As rioters held fort, fear and panic gripped Capitol

WASHINGTON: From a secure room in the Capitol on January 6, as rioters pummeled police and vandalised the building, then vice-president Mike Pence tried to assert control. In an urgent phone call to the acting defence secretary, he issued a startling demand. “Clear the Capitol,” Pence said.

Elsewhere in the building, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were making a similarly dire appeal to military leaders, asking the army to deploy the National Guard.

“We need help,” Schumer, D- N. Y., said in desperation, more than an hour after the Senate chamber had been breached.

At the Pentagon, officials were discussing media reports that the mayhem was not confined to Washington and that other state capitals were facing similar violence in what had the makings of a national insurrection. “We must establish order,” said Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a call with Pentagon leaders.

These new details about the deadly riot are contained in a previously undisclosed document prepared by the Pentagon for internal use that was obtained by The Associated Press and vetted by current and former government officials.

The timeline adds another layer of understanding about the state of fear and panic while the insurrection played out, and lays bare the inaction by thenpresident Donald Trump and how that void contributed to a slowed response by the military and law enforcement.

It shows that the intelligence missteps, tactical errors and bureaucratic delays were eclipsed by the government’s failure to comprehend the scale and intensity of a violent uprising by its own citizens. With Trump not engaged, it fell to Pentagon officials, a handful of senior White House aides, the leaders of Congress and the vice president holed up in a secure bunker to manage the chaos.

Trump tells GOP donors he’ll help win Congress

Former president Donald Trump sought to position himself as the Republican Party kingmaker on Saturday, telling party donors he will help them win seats in 2022 congressional elections but shed no new light on whether he will seek a second term in 2024.

Trump played host to a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago Club for Republican National Committee donors who are spending the weekend charting the future course of the party in Palm Beach, Florida.

“We are gathered tonight to talk about the future of the Republican Party - and what we must do to set our candidates on a course to victory,” Trump said, according to a prepared text of his speech to the group seen by Reuters.