MOB STORMS US CAPITOL
1 killed as president’s backers breach building; hours later, Trump tells them to ‘go home’
Violent supporters of President Donald Trump breached the Capitol building and clashed with law enforcement Wednesday before disrupting Congress’ tallying of the Electoral College votes and interrupting the process to formalize President-elect Joe Biden’s upcoming inauguration on Jan. 20.
One woman was confirmed to have been shot and killed. The National Guard and state and federal police were called in for control, and rare evening curfews were declared inWashington and nearby Virginia suburbs.
Supporters were egged on for weeks by Trump, who since the November presidential election had launched a barrage of false attacks on the integrity of the results. While rallying his supporters outside the White House Wednesday morning, and urged them to march to the Capitol, telling them to “get rid of the weak Congress people” and saying, “get the weak ones get out; this is the time for strength.” Later — hours after they fought police and breached the building — he told them in a video that although they were “very special people” and he backed their cause, they should “go home in peace.”
After a four-hour occupation, officials declared the U.S. Capitol
complex “secure” Wednesday evening. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said late Wednesday that Congress will resume the Electoral College proceedings once the Capitol is safe for use and would continue to work until thework is finalized. Pelosi said she made the decision in consultation with the Pentagon, the Justice Department and the vice president, who will preside. As of press time, Congress had not resumed the constitutionally mandated count.
Pelosi noted the daywould always be “part of history,” but nowitwould be “as such a shameful picture of our countrywas put out into theworld.”
Trump has repeatedly told his supporters that the November election was stolen from him, even though that is not true.
Lawmakers were evacuated to secure locations around the Capitol complex andWashington, D.C., after thousands of Trump supporters breached the building and skirmished with police officers.
Other than a pair of tweets and that minute-long video, Trump was largely disengaged from the occupation of a main seat of the nation’s government through the afternoon and early evening. It was Vice President Mike Pence, not Trump, who spoke with senior defense leaders about calling up theNational Guard.
President-elect Biden, two weeks away from being inaugurated, had declared in Wilmington, Delaware: “I callonPresident DonaldTrumpto go on national television now to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege,”
Biden said that democracy was “under unprecedented assault,” a sentiment echoed by many in Congress, including some Republicans.
Former President GeorgeW. Bush said in a statement, “This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic — not our democratic republic.” Without actually naming Trump, he said the assault on the Capitol “was undertaken by people whose passions have been inflamed by falsehoods and false hopes. Insurrection could do grave damage to our Nation and reputation.”
Even for a Capitol building that has seen centuries of protests and even violence — including a 1954 shooting involving Puerto Rican nationalists — Wednesday’s events were astounding because they appeared to unfold at least initially with the blessing of the president and also because of the underlying goal of overturning the results of a lawful presidential election.
The chaotic protests halted Congress’ constitutionally mandated counting of the Electoral College results, in which Biden defeated Trump, 306-232. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had tried to steer Congress away fromWednesday’s formal protest of those results, and he said at the start of proceedings that Trump had clearly lost.
Wednesday’s ordinarily mundane procedure of Congress certifying a new president was always going to be extraordinary, with Republican supporters of Trump vowing to protest election results that have been certified by the states. But even the unusual deliberations, which included Vice President Mike Pence and Senate Majority Leader McConnell defying Trump’s demands, were quickly overtaken by the chaos.
In a raucous, out-of-control scene, supporters fought past police and breached the building, shouting and waving Trump and American flags as they marched through the halls. One person was reported shot at the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the situation. That person’s conditionwas unknown. At least one explosive device was found but law enforcement said it did not pose a threat.
As darkness began to set in, law enforcement officials worked their way toward the supporters, using percussion grenades to try to clear the area around the Capitol. Big clouds of tear gaswere visible. Police in full riot gear moved down the steps, clashing with demonstrators.
It added up a frightening scene for lawmakers, who were directed to take extraordinary action for their own safety. The supporters abruptly interrupted the congressional proceedings in an eerie scene that featured official warnings directing people to duck under their seats for cover and put on gas masks after tear gaswas used in the Capitol Rotunda. Some House lawmakers tweeted theywere sheltering in place in their offices.
Rep. Scott Peters, D- Calif., told reporters he was in the House chamber when supporters began storming it. Security officers “made us all get down, you could see that they were fending off some sort of assault, it looked like. They had a piece of furniture up against the door, the door, the entry to the floor fromtheRotunda, and they had guns pulled,” Peters said.
“And they just told us to take our pins off,” he added, referring to lapel pins memberswear so Capitol Police can quickly identify them. Then the lawmakerswere evacuated.
A clerk helped grab the boxes of Electoral College votes as the evacuation took place. Otherwise, said Sen. JeffMerkley, D- Ore., the ballots likely would have been destroyed by the supporters.
Trump supporters posting on internet forums popular with far-right fringe elements celebrated the chaos. Messages posted on one turned from profane frustration over the content of Trump’s speech to glee when supporters stormed the building. At least one leading figure was livestreaming video from inside the Capitol during the siege.
The Pentagon said about 1,100 District of ColumbiaNational Guard members were being mobilized to help support lawenforcement at the Capitol.
Pence had a largely ceremonial role, opening the sealed envelopes from the states and reading the results aloud. But he was under growing pressure fromTrump to tip the results in the president’s favor, despite having no legal power to affect the outcome.
“Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!” Trump tweeted Wednesday.
But Pence, in a statement shortly before presiding, defied Trump, saying he could not claim “unilateral authority” to reject the electoral votes that make Biden the winner.
Despite Trump’s repeated claims of voter fraud, election officials and his own former attorney general have said therewere no problems on a scale that would change the outcome. All the states have certified their results as fair and accurate, by Republican and Democratic officials alike.
Arizona was the first of several states facing objections from the Republicans as Congress took an alphabetical reading of the election results. Then the chaos erupted.