Chilling details from Capitol revealed
Reporters recount indelible moments
Each day this week we learned more chilling details about the attack on the Capitol. A rioter seen with zip tie handcuffs. Rioters beating police with the poles of American flags. One officer, crushed, screaming for help.
The bleachers for next week’s inauguration busted up, the pieces used as weapons. A truck filled with Molotov cocktails and a cache of firearms just blocks away. And rioters in the Capitol hallways yelling, “Where are the traitors?” “Take me to the traitors.”
“What I haven’t been able to stop thinking about is how many more people could have died,” said investigative reporter Cara Kelly. “It wasn’t obvious to me how narrowly members of Congress made it to safe locations until we started piecing together a video timeline. There were only a few minutes between the Senate adjourning and the first rioters entered the building.”
Yes, much more became clear this week. The unheeded warning. The danger lawmakers faced. The motives and identities of the rioters. And the police response.
White House reporter Courtney Subramanian said that despite their lack of resources, Capitol Police did hold rioters off longer than some realize. Two officers have been suspended and at least 10 are under investigation for their conduct, according to Rep. Tim Ryan, DOhio. But more became known this week about just how hard others fought.
“I think the narrative has been that rioters overran the Capitol so quickly but it was actually more of a slow breach,” Subramanian said. “Some of the bravery on their part has been remarkable to uncover.”
At the main portico, rioters wrested shields from officers’ hands and began using them as weapons against those same officers trying to keep them out of the Capitol.
In another doorway, officers fighting back rioters were doused with an orange chemical spray. One rioter tried to remove an officer’s face shield that had been coated with the irritant.
On a walkway, a rioter shoved a police officer over a barrier. Right behind him, a man in a blue beanie heaved a fire extinguisher that hit other officers trying to hold back the mob.
Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, 42, died Thursday from injuries he suffered while “physically engaging with protesters,” police said. Sicknick was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, according to Capitol Police, though they have said he is not one of the officers being assaulted in the video.
“It was these moments that I continue to replay,” Subramanian said.
“I can’t shake the anger and violence that overcame these folks.”
Data reporter Aleszu Bajak dug into conspiracy theories about the riot that started on fringe internet message boards, jumped to Twitter and then made it to the floor of Congress.
He reported that dozens of extremists used social media to push the falsehood that people attacking the Capitol were really antifa, far-left agitators, disguised as Trump supporters.
“The trickle of claims became a flood in a matter of hours,” he reported. “It started in secretive corners of the web such as 4chan, but tweets and articles from more and more mainstream conservative news sites followed. It began spiking around 1 p.m., just after rioters started breaching barriers outside the Capitol. Soon, Fox News personalities were sharing the same speculation that circulated among believers in the discredited QAnon conspiracy theory.
“By 10:15 p.m., the ‘false flag’ story reached the House floor that rioters had invaded earlier in the day. Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida told his shaken colleagues in a speech: ‘They were masquerading as Trump supporters and, in fact, were members of the violent terrorist group antifa.’ ”
Bajak said the language he found on fringe social media was the same that was used by leaders.
“It wasn’t simplified or cleaned up but really just shared verbatim,” he said. “You’d think you’d at least want to dress up a conspiracy theory if you’re going to bring it to the House floor.”
Congressional reporter Nicholas Wu was shocked to see hundreds of National Guard troops patrolling the Capitol this week, rifles slung over their shoulders, or napping in the hallways while off duty.
More than 15,000 are deployed to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration. Fencing surrounds the Capitol complex. More than a dozen Metro trains stations will be closed. The FBI has warned of possible armed protests at state capitol buildings across the nation. The National Park Service is considering whether to close the National Mall.
“For blocks around the Capitol, police officers and dump trucks blocked off intersections, and the building itself was cordoned off by a fence,” Wu said. “Guardsmen were stationed at 10-foot intervals around the Capitol, rifles at the ready.”
To enter the House chamber, he said, you now have to pass through a metal detector, and if a member sets off the detector, they are wanded by a Capitol Police officer. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has proposed a $5,000 fine for those who refuse to follow the new procedure.
“Normally, the Capitol and its visitor center are one of the most accessible federal government complexes in the country,” Wu said. “I run and bike through the plaza surrounding the Capitol. But now, that area is all fenced off, and it feels surreal to have such a heavy military presence there.”
Graphics director Javier Zarracina has seen this before. He grew up in Basque Country, in Bilbao, Spain.
“When I was a teenager I lived through the failed coup in the Spanish congress (in Madrid) in 1981,” Zarracina said. “Besides some visual similarities — an interrupted congress vote, lawmakers sheltering in the galleries — I remember how eager we were for accurate information during the insurrection and in the afterwards.
“This time, in an insurrection caused by lies and false narratives, it felt empowering being able to add some straight facts and fact-checked data to our coverage.”
Indeed it does. Even when those facts are difficult.
Especially when those facts are difficult.