulos’s live broadcast on ABC. Two recently departed senior White House officials, former senior counselor Kellyanne Conway and former communications director Alyssa Farah, relayed messages to Trump through intermediaries.
If someone doesn’t say something, people will die
Meadows did not respond.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!
Jan. 6, 2:38 p.m.
Ivanka Trump shuttled between her second-floor West Wing office, where she watched the riot unfold on television, and the president’s dining room, where he was watching television, trying to persuade her dad to use stronger language to bring an end to the insurrection. But just when she thought she had gotten him into the right head space, Meadows would call her because the president still was unconvinced.
At 3:13 p.m., Trump tweeted a new message, one that again fell short of what those around him felt was necessary.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!
Jan. 6, 3:13 p.m.
Ivanka Trump retweeted her father’s message at 3:15 p.m. and addressed the rioters as “American Patriots.” She deleted her tweet a few minutes later after it was roundly criticized.
Ivanka Trump
@IvankaTrump
American Patriots - any security breach or disrespect to our law enforcement is unacceptable.
The violence must stop immediately. Please be peaceful.
Jan. 6, 3:15 p.m.
Bad apples, like ANTIFA or other crazed leftists, infiltrated today’s peaceful protest over the fraudulent vote count. Violence is never acceptable! MAGA supporters embrace our police and the rule of law and should leave the Capitol now!
Draft
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
The fake news media who encouraged this summer’s violent and radical riots are now trying to blame peaceful and innocent MAGA supporters for violent actions. This isn’t who we are! Our people should head home and let the criminals suffer the consequences!
Draft
Both statements were belligerent and twisted the truth in redirecting blame for the riots, but nevertheless urged his supporters to end the insurrection. Trump sent neither.
Instead, Trump stewed in his grievance: over what he saw as Pence’s betrayal, over blame in the media of him and his supporters for the death and destruction at the Capitol and, ultimately, over the fact that his final attempt to overturn the election results was about to fail.
Rioters seized the scaffolding erected for Biden's inauguration. (The Washington Post; Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post; Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post; Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post)
THE SECOND HOUR
As the afternoon hurtled on, the rioters were pushing through the Capitol with greater ferocity and in higher numbers. Gina Bisignano, a salon owner from Beverly Hills, Calif., egged on the violent crowd with a megaphone.
Senators from both parties watching from their secure room at the Capitol complex applauded. “It was like, wow, we have a leader who said what needed to be said,” Romney said.
Trump followed Biden by posting on Twitter at 4:17 p.m. a video of his own remarks about the siege. He had begun recording it in the Rose Garden before Biden’s live address, and Trump aides were upset that by speaking first, the Democrat came across as more statesmanlike. Trump’s message was ambiguous. He opened his speech by repeating his lie that the election was rigged. He told his supporters to “go home,” but immediately added: “We love you. You’re very special.”
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Jan . 6, 4:17 p.m.
During the videotaping, Trump did not stick to the script his speechwriters had composed and had to record at least three takes to get one that his aides felt was palatable enough to share with the public. “That was actually the best one,” a senior White House official said.
Around the time Sabol took the baton, another rioter used a metal crutch to beat on police standing in the archway. The man wielding the crutch climbed over a low fence, grabbed a second officer and pulled him headfirst down a set of stairs and into the mob. Sabol was right there, his hand on the second officer’s back. Then, with a flagpole flying an American flag, a third rioter beat the second officer, who was captured on camera lying facedown in the crowd.
Sabol was photographed holding the stolen baton over the back of the second officer’s neck as he lay prone and defenseless. Later, Sabol described himself as a “patriot warrior” who was protecting the officer from his fellow rioters. But he said he couldn’t remember whether he had hit the second officer himself because, court records say, “he was in a fit of rage and details are cloudy.” In an August court filing, Sabol’s lawyer says he “vehemently denies” hitting the officer with the baton.
The officer from whom Sabol had stolen the baton was also dragged into the crowd, where rioters ripped off his helmet, Maced him and stomped on him. He required staples in his head.
At the Justice Department, Rosen watched images of violence unfurl across the television screen. He was horrified by the literal and spiritual damage being done to one of America’s most important institutions.
THE FINAL HOURS
Little by little, Capitol Police officers and their reinforcements made progress in containing the violence and controlling the insurrectionists. Pence remained secure in his underground hideaway, accompanied by Short, who called Meadows late that afternoon to alert the White House chief of staff that the vice president planned to push through with certifying the election results as soon as the Capitol could be cleared and Congress could reconvene.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!
Jan. 6, 6:01 p.m.
Trump’s video and tweets enraged some Republican members of Congress, even loyal ones like McCarthy and Graham. “That was a bad tweet,” Graham said of Trump’s message excusing what had happened that day.
When it was Graham’s turn to speak, the South Carolina Republican was animated as he wistfully described Trump as a friend who had drifted away, if only for a moment.
Even as the Senate returned to order, the pressure on Pence did not let up. Eastman, the attorney advising Trump, emailed Jacob, Pence’s counsel, around 9 p.m. to try to convince the vice president to move to not certify the election results.
In the past, Pence and his team had cited the Electoral Count Act, which laid out constitutional procedures for counting votes in presidential elections, as a reason he could not send electors back to states. But in the email to Jacob, Eastman argued that Pence had not precisely followed that law by allowing debate to extend past the allotted time — and therefore could disobey it by rejecting electors from Arizona.
Of the 12 senators who initially had opposed certification, Lankford said, “six after the riot still stuck with that and said, ‘Let’s keep pushing.’ The other six of us, myself included, said: ‘I’m not going to win this debate. We only have 12 of us to begin with, and clearly, after what’s happened in the Capitol today, this is not going to get better. We’ve got to find ways to pull the country together.’”
The House GOP was different. At 9:02 p.m., Pelosi gaveled the House into session. After everything that had happened, all the death and destruction, nearly two-thirds of the Republican conference — 121 members — voted against counting Arizona’s votes. Even more, 138 members, voted against counting the tally from Pennsylvania.
With their business completed in separate chambers, senators migrated to the House chamber to reconvene their joint session. At 3:24 a.m., Congress voted to confirm the election results. Pence, who was presiding, formally declared Biden the next president of the United States.
Before Jan. 6, the vice president — anticipating a divisive and emotional day — had specifically requested that Senate Chaplain Barry Black close the session in prayer. And so, at 3:41 a.m., Black, a retired Navy rear admiral, stood at the rostrum to deliver a prayer to a legislative body still shaken by the long day’s events. As lawmakers lowered their heads in silence, with Pence standing over his right shoulder, Black gave voice to their shared emotions.
“We deplore the desecration of the United States Capitol building, the shedding of innocent blood, the loss of life and the quagmire of dysfunction that threaten our democracy,” Black said.
He then sounded an unmistakable condemnation of the weeks-long campaign to infect the body politic with lies and disinformation about the election.
“These tragedies have reminded us that words matter,” Black continued, “and that the power of life and death is in the tongue.”
(Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)
Alice Crites, Amy Gardner, Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Hamburger, Spencer S. Hsu, Dan Lamothe, Carol D. Leonnig, Ellen Nakashima, Jon Swaine, Julie Tate, Ben Terris and Cleve R. Wootson Jr. contributed to this report.
BEFORE
Red Flags As Trump propelled his supporters to Washington, law enforcement agencies failed to heed mounting warnings about violence on Jan. 6.
DURING
Bloodshed For 187 harrowing minutes, the president watched his supporters attack the Capitol — and resisted pleas to stop them.
AFTER
Contagion Threats and disinformation spread across the country in the wake of the Capitol siege, shaking the underpinnings of American democracy.
About this story
This project is based on interviews with more than 230 people and thousands of pages of court documents and internal law enforcement reports, as well as hundreds of videos, photographs and audio clips.
Reporting by Jacqueline Alemany, Hannah Allam, Devlin Barrett, Emma Brown, Aaron C. Davis, Josh Dawsey, Amy Gardner, Tom Hamburger, Shane Harris, Rosalind S. Helderman, Peter Hermann, Spencer S. Hsu, Tom Jackman, Paul Kane, Dan Lamothe, Carol D. Leonnig, Nick Miroff, Ellen Nakashima, Ashley Parker, Beth Reinhard, Philip Rucker, Marianna Sotomayor, Isaac Stanley-Becker, Craig Timberg, Rachel Weiner and Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
Jon Swaine, Ben Terris, Elise Viebeck, Gerrit De Vynck in San Francisco; Jeremy Duda in Phoenix; Mark Shavin in Kennesaw, Ga.; and McKenzie Beard, Caroline Cliona Boyle, Heather MacNeil, Aneeta Mathur-Ashton, Vanessa Montalbano, Megan Ruggles, Nick Trombola and Carley Welch with the American University-Washington Post practicum program also contributed reporting.
Staff photography by Jabin Botsford, Ricky Carioti, Michael Robinson Chavez, Demetrius Freeman, Katherine Frey, Salwan Georges, Melina Mara, Matt McClain, Bonnie Jo Mount, Bill O’Leary, Toni L. Sandys and Michael S. Williamson. Additional photography by Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, Cassidy Araiza, Fábio Erdos, Karla Gachet, Evelyn Hockstein, Craig Hudson, Kevin D. Liles, Edward Linsmier, Caitlin O’Hara, Courtney Pedroza, Sarah Rice, Astrid Riecken, Sarah Silbiger, Amanda Voisard and Mikayla Whitmore.
Design and development by Madison Walls, Tyler Remmel and Jake Crump. Additional design by Matthew Callahan, Irfan Uraizee and Garland Potts. Design editing by Brian Gross. Photo editing and research by Natalia Jiménez-Stuard. Graphics by Daniela Santamariña and graphics editing by Kevin Uhrmacher and Lauren Tierney.
Staff videography by Ricky Carioti, Alice Li, Whitney Leaming, Justin Moyer, Jorge Ribas, Michael E. Ruane, Clarence Williams and Joy Sharon Yi and additional videography by Ray Whitehouse. Video research and reporting by Sarah Cahlan, Joyce Sohyun Lee, Meg Kelly and Elyse Samuels, Adriana Usero and JM Rieger and editing by Phoebe Connelly and Nadine Ajaka.
Video production by Erin Patrick O’Connor and Whitney Shefte and editing by Jorge Ribas and Jesse Mesner-Hage. Audio production by Ariel Plotnick, Ted Muldoon, Rennie Svirnovskiy and Emma Talkoff and editing by Ariel Plotnick.
Lead editor: Matea Gold. Story editing by Steven Ginsberg, Matea Gold, Dan Eggen and Peter Wallsten. Copy editing by Mike Cirelli and Laura Michalski. Project editing by Marian Liu.
Additional editing, production and support by Teddy Amenabar, Naseem Amini, Chris Barber, Lynh Bui, Courtney Beesch, Steven Bohner, Alice Crites, Mercedes Domenech, Sarah Dunton, Ann Gerhart, Tess Homan, Meghan Hoyer, Tom Johnson, Dave Jorgenson, Coleen O’Lear, Travis Lyles, Angel Mendoza, Tessa Muggeridge, Katherine O’Hearn, Lauren Prince, Lizzy Raben, John Sullivan, Julie Tate, Claire Tran, John Taylor, Elizabeth Tuten, Chris Vazquez and Deme Walls.
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Shark, Old Dude & Obsy All Refuse To Answer This Simple Question... +3/-0
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Author:TheCrow
6/17/2022 11:27:46 AM
Reply to: 2732734
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It was just a peaceful picnic...
If that's the case, Trump screwed the pooch and is not cqapable of POTUS/Commander in chief.
If that's not the case, Trump refused to intervene in a violent mob attack and congress and should never ever be in position of power.
President Donald Trump had just returned to the White House from his rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6 when he retired to his private dining room just off the Oval Office, flipped on the massive flat-screen television and took in the show. At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, thousands of his supporters were wearing his red caps, waving his blue flags and chanting his name.
Live television news coverage showed the horror accelerating minute by minute after 1:10 p.m., when Trump had called on his followers to march on the U.S. Capitol. The pro-Trump rioters toppled security barricades. They bludgeoned police. They scaled granite walls. And then they smashed windows and doors to breach the hallowed building that has stood for more than two centuries as the seat of American democracy.
The Capitol was under siege — and the president, glued to the television, did nothing. For 187 minutes, Trump resisted entreaties to intervene from advisers, allies and his elder daughter, as well as lawmakers under attack. Even as the violence at the Capitol intensified, even after Vice President Mike Pence, his family and hundreds of Congress members and their staffers hid to protect themselves, even after the first two people died and scores of others were assaulted, Trump declined for more than three hours to tell the renegades rioting in his name to stand down and go home.
Key findings
- Escalating danger signs were in full view hours before the Capitol attack, but did not trigger a stepped-up security response
- Trump had direct warnings of the risks, but stood by for 187 minutes before telling his supporters to go home
- His allies pressured Pence to reject the election results even after the Capitol siege
- The FBI was forced to improvise a plan to take back control of the Capitol
As Trump watched on television as rioters broke into the Capitol, he raged to those around him about the vice president. At 2:24 p.m., the very moment that Pence and his family were endangered by violent marauders calling him a traitor — “Hang Mike Pence!” some of them chanted — Trump made clear in a tweet whose side he was on:
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!
Jan. 6, 2:24 p.m.
Two minutes later, Trump called Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a newly elected Republican from Alabama who had been one of the president’s more outspoken allies propagating election fraud claims. “Coach, how’s it going?” Trump asked the former Auburn University football coach.
“Not very good, Mr. President,” Tuberville responded. “As a matter of fact, they’re about to evacuate us.”
“I know we’ve got problems,” Trump responded.
Amid the mayhem, Tuberville abruptly ended the call. “Mr. President, they just took our vice president out,” the senator said. “They’re getting ready to drag me out of here. I got to go.”
“You know what I see, Kevin? I see people who are more upset about the election than you are. They like Trump more than you do,” the president replied.
“You’ve got to hold them,” McCarthy said. “You need to get on TV right now, you need to get on Twitter, you need to call these people off.”
Trump responded, “Kevin, they’re not my people.”
We have sworn an oath under God to defend the Constitution. We uphold that oath at all times, not only when it is politically convenient.
Congress has no authority to overturn elections by objecting to electors. Doing so steals power from the states & violates the Constitution.
Jan. 6, 7:11 a.m.
On the drive to work, Cheney spent much of her time trying to lock down assurances from fellow House leaders that she and any other Republican voting to certify Biden’s victory would be able to speak on the House floor during the day’s proceedings.
The crowd gathered to hear Trump speak stretched to the Washington Monument. (Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post; Ray Whitehouse for The Washington Post; Matt McClain/The Washington Post; Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
“We have about 300 people up here, they’re all refusing to leave.”
Within minutes, the dispatches from officers on the scene worsened.
“There’s a large crowd that’s following us. We’re going back into the monument with the individual that’s under arrest. They’re breaking through the bike fence.”
“Units are backed into the monument. Everyone’s breaking through the bike racks.”
Then, at 9:46 a.m., an even more frightening report came in from the Lincoln Memorial. Park Police officers radioed in to say there were 500 to 800 people gathered, some with giant banner flags.
“113, we have individuals with shields and gas masks at the statue.”
“OK, they’re at the Lincoln statue with shields and masks?”
“10-4, and taking pictures right now with a flag that says ‘F--- antifa.’”
Just then, another officer at the Washington Monument radioed in:
“Just for safety, there’s a guy, a White male, walking around the flag circle with a pitchfork.”
These were bright red flags presaging the bloodshed to come. There were still two hours to go before Trump addressed the rally — and three hours before Congress was to convene to formally certify Joe Biden’s election as president. And yet law enforcement authorities declined to take action.
Instructions came over the radio to all Park Police officers:
“Ac direct for the units at 1 41: Monitor only. Do not take any type of enforcement action. Let it happen.”
“Yeah, we’re waiting on y’all.”
“Even when react gets there, monitor only. Let it happen unless we have major, major issues.”
An officer explained the strategy of restraint: “We’re not going to agitate them.”
At the White House, Trump issued an unambiguous instruction at 8:17 a.m. to Pence, who was preparing to preside over the joint session of Congress at 1 p.m.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!
Jan. 6, 8:17 a.m.
FIVE HOURS TO GO
Around the city, there was a carnival atmosphere at the various gatherings of protesters who believed they were not just witnessing history, but helping create it, with Biden’s victory about to be undone.
Employees from D.C.'s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency fanned out from the White House to the Capitol in “mobile situational awareness teams” around 9 a.m. Teams near the White House reported an unusual sight: piles of backpacks, hundreds of them, from rallygoers leaving them outside rather than taking them through magnetometers and Secret Service checkpoints for Trump’s speech. The report resonated at D.C.’s homeland security center. During a tabletop exercise that the department had held a week earlier, discarded bags were an indication of possible concealed weapons.
In the Oval Office later that morning, Trump hung around with family members and aides, alternating between watching the television in his private dining room to check on the size of the crowd assembling at the Ellipse and reviewing with speechwriter Stephen Miller the scripted remarks he was set to deliver. Some of those around Trump, including Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., indulged the fantasy that Pence would help overturn the election results.
Outside the Capitol around 11:30 a.m., a conspicuously large contingent of Trump supporters arrived with a rowdy swagger: the Proud Boys, a far-right group that engages in political violence. They stood out from the rest of the MAGA crowd, dozens moving in semi-organized formation — loose columns of five across — as if they were militiamen. They were overwhelmingly male and almost exclusively White. Body armor bulged from under hoodies and jackets. They wore patches or gaiters with Confederate flags, Punisher skulls and other extremist symbols.
As they arrived on the scene, murmurs of “the Proud Boys are here” went through the crowd, and people moved to make a clearing. “Praise God!” one woman said.
At 11:39 a.m., Trump departed the White House by motorcade for the quick drive to the Ellipse, where he gathered with aides, allies and family members beneath a white tent before taking the rally stage.
A carnivallike atmosphere permeated the crowd, who believed Biden's victory was about to be overturned. In his speech, Trump pressured Pence to “come through for us.” (Eric Lee/Bloomberg News; Ray Whitehouse for The Washington Post; Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg News)
TWO HOURS TO GO
Around noon at the Capitol, Rep. Liz CheneyRep. Liz CheneyThe GOP congresswoman from Wyoming worked behind the scenes to make sure the Jan. 6 electoral count was not disrupted. Afterward, she paid a steep political price. headed into the GOP cloakroom, an anteroom just off the chamber floor where members gather to relax. Inside, along the wall, sat tables with stacks of paper on them. Republican members lined up to sign the sheets. Cheney poked her head around to see what they were signing. They were registering as co-sponsors to contest Biden’s victory in six key states.
“Should it affect what you’re going to do?” her father asked.
After some discussion, they agreed she should press on.
As Pence entered the Capitol, his office released the letter to Congress. The finality of its conclusions sent shock waves through Trump’s orbit and beyond.
“As a student of history … I do not believe that the Founders of our country intended to invest the Vice President with unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted during the Joint Session Congress...”
Vice President Pence
Midway through Trump’s speech, about 12:45 p.m., Capitol Police officers, along with agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, were dispatched to investigate reports of a pipe bomb with a timer found outside the Republican National Committee headquarters and suspicious packages at the Supreme Court and near the Democratic National Committee headquarters — all offices close to the Capitol.
The activity proved a distraction for officers guarding the Capitol. A D.C. homeland security official assigned to keep eyes on the swelling crowd was sitting in a black SUV on the east side of the Capitol, by a row of Capitol Police bomb-squad trucks. Suddenly, officers jumped into several of the trucks near him. Half pulled away to the south. Several more took off to the west. The official realized his SUV was now one of the last remaining vehicles and that fewer than 10 officers remained between the Capitol and the growing number of protesters.
The official called Donell HarvinDonell HarvinAs the head of intelligence at D.C.'s homeland security office, Harvin led a team that spotted warnings that extremists planned to descend on the Capitol and disrupt the electoral count., who said the bomb squads were responding to the suspicious package reported near the RNC building. The two flashed back to their tabletop exercise on Dec. 30, and how an analyst had imagined a scenario in which improvised explosive devices could be used to distract law enforcement before an attack on the Capitol. “Is this really happening?” the official asked Harvin.
The president commanded the crowd to march to the Capitol to give lawmakers the “boldness” needed “to take back our country.” A limited number of police officers were there to meet them.
(Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post; Joy Sharon Yi/The Washington Post; Matt McClain/The Washington Post; Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post; The Blaze; Amanda Voisard for The Washington Post)
Trump continued roaring at the Ellipse, but some in the crowd there started migrating to the Capitol. At 12:46 p.m., Capitol Police began executing protocols to keep the peace. Officers were dispatched to block side streets as a precaution against possible vehicle rammings. This essentially created a protected funnel for the protesters, straight toward the Capitol.
Just before 1 p.m., at D.C.’s homeland security agency headquarters, about four miles south of the Capitol, Harvin and his analysts were watching a variety of live-stream footage broadcast from some of the people they had been most concerned about coming to the city. One angle showed rioters pushing in toward the scaffolding for the inauguration stage. Harvin ran out to the larger emergency operations center room. The crowd looked like it was storming the Capitol.
A city official pointed to CNN, which was displaying images of Pence and Congress meeting inside. “That’s not what’s on television,” the official said.
“It’s going to be,” Harvin fired back.
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At 1:03 p.m., Capitol Police found an unoccupied red pickup truck with Alabama tags containing a trove of weapons, including an M4 carbine assault rifle, loaded magazines of ammunition, and components to make 11 molotov cocktails.
Back at the Ellipse, Trump was finishing his speech, and the leader’s edict rang through the city like a call to arms.
“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he said. “We are going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue — I love Pennsylvania Avenue — and we are going to the Capitol.”
And then, at 1:10 p.m., he told the crowd to march to “try and give [lawmakers] the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”
Trump's edict rang through the city like a call to arms. People began to amass around the Capitol, easily pushing through barrier after barrier. (Amanda Voisard/for The Washington Post; The Washington Post; Joy Sharon Yi/The Washington Post; Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post)
60 MINUTES TO GO
Douglas Jensen hadn’t come to Washington planning to enter the Capitol, but he obeyed Trump’s call to march down Pennsylvania Avenue. Jensen hadn’t slept in more than a day when he started walking toward the white dome and was determined to make it inside and witness what he called “the storm” — a declaration of martial law and the arrests of lawmakers who insisted on certifying Biden as the next president.
That's all about to change ;)
Near the Capitol, a throng of Proud Boys stood around listening to a live stream of Trump’s speech. It was hard to hear the president’s words over the noise of the crowd, but when he urged demonstrators to descend on the Capitol, the news quickly spread from person to person. It was received as a command among the Proud Boys, who were openly radioing with each other over the walkie-talkie app Zello and casting themselves as revolutionaries.
“1776!” one man called out.
“1776!” fellow marchers responded.
“Whose Capitol? Our Capitol!” they chanted.
Law enforcement officials heard people chant “F--- Biden” and “Pelosi’s a pedo,” a reference to baseless claims about pedophilia that had spread widely among QAnon followers. Inside the FBI’s decaying concrete Brutalist headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, agents and analysts working at their desks could hear the loud chants of Trump supporters walking toward the Capitol. “FBI traitors!” they shouted. “F--- the FBI!”
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The closer people got to the Capitol building, the more frenzied and out of control the mob became. The only visible security were police in the distance. Largely unimpeded, protesters pushed through barrier after barrier. At 12:55 p.m., Capitol Police directed all available units to the western front of the Capitol to assist with breaches, and officers inside were instructed to lock some doors. Protesters clashed violently with the few police officers they encountered on the scene.
Pence presided over the certification process. Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.), in video, challenged his state's tally. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), left, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) bumped elbows after the Texan challenged results. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post; The Washington Post; Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
This is seriously crazy. Police have been breached. Chaos is going to break out and violence too.
Williamson
Babe, you should head back to your office, right?
No I am in the Capitol right now. Best for me to stay here.
We have a lot of security because the speaker is here.
What is your best move? Do not stay there just to watch!!!
About 1:30 p.m., Capt. Carneysha MendozaCapt. Carneysha MendozaA 19-year veteran of the Capitol Police, Mendoza led officers battling rioters in the Rotunda of the Capitol on Jan. 6. was at home in suburban Maryland. She had just pulled meatloaf from the oven and sat down with her 10-year-old son, Christian, before he was to spend the rest of the day with babysitters. The commander for a Capitol Police civil disturbance unit, Mendoza was about to head into work for her shift in the Capitol starting at 3 p.m.
“Break open the gate!” one man yelled, his voice bellowing over the crowd. “We're not going to be scared! We're not backing down! You mess with American people, this is what you get!”
This was a full-blown riot.
Largely unimpeded, protesters pushed through barrier after barrier. (Joy Sharon Yi/The Washington Post; Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post; Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post; Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post; Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/For The Washington Post)
Trump did not join his adherents in marching. Despite having said he would go to the Capitol, there was no apparatus set by the Secret Service or White House staff to make his movement happen. Some aides checked to see whether there had been a change of plan, but there was not one.
At 1:50 p.m., the D.C. police commander declared a riot at the Capitol.
Outside the Capitol, some rioters tried to reason with about 10 officers who were struggling to stand their ground on the building’s steps. “This is not going to end well for you,” one of them told the officers. “Look at the numbers. Just go now before it gets ugly. Just stand down.” The officers smirked but kept fighting to hold back the rioters. Within minutes, however, they were overpowered. The path to the doors was clear.
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“Get ’em!” people shouted, charging into battle. “Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!”
At 1:59 p.m., the first rioters reached the Capitol’s windows and doors and attempted to break inside. At 2:05 p.m., the first fatality was declared: Kevin Greeson, a Trump supporter from Alabama, suffered a heart attack just outside the building on the Capitol grounds.
By now, the joint session had disbanded over objections from Republicans to Arizona's vote tally, and the two chambers split to debate the matter individually. In the Senate chamber, where Pence was presiding at the rostrum and Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) was delivering a speech arguing against certifying the vote, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) received a text message from aide Chris Marroletti: “They're inside the Capitol.”
At 1:59 p.m., the first rioters reached the Capitol’s windows and doors. They broke inside within minutes. (House impeachment managers; Amanda Voisard for The Washington Post; Michael E. Ruane/The Washington Post: Brent Stirton/Getty Images)
THE CAPITOL IS BREACHED
At 2:11, the first rioters gained access to the building by using lumber and a police shield to break a window. Romney walked off the floor and headed in the direction of his small hideaway office but, at 2:12 p.m., encountered Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, who had been running down a second-floor hallway outside the Senate chamber. Goodman motioned for Romney to turn around to avoid rioters. “There are people not far. You’ll be safer inside,” Goodman told Romney. Shaken, he returned to the Senate floor.
At 2:13 p.m., Pence was hastily removed by his Secret Service detail and rushed through a side door to his ceremonial office nearby, along with his family members. The Pences came harrowingly close to danger, as rioters chanting his name charged up the stairs to that precise landing about a minute later. The Senate went into an emergency recess.
“Hit me, I’ll take it,” Jensen said. “I will take it for my country.”
Goodman turned again to run. “Second floor!” he shouted into his radio as he took the stairs two at a time, warning fellow officers that the crowd was on the move. Jensen ran after him, his arms pumping.
At 2:14 p.m., Goodman reached the second floor. He turned around again to face Jensen and the crowd. He was standing only a few feet away from a set of doors to the Senate chamber, and less than 100 feet from the office where Pence was hiding.
Goodman looked to his left, toward that office. Then he pushed Jensen in the chest and started walking toward the right, where a line of police officers was waiting. Jensen followed, and so did the rioters behind him.
“What’s the point of stopping us at this point?” Jensen said to one officer, in an exchange captured on video obtained by The Post, as rioters’ yells echoed off the marble walls.
“That's as far as it's going to go,” the officer declared.
“Then go arrest the vice president!” Jensen said.
The Senate and House adjourned as rioters marched through the Capitol and eventually entered the chambers and lawmakers' offices. (The Washington Post; Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock; Roberto Schmidt/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images; Win McNamee/Getty Images; Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock; Win McNamee/Getty Images; Igor Bobic/HuffPost; Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)
About 2:15 p.m., officer distress calls crackled over Capt. Carneysha MendozaCapt. Carneysha MendozaA 19-year veteran of the Capitol Police, Mendoza led officers battling rioters in the Rotunda of the Capitol on Jan. 6.’s radio. “Capitol Rotunda.” “10-33.” That is the department’s call of last resort, alerting that officers are in trouble. Mendoza turned around and sped to the southeast corner of the Capitol. She wanted to get to the Rotunda stat. She entered through a ground-floor entrance known by Capitol Police as Memorial Door, because of a plaque affixed to a wall there honoring two officers killed in 1998.
Mendoza stepped through an inner set of glass doors and came face-to-face with a crowd of roughly 200 rioters blocking her path to the Rotunda. She turned back to exit and find a safer route. But in the seconds that had elapsed, the crowds were now outside. Mendoza could hear banging on the door and yelling outside. She was trapped. With no protective gear, Mendoza raised her arms and started pushing her way through the crowd, yelling as she had taught her riot-control teams to do: “Get back! Get back! Get back!”
Mendoza made her way through a hallway to a line of police officers near the Rotunda who were trying to keep the crowd from penetrating deeper into the building. She fell in line and tried to help, but the police were already being pushed back. Mendoza’s arm got wedged between a railing and the wall, but a sergeant was able to pull her free.
At 2:19 p.m., Capitol Police emailed an urgent bulletin to all congressional staff:
From: U.S. Capitol Police
To: All congressional staff
Sent: Jan. 6, 2:19 p.m.
Capitol staff: Due to a security threat inside the building, immediately: - Move inside your office or the nearest office. - Take emergency equipment and visitors. - Close, lock and stay away from external doors and windows. - If you are in a public space, find a place to hide or seek cover. - Remain quiet and silence electronics. - Once you are in a safe location, immediately check in with your OEC. - No one will be permitted to enter or exit the building until directed by USCP. - If you are in a building outside of the affected area, remain clear of the police activity. - Await further direction.
On the House side, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had been presiding when her security detail pulled her from the rostrum, and the House suddenly adjourned at 2:20 p.m.
At the White House, Trump was watching the spectacle play out on television. He was pleased by thousands of his supporters storming the Capitol. Trump tweeted at 2:24 p.m.:
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!
Jan. 6, 2:24 p.m.
At this very instant, the Secret Service was scrambling to keep Pence safe, producing a remarkable moment of tension between agents and their protectee. Tim Giebels, the lead special agent in charge of Pence’s protective detail, had twice asked the vice president to evacuate, but he refused.
“I’m not leaving the Capitol,” Pence had told Giebels. He feared the image of his departing motorcade might provide vindication to the insurrectionists.
When Giebels asked a third time, at 2:26 p.m., it was an order. “They’re in the building,” the special agent told Pence. “The room you’re in is not secure. There are glass windows. I need to move you. We’re going.”
The vice president and his family and aides were led on a safe path down a staircase to a secured subterranean area that rioters couldn’t reach. Pence’s armored limousine was parked there, and Giebels asked him to get inside.
Meanwhile, Eastman, a conservative attorney advising Trump on how to try to overturn the election results, emailed Jacob, Pence’s counsel. He accused the vice president of causing the violence by refusing to block certification of Biden’s victory.
Eastman, who had been working out of a “command center” of rooms in the Willard hotel with Rudolph W. Giuliani and other Trump lawyers and advisers, wrote to Jacob, who was hiding from the mob with the Pences and other senior aides: “The ‘siege’ is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened.”
30 MINUTES IN
Inside the House chamber, scores of lawmakers were worried for their own safety and unsure what to do. Some members of Congress rapidly lost faith about their security when they saw Capitol Police officers stationed with them anxiously trying to determine who had the keys to lock the doors from the inside.
“It seemed like they knew less about what was happening than we did,” Jayapal said. “Everyone felt unprotected, but we were stuck there.”
The House chaplain led a prayer. A Capitol Police officer said that the backs of lawmakers’ seats were bulletproof and that if rioters broke into the chamber, people should hide behind them. “Get down under your chairs if necessary,” the officer instructed. “Just be prepared. Stay calm.”
The Capitol Police directed members to put on their gas masks because tear gas had been deployed outside. The order was met by blank stares from members who had never been trained to use the masks. Some did not even know where they were located. Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.), a trained emergency room physician, helped Wild rip off the zipper and remove thick foil inside the bag to unveil the mask. As Rep. Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.), a Trump acolyte who just before the attack had led an objection to the certification of Arizona’s results, struggled with his, Rep. Liz CheneyRep. Liz CheneyThe GOP congresswoman from Wyoming worked behind the scenes to make sure the Jan. 6 electoral count was not disrupted. Afterward, she paid a steep political price. walked over and helped him get it out of the bag and put it on.
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At 2:44 p.m., a shot echoed in the halls. A Capitol Police officer killed Ashli Babbitt as she attempted to force entry into the Speaker’s Lobby adjacent to the House chamber.
Inside the chamber, lawmakers assumed the worst and realized they could soon be overrun by violent intruders. Jayapal thought the rioters were shooting into the chamber.
Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) comforted her friend Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) in prayer.
Rep. Terri A. Sewell (D-Ala.) called her mother.
Rep. Daniel Kildee (D-Mich.), who has since disclosed lasting mental trauma sparked by his experience, called his family and began to say goodbye after understanding the gravity of the situation; there was a chance he would not make it out alive.
Wild pulled out her phone to find dozens of texts from her son and daughter as they watched news reports from home. She surprised herself as she figured out how to FaceTime her 28- and 25-year-olds. Her son said, “How can you say you’re okay if we can hear the gunshot and the glass shattering?”
After hanging up with her children, Wild homed in on possibly dying and becoming “a source of worry” for her children. Wild told herself: “You’re going to make it out of here, Susan. You’re going to get out of here because your kids need you to get out of here.”
Soon Wild was lying on the ground. Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) held her hand.
Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) comforted Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.). (Tom Williams/CQ/Roll Call/Getty Images)
Suddenly, pounding noises were coming from the opposite side of the chamber doors closest to members. Fight-or-flight instincts began to kick in for Jayapal as she moved her walking stick to her right hand — her dominant one — so she could hit anyone who came near her. “I was starting to plan that I might die, and if I was going to, then I was going to go down fighting,” she said.
Members discussed how they would position themselves if the mob were to burst through the doors. Crow suggested that members take their pins off so that the rioters could not identify them as the elected officials they wanted to kill.
Just removing a pin was not a solution for every lawmaker, however. While all were under threat, the danger was particularly acute for lawmakers of color, whose identity made them a visible target for the overwhelmingly White throng.
“For many of us, we can’t hide what we look like,” Jayapal said. “We can’t run over and hide in a group of Republicans, and we can’t take off a jacket to blend into a White crowd, which was a very, very real dynamic as we were watching Confederate flags being raised with horrible racist messages.”
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As rioters pushed their way into the Speaker’s Lobby, their hatred and zeal was evident. When Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn ordered them to leave the Capitol, some yelled back:
“President Trump invited us here!”
“Nobody voted for Joe Biden!”
In a rare instance of injecting politics into his job, Dunn replied: “I voted for Joe Biden. Does my vote not count? Am I nobody?”
Rioters then hurled racial epithets at Dunn, who is Black.
“You hear that, guys?” one woman said. “This n----r voted for Joe Biden!”
45 MINUTES IN
Law enforcement authorities scrambled. In the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, as the FBI had received more and more reports of threats of violence on far-right online forums and social media channels, Bowdich, the agency’s deputy director, had decided to have three tactical teams ready to deploy — a SWAT team in Washington, a Baltimore-based SWAT team positioned just outside the District, and a Hostage Rescue Team also a short drive away. They all responded to the Capitol that day, but they were small, specialized teams, not the kind of overwhelming manpower necessary to turn the tide of a riot.
“FBI and ATF agents can be accountants, lawyers, chemists,” said Marc Raimondi, a former longtime Justice Department spokesman. “They’re not trained in riot control or traffic control. Obviously they are versatile, but when the Justice Department is your 911 plan for a riot, something’s gone drastically wrong.”
The federal government’s top law enforcement official, acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, was alone in his office. He’d given much of his staff permission to work from home, on the assumption that street closures, the rally and general concern about possible unrest could make it difficult to get downtown, in addition to the preexisting coronavirus concerns. But now, with the siege beginning, Rosen juggled an onslaught of phone calls, hopping back and forth between his desk phone in one hand and cellphone in the other.
Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called Rosen from their secure location to ask him to urgently send reinforcements to the Capitol. Rosen assured them that he already had instructed any nearby federal agent to rush to the scene.
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Some lawmakers who were unable to reach Rosen called others they knew who used to work at the Justice Department — anything to get a live voice on the line and ask for help. And it was hard at times for senior Justice Department officials to understand exactly what was happening from the chaotic images on television. Rosen’s top deputy, Richard Donoghue, went to the Capitol to try to get a better understanding of the situation and to coordinate with lawmakers and law enforcement agencies.
At 2:52 p.m., the first FBI SWAT teams arrived at the Capitol. In total, 520 federal agents from a hodgepodge of agencies responded to an urgent call to help at the Capitol from the Justice Department. It was throwing bodies at a crisis.
60 MINUTES IN
Also around 3 p.m., Paul HodgkinsPaul HodgkinsThe 38-year-old crane operator from Tampa traveled to Washington to show his support for Trump after absorbing false claims that the election was rigged — a decision that would drastically upend his life., who had watched Trump speak at the Ellipse, made his way into what he eventually realized was the Senate chamber. Police had locked the doors, but mistakenly left one in the gallery unlocked, which some of the rioters used to enter. The chamber looked smaller in real life than it did on television. About two dozen other Trump supporters were inside. “Guys, please don’t wreck anything in here,” Hodgkins told his compatriots.
“Let’s all say a prayer in this sacred space,” declared the shirtless, face-painted “QAnon Shaman,” Jacob Anthony Chansley, who stood behind the desk wielding a bullhorn as several other men bowed their heads.
“Thank you, heavenly father, for gracing us with this opportunity. … Thank you, heavenly father, for this opportunity to stand up for our God-given, unalienable rights. … Thank you for filling this chamber with patriots that love you and that love Christ.”
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Trump’s refusal to act to stop the siege and his continuing abuse of Pence resonated among Republican lawmakers, some of whom privately confided that the president’s utter absence of empathy for his loyal No. 2 was appalling. “They never did anything about it, but it turned them off,” said one House Republican, describing a consensus view among many of his colleagues.
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, Trump’s longtime friend and adviser, tried but failed to reach the president, and so sought to deliver a message to him through the television by calling into George Stephanopoulos’s live broadcast on ABC. Two recently departed senior White House officials, former senior counselor Kellyanne Conway and former communications director Alyssa Farah, relayed messages to Trump through intermediaries.
If someone doesn’t say something, people will die
Meadows did not respond.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!
Jan. 6, 2:38 p.m.
Ivanka Trump shuttled between her second-floor West Wing office, where she watched the riot unfold on television, and the president’s dining room, where he was watching television, trying to persuade her dad to use stronger language to bring an end to the insurrection. But just when she thought she had gotten him into the right head space, Meadows would call her because the president still was unconvinced.
At 3:13 p.m., Trump tweeted a new message, one that again fell short of what those around him felt was necessary.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!
Jan. 6, 3:13 p.m.
Ivanka Trump retweeted her father’s message at 3:15 p.m. and addressed the rioters as “American Patriots.” She deleted her tweet a few minutes later after it was roundly criticized.
Ivanka Trump
@IvankaTrump
American Patriots - any security breach or disrespect to our law enforcement is unacceptable.
The violence must stop immediately. Please be peaceful.
Jan. 6, 3:15 p.m.
Bad apples, like ANTIFA or other crazed leftists, infiltrated today’s peaceful protest over the fraudulent vote count. Violence is never acceptable! MAGA supporters embrace our police and the rule of law and should leave the Capitol now!
Draft
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
The fake news media who encouraged this summer’s violent and radical riots are now trying to blame peaceful and innocent MAGA supporters for violent actions. This isn’t who we are! Our people should head home and let the criminals suffer the consequences!
Draft
Both statements were belligerent and twisted the truth in redirecting blame for the riots, but nevertheless urged his supporters to end the insurrection. Trump sent neither.
Instead, Trump stewed in his grievance: over what he saw as Pence’s betrayal, over blame in the media of him and his supporters for the death and destruction at the Capitol and, ultimately, over the fact that his final attempt to overturn the election results was about to fail.
Rioters seized the scaffolding erected for Biden's inauguration. (The Washington Post; Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post; Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post; Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post)
THE SECOND HOUR
As the afternoon hurtled on, the rioters were pushing through the Capitol with greater ferocity and in higher numbers. Gina Bisignano, a salon owner from Beverly Hills, Calif., egged on the violent crowd with a megaphone.
Senators from both parties watching from their secure room at the Capitol complex applauded. “It was like, wow, we have a leader who said what needed to be said,” Romney said.
Trump followed Biden by posting on Twitter at 4:17 p.m. a video of his own remarks about the siege. He had begun recording it in the Rose Garden before Biden’s live address, and Trump aides were upset that by speaking first, the Democrat came across as more statesmanlike. Trump’s message was ambiguous. He opened his speech by repeating his lie that the election was rigged. He told his supporters to “go home,” but immediately added: “We love you. You’re very special.”
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Jan . 6, 4:17 p.m.
During the videotaping, Trump did not stick to the script his speechwriters had composed and had to record at least three takes to get one that his aides felt was palatable enough to share with the public. “That was actually the best one,” a senior White House official said.
Around the time Sabol took the baton, another rioter used a metal crutch to beat on police standing in the archway. The man wielding the crutch climbed over a low fence, grabbed a second officer and pulled him headfirst down a set of stairs and into the mob. Sabol was right there, his hand on the second officer’s back. Then, with a flagpole flying an American flag, a third rioter beat the second officer, who was captured on camera lying facedown in the crowd.
Sabol was photographed holding the stolen baton over the back of the second officer’s neck as he lay prone and defenseless. Later, Sabol described himself as a “patriot warrior” who was protecting the officer from his fellow rioters. But he said he couldn’t remember whether he had hit the second officer himself because, court records say, “he was in a fit of rage and details are cloudy.” In an August court filing, Sabol’s lawyer says he “vehemently denies” hitting the officer with the baton.
The officer from whom Sabol had stolen the baton was also dragged into the crowd, where rioters ripped off his helmet, Maced him and stomped on him. He required staples in his head.
At the Justice Department, Rosen watched images of violence unfurl across the television screen. He was horrified by the literal and spiritual damage being done to one of America’s most important institutions.
THE FINAL HOURS
Little by little, Capitol Police officers and their reinforcements made progress in containing the violence and controlling the insurrectionists. Pence remained secure in his underground hideaway, accompanied by Short, who called Meadows late that afternoon to alert the White House chief of staff that the vice president planned to push through with certifying the election results as soon as the Capitol could be cleared and Congress could reconvene.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!
Jan. 6, 6:01 p.m.
Trump’s video and tweets enraged some Republican members of Congress, even loyal ones like McCarthy and Graham. “That was a bad tweet,” Graham said of Trump’s message excusing what had happened that day.
When it was Graham’s turn to speak, the South Carolina Republican was animated as he wistfully described Trump as a friend who had drifted away, if only for a moment.
Even as the Senate returned to order, the pressure on Pence did not let up. Eastman, the attorney advising Trump, emailed Jacob, Pence’s counsel, around 9 p.m. to try to convince the vice president to move to not certify the election results.
In the past, Pence and his team had cited the Electoral Count Act, which laid out constitutional procedures for counting votes in presidential elections, as a reason he could not send electors back to states. But in the email to Jacob, Eastman argued that Pence had not precisely followed that law by allowing debate to extend past the allotted time — and therefore could disobey it by rejecting electors from Arizona.
Of the 12 senators who initially had opposed certification, Lankford said, “six after the riot still stuck with that and said, ‘Let’s keep pushing.’ The other six of us, myself included, said: ‘I’m not going to win this debate. We only have 12 of us to begin with, and clearly, after what’s happened in the Capitol today, this is not going to get better. We’ve got to find ways to pull the country together.’”
The House GOP was different. At 9:02 p.m., Pelosi gaveled the House into session. After everything that had happened, all the death and destruction, nearly two-thirds of the Republican conference — 121 members — voted against counting Arizona’s votes. Even more, 138 members, voted against counting the tally from Pennsylvania.
With their business completed in separate chambers, senators migrated to the House chamber to reconvene their joint session. At 3:24 a.m., Congress voted to confirm the election results. Pence, who was presiding, formally declared Biden the next president of the United States.
Before Jan. 6, the vice president — anticipating a divisive and emotional day — had specifically requested that Senate Chaplain Barry Black close the session in prayer. And so, at 3:41 a.m., Black, a retired Navy rear admiral, stood at the rostrum to deliver a prayer to a legislative body still shaken by the long day’s events. As lawmakers lowered their heads in silence, with Pence standing over his right shoulder, Black gave voice to their shared emotions.
“We deplore the desecration of the United States Capitol building, the shedding of innocent blood, the loss of life and the quagmire of dysfunction that threaten our democracy,” Black said.
He then sounded an unmistakable condemnation of the weeks-long campaign to infect the body politic with lies and disinformation about the election.
“These tragedies have reminded us that words matter,” Black continued, “and that the power of life and death is in the tongue.”
(Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)
Alice Crites, Amy Gardner, Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Hamburger, Spencer S. Hsu, Dan Lamothe, Carol D. Leonnig, Ellen Nakashima, Jon Swaine, Julie Tate, Ben Terris and Cleve R. Wootson Jr. contributed to this report.
BEFORE
Red Flags As Trump propelled his supporters to Washington, law enforcement agencies failed to heed mounting warnings about violence on Jan. 6.
DURING
Bloodshed For 187 harrowing minutes, the president watched his supporters attack the Capitol — and resisted pleas to stop them.
AFTER
Contagion Threats and disinformation spread across the country in the wake of the Capitol siege, shaking the underpinnings of American democracy.
About this story
This project is based on interviews with more than 230 people and thousands of pages of court documents and internal law enforcement reports, as well as hundreds of videos, photographs and audio clips.
Reporting by Jacqueline Alemany, Hannah Allam, Devlin Barrett, Emma Brown, Aaron C. Davis, Josh Dawsey, Amy Gardner, Tom Hamburger, Shane Harris, Rosalind S. Helderman, Peter Hermann, Spencer S. Hsu, Tom Jackman, Paul Kane, Dan Lamothe, Carol D. Leonnig, Nick Miroff, Ellen Nakashima, Ashley Parker, Beth Reinhard, Philip Rucker, Marianna Sotomayor, Isaac Stanley-Becker, Craig Timberg, Rachel Weiner and Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
Jon Swaine, Ben Terris, Elise Viebeck, Gerrit De Vynck in San Francisco; Jeremy Duda in Phoenix; Mark Shavin in Kennesaw, Ga.; and McKenzie Beard, Caroline Cliona Boyle, Heather MacNeil, Aneeta Mathur-Ashton, Vanessa Montalbano, Megan Ruggles, Nick Trombola and Carley Welch with the American University-Washington Post practicum program also contributed reporting.
Staff photography by Jabin Botsford, Ricky Carioti, Michael Robinson Chavez, Demetrius Freeman, Katherine Frey, Salwan Georges, Melina Mara, Matt McClain, Bonnie Jo Mount, Bill O’Leary, Toni L. Sandys and Michael S. Williamson. Additional photography by Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, Cassidy Araiza, Fábio Erdos, Karla Gachet, Evelyn Hockstein, Craig Hudson, Kevin D. Liles, Edward Linsmier, Caitlin O’Hara, Courtney Pedroza, Sarah Rice, Astrid Riecken, Sarah Silbiger, Amanda Voisard and Mikayla Whitmore.
Design and development by Madison Walls, Tyler Remmel and Jake Crump. Additional design by Matthew Callahan, Irfan Uraizee and Garland Potts. Design editing by Brian Gross. Photo editing and research by Natalia Jiménez-Stuard. Graphics by Daniela Santamariña and graphics editing by Kevin Uhrmacher and Lauren Tierney.
Staff videography by Ricky Carioti, Alice Li, Whitney Leaming, Justin Moyer, Jorge Ribas, Michael E. Ruane, Clarence Williams and Joy Sharon Yi and additional videography by Ray Whitehouse. Video research and reporting by Sarah Cahlan, Joyce Sohyun Lee, Meg Kelly and Elyse Samuels, Adriana Usero and JM Rieger and editing by Phoebe Connelly and Nadine Ajaka.
Video production by Erin Patrick O’Connor and Whitney Shefte and editing by Jorge Ribas and Jesse Mesner-Hage. Audio production by Ariel Plotnick, Ted Muldoon, Rennie Svirnovskiy and Emma Talkoff and editing by Ariel Plotnick.
Lead editor: Matea Gold. Story editing by Steven Ginsberg, Matea Gold, Dan Eggen and Peter Wallsten. Copy editing by Mike Cirelli and Laura Michalski. Project editing by Marian Liu.
Additional editing, production and support by Teddy Amenabar, Naseem Amini, Chris Barber, Lynh Bui, Courtney Beesch, Steven Bohner, Alice Crites, Mercedes Domenech, Sarah Dunton, Ann Gerhart, Tess Homan, Meghan Hoyer, Tom Johnson, Dave Jorgenson, Coleen O’Lear, Travis Lyles, Angel Mendoza, Tessa Muggeridge, Katherine O’Hearn, Lauren Prince, Lizzy Raben, John Sullivan, Julie Tate, Claire Tran, John Taylor, Elizabeth Tuten, Chris Vazquez and Deme Walls.
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2732741 |
Really! +2/-3
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Author:Old Guy
6/17/2022 11:29:08 AM
Reply to: 2732734
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Asking that question shows your inability to understand there are two sides.
Asking that question shows just how brain washed you are.
Asking that question shows you consider the right has NO constitutional rights!
Of course there are more than one reason people came to protest, but mainly to protest the counting of electoral votes that were obtained fraudulently! To protest the destruction of our country's democracy!
Last time I checked 64% of th citizens still believe the election was stolen, what makes you think they don't have the right to protest!
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