Rioters came dangerously close to Pence
Mob feet away as he was taken to safety
WASHINGTON • The violent mob that stormed the u.s. Capitol on Jan. 6 came perilously close to Vice-president Mike Pence, who was not evacuated from the Senate chamber for about 14 minutes after the Capitol Police reported an initial attempted breach of the complex — enough time for the marauders to rush inside the building and approach his location, according to law enforcement officials and video footage from that day.
Secret Service officers eventually spirited Pence to a room off the Senate floor with his wife and daughter after rioters began to pour into the Capitol, many loudly denouncing the vice-president as a traitor.
About one minute after Pence was hustled out of the chamber, a group charged up the stairs to a second-floor landing in the Senate, chasing a Capitol Police officer who drew them away from the Senate.
Pence and his family had just ducked into a hideaway less than 30 metres from that landing, according to three people familiar with his whereabouts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. If the mob had arrived seconds earlier, they would have been in eyesight of the vice-president as he was rushed across a hall.
The proximity of the mob to the vice-president and the delay in evacuating him from the chamber — which have not been previously reported — raise questions about why the Secret Service did not move him earlier and underscore the jeopardy that top government leaders faced during the siege.
As an increasingly hostile and violent crowd surrounded the Capitol, Pence remained centre stage, presiding over a joint session of Congress for more than an hour after the Capitol Police chief asked for emergency reinforcements.
The potential exposure of the vice-president indicates how law enforcement struggled to manage the rapidly expanding crisis.
Neither the Secret Service nor a spokesman for Pence would comment on Pence’s movements or his evacuation.
Pence was ultimately evacuated from his office to a more secure location in the Capitol complex. It is unclear how long that took. But as the vice-president made his way through the building, a growing number of rioters were coursing through the Capitol’s labyrinthine halls.
Many of them had their sights on Pence — enraged that he had refused President Trump’s demand that he head off the electoral college count that formalized president-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
At one point, a group of rioters began chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!”
One man, Jacob A. Chansley of Arizona, reached Pence’s chair on the Senate dais and left a note on the vice-president’s desk that read in part, “it’s only a matter of time, justice is coming,” according to court filings.
Chansley — charged with two felonies, including threatening congressional officials — told investigators it was not meant as a threat.
Pence had just begun the joint session of Congress when law enforcement officials realized rioters had pressed up against the barriers surrounding the building — even using them as weapons.
Congress convened at 1 p.m. in the House chamber for an alphabetical roll call of each state’s electoral college results, pausing when Trump allies protested Biden’s victory in Arizona, which sent Pence and senators to their chamber to debate the challenges.
At 1:09 p.m., Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said he told the top Capitol security officials, House Sergeantat-arms Paul Irving and Senate Sergeant-at-arms Michael Stenger, that he wanted an emergency declaration and to call in the National Guard.
At 1:50 p.m., the d.c. police on-scene commander declared a riot.
At 1:59 p.m., Sund said, he received the first report that rioters had reached the Capitol’s doors and windows.
At about 2:11 p.m., video footage shows rioters breaking a window with a piece of lumber and entering the building.
At 2:13 p.m., Pence suddenly left the Senate floor and was moved to a nearby office, according to C-SPAN footage and a Post reporter on the scene.
But the rioters were not far behind. They chased Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up a flight of stairs, arriving on the landing at 2:14 p.m., video footage shows — seconds after Pence had been whisked into the office.
Pence’s Secret Service detail stood guard at the door. With the vice-president were his wife, his daughter and his brother, rep. Greg Pence, r-ind.
Twice the vice-president’s agents told Pence they recommended he and his entourage evacuate the Capitol, but Pence declined, saying he did not want to be driven out of his own office and the Capitol building by an unruly mob, according to two people briefed on the episode.
The third time, Secret Service agents told Pence they were going — that instant.
Snipers on the counter-assault team would have ensured the path was clear.
Pence and his detail did not encounter any rioters on their way through the overrun Capitol, according to the people familiar with the events. The group also included Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short, press secretary devin O’malley and several staffers.
Pence remained in the secure location throughout the siege, even as key congressional leaders were evacuated off-site, according to administration and congressional aides.
It would take several hours before the rioters were ejected from the grounds and the building was secured.
Pence returned to the Senate chamber after 8 p.m., and before Congress resumed its work, he addressed the day’s violence.
“We will always be grateful to the men and women who stayed at their posts to defend this historic place. To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win. Violence never wins. Freedom wins. And this is still the People’s House.”