`INSURRECTION' IN D.C.
After one of the darkest days in U.S. history, many blamed the current U.S. president for the violent attempt to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
WA S HI NGTON • Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, was addressing the U.S. Senate just before 2 p.m. on Wednesday when an aide interrupted him. The Trump protesters who had gathered outside were now inside the building.
A group of men had pushed, then toppled the barricades, storming through them to the grassy fields leading to the Capitol.
Inside the building, Congress was meeting to count electoral college votes that confirmed the election of Joe Biden as the next president of the United States.
Several Capitol police stood guard but could not hold back the tide. Hundreds scaled and kicked aside the barricades, yelling “forward!!” as they ran upward.
Some tried to reach the steps of the Capitol, but were stopped by law enforcement. A few who made it through and scaled metal construction structures were tackled by police.
After a few minutes of the crowds yelling “USA! USA!”, dozens of law enforcement descended down the steps to boos.
Police guarding the back of the Capitol building released smoke explosives into the crowd. The explosives, which released a green irritant, made protesters cough. Some dispersed, then clustered forward. Those who were unmasked started to put on face coverings.
The House doors were slammed closed. The U.S. Capitol Police issued an ominous warning: “Stay away from exterior windows, doors. If outside, seek cover.”
The protesters managed to push the police line up the steps on the east side of the Capitol. Then a small group broke into the building.
“We were just told that there has been tear gas in the rotunda and we're being instructed to each of us get gas masks that are under our seats,” Rep. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat, said in a video he posted on Twitter, referring to the area under the dome that connects the House and Senate sides of the building.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., called it a “coup attempt.”
Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., whose office is in the Cannon building, tweeted “I just had to evacuate my office because of a pipe bomb reported outside.”
The protesters had marched from the Ellipse, where Trump had earlier addressed them.
Numbering in the thousands and dressed in MAGA hats and camouflage gear, the crowd roared as Trump took the stage at 11 that morning.
“We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn't happen. You don't concede when there's theft involved,” Trump said, claiming that Biden's victory was based on fraudulent vote counts. “We won this election, and we won it by a landslide. This was not a close election.
“Our country has had enough and we will not take it any more,” Trump said.
As those in attendance sought out a vantage point, one person shouted, “Which way's the revolution?”
Even as Trump was urging his vice-president to overturn the election, Mike Pence stood up in the House and rebuffed the demand. In a statement he issued just as he was about to address Congress, Pence said that while he shares the concerns about the “integrity” of the election, he did not have the power to unilaterally overturn the results.
The Electoral College results were presented alphabetically, starting with Alabama. Republicans raised their first objection to results from Arizona, with possible objections to follow for Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Sen. Ted Cruz, seen as a potential 2024 presidential candidate, led at least 11 other Republican senators, including Lankford, alongside a majority of the 211 Republicans in the House, in objecting.
Republican lawmakers cheered and Democrats groaned when the Arizona objection was brought.
Within the hour, Pence would be escorted from the Senate as police evacuated both houses of Congress.
Capitol Police told lawmakers in the House chamber to take gas masks from beneath their seats and prepare to put them on. Officers at the front door of the House chamber had their guns drawn as someone attempted to enter.
Officers ordered people in the chamber to drop to the floor for their safety. Several hundred House members, staff and press were evacuated to an undisclosed location and were told not to leave.
One protester occupied the Senate dais and yelled, “Trump won that election.”
Shortly before 3 p.m., an ambulance pulled up to the southeast corner of the Capitol on Independence Avenue. A team of paramedics with a gurney rushed to the south side of the building, where a Capitol Police officer stepped aside to let them pass.
“White female, shot in the shoulder,” the officer said as they hurried past.
A later report said the woman had died.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R- Calif., called on Trump to make a statement in a bid to calm the mob.
“I think we need to make a statement, make sure that we can calm individuals down,” McCarthy, the top House Republican, said in an interview on Fox News Channel.
McCarthy said he had called Trump and had a brief conversation with him.
Trump, who was in the Oval Office, tweeted a call to “stay peaceful.”
Biden, due to take office on Jan. 20, went on television to say the actions of the protesters “borders on sedition.”
He said that for demonstrators to storm the Capitol, smash windows, occupy offices, invade the halls of Congress and threaten the safety of duly elected officials: “It's not a protest, it's insurrection.”
“I call on this mob to pull back and allow the work of democracy to go forward,” Biden added, urging Trump to go on national television to demand “an end to this siege.”
In a video posted to Twitter, Trump repeated his claims about election fraud but urged the protesters to leave.
“You have to go home now, we have to have peace,” he said.
As daylight waned the entire District of Columbia National Guard — a force of 1,100 — was called in and a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew was imposed citywide.
A 46-year-old man from North Carolina, who police said had two firearms and more than 300 rounds of ammunition, was among several people arrested.
The North Carolina man, identified as Thomas Gronek, was charged with several firearms offences. Police said he was aboard a multicoloured school bus that was stopped near 9th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, near the Mall.
Police did not provide details about the stop or if they knew weapons might be aboard.
Guns were top of mind for many who converged Wednesday morning. A man marched down 14th Street with a large camouflaged backpack and a flag with an image of a gun that said, “Come and take it.”
A man in the crowd in front of the Washington Monument turned to his friend and said, “They can come take my gun one bullet at a time.”
Rachel Ethridge, 48, and Mike Wyatt, 44, huddled near the Washington Monument beneath a sheet they had doused in red and black spray paint to read, “WE CHOSE TRUMP.”
The couple, who live in Missouri, came to D.C. for what they see as a final chance to save their country from a fraudulent election by supporting Trump's attempts to refute Biden's electoral victory. If their efforts Wednesday fail, the two said, they fear a civil war could follow.
“I really don't hope for a civil war,” Wyatt said. “But there are people who won't be pushed around, Americans aren't those kind of people.”
Police declared the Capitol building secure shortly after 5:30 p.m. and the Senate reconvened at 8 p.m. to resume the election certification.
“We are back in our posts. We will discharge our duty under the Constitution, and for our nation. And we are going to do it tonight,” said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.
IT'S NOT A PROTEST, IT'S INSURRECTION.