State Capitol stormed month before DC riot
Both protests centered on presidential election results
When the pizzas arrived and the sliding glass doors opened for the delivery, the group, including the man in the fur hat with horns, saw its chance to rush inside one of the buildings of the Arizona Capitol.
Bypassing security, they would squat in the lobby for hours, chanting, shouting and arguing with security.
The move was a desperate attempt to have Arizona lawmakers decree the November election fraudulent and declare a victory for then-President Donald Trump. In the end, state troopers would force them from the building and make two arrests.
It was Dec. 3, a little more than a month before the storming of the U.S. Capitol.
Before rushing into the House of Representatives, the group stood outside and heard a series of speeches meant to motivate them for days of occupation.
Among the speakers was Jake Angeli, a self-designated shaman who would become one of the faces of the U.S. Capitol raid when he was photographed roaming the Rotunda and U.S. Senate chamber in his signature outfit of a fur hat topped with horns and face paint. Angeli was arrested and ordered held in custody in D.C. pending federal trial on six criminal charges that could get him more than 25 years in prison.
In December, outside Arizona’s stone-walled Capitol museum, Angeli told the crowd that what they were about to do was a virtuous act.
“Civil disobedience, ladies and gentlemen, is our duty,” he told the crowd, according to a video posted on Facebook. “It has been the most successful way of dealing with tyranny for millennia.” Angeli compared the group’s pending action to those of Jesus Christ, Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Daniel McCarthy, a failed U.S. Senate candidate who blamed his own primary loss on election fraud, warned the crowd that time didn’t allow for mere speeches and rallies. Urgent action was needed, he said.
“Decide what you are willing to do,” McCarthy told the group. “What is it you are willing to do to ensure your children
don’t live in Communism?”
The daylong “occupation” of the House lobby on Dec. 3, as participants labeled it, earned a smattering of mainstream media attention that mainly focused on the arrests that the Arizona Department of Public Safety reported the next day.
But, for at least one lawmaker, who was in the House building for an orientation meeting, the day’s events took on greater significance after Jan. 6.
That day, Trump supporters, goaded on by speeches at a nearby rally, stormed into the U.S. Capitol, sending senators and representatives scurrying into secured areas.
Five people would die as result of that raid, including a Capitol Police officer.
Rep. Andrea Dalessandro, a Democrat representing Santa Cruz County in southern Arizona, recalled walking down the stairs with other incoming lawmakers from the second floor on Dec. 3 and spotting the group huddled on the other side of the lobby. Only later, after the raid at the U.S. Capitol, did she wonder whether the glass doors to the stairs were locked. Or whether the security guards stationed in the lobby were armed.
“I feel lucky that it didn’t escalate in Phoenix,” she said during an interview in late January. “It could have easily gone bad and someone could have been hurt.”
Bryan Masche, one of the people who would be arrested as a result of the occupation of the Arizona House, said there was the possibility the situation could have gone awry had the group seen Dalessandro and others on the staircase that day. Masche said he would have politely approached the group. But, he said, he couldn’t guarantee that all would have gone smoothly had he been trailed by the rest of the group in the lobby.
That’s why, Masche said, the group asked security to relay offers to House leaders to meet with representatives of the group. “Why not speak to three or four people,” he said. “Quiet the whole crowd down.”
Those requests, he said, were refused.
Masche said the movement would lose energy the next month.
“The sentiment of everyone was a little bit different than it is now,” he said. “People were willing to almost stand up for what they believe in a little more.”
Masche said the difference wasn’t necessarily a reaction to the insurrection at the Capitol, or even the multiple arrests, including of Angeli. He said it was the fact that President Donald Trump was no longer in office.
Masche said it was only a temporary pause. “I think people are going to recalibrate, rest for a bit, then become politically active again,” he said.
Stacy Gentile, a member of the newly formed Patriot Party group, said those who went to the U.S. Capitol in January had the same motivation as those, like him, who sat in the lobby in the Arizona House for hours. They were sure that the November election was rigged and felt they needed to press lawmakers into action.
“It’s a fair sentiment to say: Across the country, people were upset,” he said. “People generally want free and fair elections, regardless of the outcome. That strikes right at the heart at what it means to be an American.”
Gentile said his group has never called for nor condoned violent action. He rejected any notion that his group held extremist views.
“We’re not extremists. We’re not radicals,” he said. “We’re just conservatives and we want the Constitution to be followed. … We’re calm, levelheaded, pleasant people.”
Election-fraud claims
The Arizona Capitol had been the site for all manner of protests in recent months. Protesters demanding the state reopen and rescind orders to shut down businesses to prevent the spread of COVID-19 held several rallies at the Capitol and the adjoining parklike Wesley Bolin Plaza. Activists decrying police brutality often marched from downtown Phoenix to the Capitol. Organizers held rallies near the Capitol for Save the Children, a
“I feel lucky that it didn’t escalate in Phoenix. It could have easily gone bad and someone could have been hurt.”
State Rep. Andrea Dalessandro
movement that has been conflated with the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Following the general election, the Capitol would be the site of several protests related to baseless claims, often promoted by Republican Party leaders and officeholders, that the results of Arizona’s election could not be trusted.
Among those leading those election protests was McCarthy, a real estate agent who, along with his wife, founded a company that made an eraser that easily removed cosmetics.
McCarthy declined a request to be interviewed for this story, asking instead to email a written response to questions. He did not send any answers.
McCarthy had earlier claimed he spotted election corruption back in August, when, in his first run for office, he went up in the Republican primary against then-U.S. Sen. Martha McSally, who was seeking to retain that seat.
McCarthy, a candidate with little financial backing or name recognition, lost by a nearly 3-to-1 margin.
But McCarthy was convinced the election results were fraudulent. They didn’t match exit polling conducted by the campaign, an adviser told The Republic the day after the election. Those polls showed McCarthy winning 4-to-1. Granted, the adviser said, the exit polls were taken by McCarthy volunteers in McCarthy garb, skewing who might agree to take the poll. Still, even accounting for that, the adviser said, the results didn’t make sense.
McCarthy never conceded the election, though he never filed a challenge to it.
How the occupation began
After the general election results showed Trump losing Arizona, McCarthy saw the same voter fraud rearing its head.
“It is what happened to us in my primary,” McCarthy would tell the crowd at the Arizona Capitol that December day. “This is how they control the entire landscape of politics in this country.”
McCarthy told the crowd of about 50, estimated from viewing on video footage, it needed to get familiar with their surroundings. “This is your new office now,” he told them, according to video of his speech. “This is now an occupy situation.”
Because of restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Arizona House of Representatives building was closed. Only those with an appointment would be admitted.
There was no official business going on in the House, other than orientation for new members. For lunch, they would have pizza. And that’s when McCarthy’s group saw a literal opening into the building.
When security opened the sliding doors on the west end of the building to allow a delivery person to enter, a group of people “ran across the plaza” and entered the lobby before the doors could close, according to Andrew Wilder, a spokesperson for Republican House members.
The sliding doors are meant to be an exit. The designated entrance to the Arizona House leads to a metal detector.
“Their entry was unauthorized,” Wilder wrote in an email, “and bypassed the security screening area.”
The group made sure at least one person stood in the doorway, triggering the doors to remain open, Wilder said. That allowed others to enter, he wrote.
Security officials told the group to leave, Wilder said, but none complied. The officials then made sure the group remained contained on the west end of the lobby, he wrote.
Eventually, according to video of the incident, some Department of Public Safety troopers assisted with security.
At about 12:20 p.m., Masche, a surgical nurse who had participated with McCarthy at protests of COVID-19-related shutdown orders, urged fellow Patriots to come to the state Capitol, through postings on Facebook and Twitter. “We have Patriots inside the House of Representatives NOW,” he wrote on Facebook. “there has been a call for ‘Occupying.’”
Masche said he was still working, but would show up when he got off work at 2:30 p.m.
About 3 p.m., McCarthy streamed a video on his Facebook page also urging followers to come to the Capitol. He also seemed to urge both that people arrive armed and remain non-violent.
“This is a 2nd Amendment friendly group,” he said, while describing the event as a peaceful protest. “We have to show everybody in the country the love Arizona has for its constitution.”
On the campaign trail, McCarthy typically carried a handgun in his waistband. He did not answer a question about whether he was armed inside the House lobby that day.
While streaming video, McCarthy turned his phone around to let his fellow occupiers speak to his audience on Facebook.
“Now is the window of opportunity,” Angeli said, standing in the back of the crowd, but plainly visible in his face paint and fur-and-horned bonnet. “Now is our time. Do you want to be a hero or a zero? Do you want to be a traitor or a liberator?”
McCarthy turned the camera onto a lawmaker, Rep. Kevin Payne, who stepped into the lobby. McCarthy, while mugging for the camera, asked Payne about whether he would support impeachment proceedings for Gov. Doug Ducey. Payne had his back to McCarthy and ignored those questions.
But Payne loaned his support to one of the group’s stated aims: having lawmakers sign onto a document that asked the U.S. Senate to reject Arizona’s slate of electors.
“We’re going to get this done, hopefully,” Payne said, while turned to the camera. “We’re doing all we can.”
McCarthy would later name three lawmakers who signed the document: Payne, Sen. Warren Petersen and Rep. Walt Blackman. None returned a request for comment from The Republic.
The arrests
Masche got into a verbal tussle with a Department of Public Safety trooper who asked the group to not use amplified speech inside the lobby, saying it was a violation of posted rules.
Masche, according to a video of the encounter, approached the officer intending to explain how any such law violated both the U.S. and Arizona Constitutions. But, as he prepared to do so, someone with a megaphone hit a siren sound effect. Masche wheeled around and told the person to be silent so he could make his point.
Masche, who did not wear a face covering, was, at times, inches away from the face of the officer, who wore a surgical mask. Masche threatened that he would have the officer’s badge should he try to arrest him for using the bullhorn.
“I can stand here with a mic and yell into it as loud as I want in the middle of a public facility,” Masche told the officer, “and you can’t do anything about it.”
About 7 p.m., according to another video, Masche reported that DPS troopers were assembling around a corner and he figured they would try to physically remove the group from the building. By then, the group had dwindled to about two dozen. Angeli cannot be seen in videos taken around this time.
Masche told people in the lobby: “If you don’t want to stay, go.”
McCarthy left the building, saying, on video he livestreamed, that he feared what would happen to him should he be arrested.
DPS troopers formed a line in front of the House building. McCarthy told them that, if needed, he could order those in the lobby to leave. “I can pull them out if it’s that time,” he told the troopers. Then, facing the camera, he told his viewers that his group was running out of options. “The challenge is,” he said, “our backs are against the wall.”
Inside, a DPS trooper read a notice that the group was being asked to leave.
Masche said that he was having a cordial conversation with the man who appeared to be leading the operation. But, at one point, the man gestured to the troopers that it was time to clear the lobby.
Masche said one trooper grabbed his arm and asked him if he was going to leave. Masche said he told the trooper to release his arm and that he would go.
On a video, Masche could be heard profanely complaining that a trooper touched him. “He’s losing his badge,” Masche said.
One woman was handcuffed and arrested. Someone told McCarthy she asked to be arrested. Everyone else walked out.
Masche called the group together at the plaza between the legislative buildings, near where the group had gathered that morning. He called for a muster and head count that Saturday at high noon of groups that purport to be citizen armies. He specifically named three groups and said he had been in touch with some of them.
“I’m calling forth all members of the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters, the Oath Keepers, any other militia groups,” he said.
At that point, McCarthy, who was standing next to him, interrupted and said, “Non-militia groups.”
Masche continued: “Send a final message to the government that you cannot certify a fraudulent election,” he said. “We have had enough of tyranny.”
Masche was arrested as he drove from the Capitol. During a speech a few days later, Masche would describe being pulled over and forcibly removed from his vehicle.
Charges of criminal trespass were terminated, according to a court document. Masche was given a citation for not having a valid driver’s license.
The other person arrested, Josefina Mendoza-Poetzl, was booked on a count of criminal trespass. Her case was pending, though no charges have been filed, according to online records.
Both have been banned from the Arizona House of Representatives, Wilder said.
The aftermath
At the rally that weekend, Dec. 5, McCarthy spoke to supporters who gathered at Wesley Bolin Plaza, the sprawling parklike area adjoining the Capitol. He told the crowd there were “only a few ways now to come to a peaceful resolution.”
Among those, he said, were Gov. Ducey and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs resigning or being impeached. McCarthy also announced his candidacy for governor.
“I would never advocate for violence,” he said. “There are no plans other than for peaceable protest. But, let me tell you something. You guys and I know what the deal is.”
He talked about the possibility of government camps that people would be forced to enter for reeducation. “This is no game,” he said.
Masche spoke later in the day, after McCarthy. During his speech, he said that the incident on Dec. 3 drove a wedge between the two men. Masche said that though he and McCarthy discussed together the calling out of the “militia” groups, McCarthy was backing away from it.
“We made that decision together,” Masche told the crowd. “Now I’m being told he has to distance himself from that call.” Masche also said he was running for governor.
Masche, in a phone interview on Monday, said that what he said next during his speech was not meant to come across as a threat of violence. He was still talking about political options, he said.
Masche, in his speech, said that Ducey needed to be removed from office by legal means, either by resigning or through impeachment. “Or, beyond that, it may come down to Plan B, and every single one of us needs to understand what that Plan B means.”
Some in the crowd asked what Plan B was, according to video of Masche’s speech. “We know what it means,” Masche said. “I don’t have to tell you what Plan B means. There are people here that know what Plan B means.”
Masche described the DPS clearing the occupiers out of the House lobby as the opening salvo in a war.
“We are at the beginning of a war, literally,” Masche said. “And I’m not calling us to charge the Capitol right now, but what I am saying is, depending on what happens, it might come to that. We don’t know.
“Be prepared,” he said, “because that day is coming for all of us not too far in the distant future.
“It may come to us having to square off with our government.”