Deliberating While Rome Burns
2:49 PM:
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam decides to activate all available assets of the Virginia State Police plus military police of the Virginia National Guard (the Manassas-based 229th Military Police Company) for immediate dispatch to the Capitol.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that DOD authorization for deployment of the Guard in the District was not granted.
2:50 PM:
Jazmine Ulloa of The Boston Globe tweets: “...One Capitol security officer said he wasn’t sure if rioters had weapons but he said they had plenty of bear spray, pepper spray—and “lots of sharp objects.” His face had been doused with pepper spray.”
2:51 PM:
Steven Nelson of the New York Post tweets: “‘No justice, no peace!’ is new pro-trump chant at Senate clock. Mcconnell’s office surrounded now.”
2:52 PM:
Casey J. Wooten of National Journal tweets from the Gallery of the House Chamber: “There’s a standoff between cap police and intruders.”
At 3:07 PM, Rep. Jason Crow (DCO) tweets and posts another photo from inside the House chamber: “This is what it has come to.”
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) spoke to PBS, “We were being told by the Capitol Police to get down in the event that there was an active shooter and to pull out our gas masks in case there was tear gas that they had to use to disperse” the crowd.
“I was with some [House] members that were calling their families, and so then I called my husband to assure him I was Ok,” Sherrill says.
2:52 PM:
Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) tweets: “I am in the House Chambers. We have been instructed to lie down on the floor and put on our gas masks. Chamber security and Capitol Police have their guns drawn as protesters bang on the front door of the chamber...”
2:53 PM:
Jonathan Martin of The New
York Times tweets: “.@Mittromney summoned me as lawmakers and press arrived at a secure location. ‘This is what the president has caused today, this insurrection,’ he said w fury in his voice.”
2:57 PM:
Igor Bobic of Huffington Post tweets a video: “Several people got on to a scaffolding outside Senate, took it to second floor, which looked like the area where Mcconnell’s office is located, and started banging on windows.”
2:57 PM:
D.C. Homeland Security & Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) tweets: “...citywide curfew for the District of Columbia from 6pm on Wednesday, January 6, until 6am on Thursday, January 7. A Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) message was sent to cell phones pinging in the District of Columbia this afternoon.”
2:58 PM:
The Tulsa World publishes an interview with Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK).
“I’ve known Mike Pence forever,” Inhofe said. “I’ve never seen Pence as angry as he was today.
“I had a long conversation with him,” said Inhofe. “He said, ‘After all the things I’ve done for (Trump).’”
He says that there were “at least 1,000 people inside the Capitol.”
2:58 PM:
Sarah D. Wire of the Los
Angeles Times later writes of her experience being evacuated from the House Gallery at about this time:
“Police told us to follow them. We walked for several minutes, hustling down a warren to hallways and a winding staircase. I have worked in the Capitol for eight years, and I can’t tell you the path we took. As law
makers, reporters and staffers streamed ahead, I slowed so I could speak with a visibly shaken Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA). He was livid. I pulled out my phone and hit record. He took a second to find his words.
“This shouldn’t happen in the United States,” he said, his eyes rimmed with tears.
We reached a secure room. That’s all
I can say about it at this moment. It was large and filled with leather chairs and walnut tables, and you’ve seen it on TV. It was already filled with lawmakers, staffers and other journalists. As members typed on their phones and were updated by security officials on the status of the riots, staff handed out Goldfish crackers, fruit snacks and little bottles of water.
A member led a prayer. Another, a former ER doctor, reminded me to stay hydrated. A group of Democrats grumbled about Republicans not wearing masks.”
2:59 PM:
Bill Clark of Roll Call tweets from the front of the Capitol: “Protesters stand on top of the US Capitol Police armored vehicle as other protesters take over the Capitol steps.”
At 2:59 PM, Nelson of the New York Post tweets a photo of a protester with a combat helmet, body armor and a set of zip ties (that would be used to take hostages) as he emerges from Senate floor. “We didn’t destroy a damn thing,” the man says.
At 2:59 PM, Rep. David Trone (D-MD) tweets a picture of himself in the House Chamber wearing the inflatable ‘gas masks,’ the protective masks issued to Members of Congress. “I am safe. We have been evacuated...,” he says.
3:00 PM:
The Pentagon says that Acting Secretary Christopher Miller approves all available D.C. National Guard (DCNG) forces to reinforce Capitol and D.C. Police positions to reestablish control. Secretary Ryan Mccarthy directs the DCNG to move from the D.C. armory in Southeast Washington to the Capitol complex. The DCNG prepares to move the initial 150 personnel, pending final approval by Miller. “The process took about an hour,”
Military Times reported, from the time Mccarthy received it around 2 p.m. on Wednesday. “We wanted to make sure, based off what we saw developing, that that was an acceptable use, all the way up to the SECDEF, which didn’t take long,” a defense source told the newspaper, “including about half an hour spent relaying the request to” Acting Secretary Miller.
3:01 PM:
House Minority Leader Kevin Mccarthy tweets: “What is unfolding is unacceptable and un-american. It has got to stop.”
It is later reported that Mccarthy spoke to President Trump on the phone and urged him to make a statement denouncing the rioters. When Trump refuses, there is reportedly a “screaming match” between the two.
3:02 PM:
Mike Baker of The New York Times tweets: “After a summer spent on the streets of Portland, I just keep thinking...‘where is DHS?’...”
3:04 PM:
Nelson of the New York Post tweets: “Photo of Senate right now. ‘Where’s Pence, show yourself!’ protester shouts.”
3:04 PM:
William Turton of Bloomberg News tweets an unbelievable video showing the west side of the Capitol, with hundreds entering the building and many thousands more on the steps, terraces and extending west to the National Mall and beyond the Reflecting Pool. In the video, police are standing to the side as protesters pour into the Capitol Building: “Here’s Washington DC right now.”
3:04 PM:
Acting Secretary Miller provides verbal approval for full activation of the D.C. National Guard (DCNG) (1,100 total personnel), according to the DOD, “in support of the MPD.” Secretary Mccarthy transmits the order to the DCNG to move prepared forces and undertake a full mobilization.
According to the Pentagon’s timeline, the DCNG starts redeploying soldiers from Metro stations and mobilizes all available non-support and non-command and control personnel to support the D.C. Police.
Note that the Pentagon, in its own words, said that the D.C. National Guard would support the D.C. police (MPD) and not the U.S. Capitol Police. It wasn’t a typo. The Army didn’t like the “optics” of the military—even the Guard—appearing to police civilians and initially restricted what they could be used for. Later the Pentagon would expand its support to allow guardsmen to actually be involved in protecting the Capitol.