We're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.
I love Pennsylvania Avenue.
And we're going to the Capitol….
We're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take
back our country.
On January 6th, hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol complex.
The insurrection was the worst breach of Capitol security since the War of 1812.
The siege led to widespread vandalism.
More than 50 police officers were injured and five people died.
The Washington Post examined hundreds of videos, analyzed publicly available maps of the Capitol
Complex, gathered hours of police radio, interviewed dozens of witnesses including members of Congress
and reviewed official communications to reconstruct how the pandemonium unfolded and retrace the
peril that lawmakers faced.
The crucial first hour of the attack shows rioters marching t In the crucial first hour
of the attack, the mob stormed through the Capitol, at times coming within feet of lawmakers
or Vice President Pence.
The Post used a facial recognition algorithm to analyze video from inside the Capitol,
and estimated that at least 300 rioters were inside the building while police struggled
to evacuate lawmakers.
Members of the mob violently clashed with outnumbered police and in some instances appeared
to be looking for members of Congress.
Lawmakers in both the House and Senate chambers are meeting to certify electoral votes for
president-elect Joe Biden.
Outside, a man uses a police shield to smash a window.
He was seen earlier that day with members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group with
a history of violence.
A group from the crowd enters the Capitol a floor below where the Senate is in session.
A minute later, at 2:13, Pence is ushered off the Senate floor to a nearby office.
Senate president pro tem Charles E. Grassley begins presiding, but almost immediately calls
a recess.
“Protesters are in the building” Grassley is escorted out of the Senate chamber.
At that moment, one floor below the Senate chamber, rioters enter and begin pursuing
a lone Capitol police officer, Eugene Goodman, up a staircase to the second floor.
They are nearing the chamber, which is filled with lawmakers.
The rioters at one point pass within 100 feet of where Pence is huddled with his family.
Goodman leads the mob away from a nearby entrance to the chamber and toward a line of police.
Bastards!
What’s the point of stopping us at this point?
This is as far as it is going to go.
Go arrest the Vice President.
Go go arrest him.
Around 2:15, the doors to the Senate chamber are locked.
“A bunch of Senators just ran out of their session.
Yes, that’s what they said.
Senators ran out of their session.”
As the crowd grows, the mob fills the halls of the capitol and police struggle to gain
control.
The rioters splinter off into different factions throughout the building.
The House is still in session.
Senators wait in the chamber.
I kept thinking how the day before, I had driven my husband to the airport to come back
to Minnesota, and he said, “Now be careful, I'm worried about you.
You know, there's all this talk about what could happen.”
And I said, “Don't worry.
The United States Capitol has got to be one of the safest places in the country.’
Senator Smith texted with her family about her safety.
A group of rioters move toward the northeast side of the Capitol where officers attempt
to push them out of the building.
On the south side, the House continues proceedings even as the Senate is locked down.
Representative Paul Gosar has the floor, but members are restless.
“Can i have order in the house?”
Police announce the attack on their radio channels.
The capitol has been Breached!
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is escorted out of the chamber and the House goes into
recess.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has already been evacuated.
At 2:19, Capitol police issue an alert on a “security threat inside the building.”
By 2:25 the size of the mob swells in the crypt, the room right under the capitol rotunda,
and violent rioters crush the police.
At the same time, on the floor above, another lone capitol police officer fights to keep
an entrance to the rotunda closed but is overpowered by the mob.
Rioters stream through the now open main doors on the east side of the building.
They flood through the rotunda and into Statuary Hall, moving toward the House chamber, where
as of 2:26 representatives have resumed session.
We could hear a lot of the noise from the rioters who were entering.
And we were getting alerts on our phones about the Capitol being breached.
And yet, you know, everything was still continuing on the floor and we couldn't understand it.
Rioters enter House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s suite.
Members of Pelosi’s staff hide under a table in a conference room.
They’re with … we need Capitol police come into the hallway.
They’re pounding on doors trying to find her.
The House recesses again at 2:29.
The Senate is evacuated at 2:30.
Over the next several minutes Senators move out of the chamber to a nearby staircase.
For security reasons, The Post is not showing the specific routes lawmakers travel from
there, but they pass within yards of rioters, separated only by a handful of outnumbered
police.
as we're being escorted out of the chamber and walking toward the staircase, I looked
over and the Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth McDonough was standing next to me, and she's
carrying a bunch of things, she was including one of the.
One or two of the boxes containing the electoral votes as they were cast
Rioters chanting “We Want Trump” in front of line of officers outside House chamber.
At 2:33, a request for assistance is announced over the police radio
Please be advised the US Capitol… all military and sworn officers to come to..
Team 2 copy.
I got the last part.
What is the first part of the transmission?
Military as well as all sworn.. due to a breach at the Capitol.
Do you copy?
Rioters flood the hallways and look for an entrance to the barricaded House chamber,
while members of Congress remain on the floor and in the gallery, one floor above.
We were just told that there had been tear gas in the Rotunda.
We have been instructed to,, each of us, to get gas masks that are under our seats.
Over the next few minutes, security attempts to block the chamber doors as lawmakers and
staff evacuate.
When we were evacuating they were actually pounding on the House door.
So we knew that they were there, they were pounding on the House door.
And we were, like, in the process of evacuating.
They kind of yelled at us from below, since we were in the gallery, that there's been
a breach and might have to hide under our seats.
Plain clothes law enforcement officers on the House floor draw their firearms and aim
toward the doors as rioters break windows and push against the barricade.
I called my wife.
As soon as I heard her voice, I realized, oh man, you know, am I having that call right
now?
Is this that call that we all know about?
You know, when the plane's going down or the building’s on fire, is this that call?
And we all also said the same thing.
We told the people on the other end of the phone something that wasn't 100 percent accurate.
You know, we told them that we were safe.
Lawmakers and congressional staff on the House floor are evacuating via the Speaker’s lobby
at 2:41 — just as rioters reach the lobby and come within approximately 60 feet of the
lawmakers.
Members of Congress file down narrow, rarely-used staircases to a secure location.
As the last lawmakers from the House floor leave at 2:42 p.m. the number of rioters grows
around the House chamber.
Some representatives remain in the House gallery.
Officers move aside as a tactical unit is arriving, but the mob starts smashing the
windows with flag poles and helmets.
On the other side of the building, rioters have entered the Senate chamber.
In the House Chamber, members crouch in the upstairs gallery.
They are unable to leave, locked in by the Capitol Police to prevent rioters from entering.
Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter and Air Force veteran, tries to climb through the shattered
door window.
An officer fires a single shot.
The shot was audible inside the House chamber, where members are soon concerned their lapel
pins might identify them.
Babbitt later dies of her injuries.
At 2:49, the members in the House gallery are being evacuated by Capitol Police.
We walked out of the chamber.
There were five of the five or six of the of the insurrectionists who were on the ground
spread eagle with their hands above their heads, with Capitol Police around them
The members make their way to safety, the last of the large groups of lawmakers to do
so, descending down a staircase in this photograph at 2:53.
Over the next several hours, police worked to secure the building — dispersing the
crowd using stun grenades and other riot-control tactics.
The governors of Maryland and Virginia dispatched National Guard troops.
At one point, Trump in a video message urged his followers to go home, telling them he
loved them and calling them very special.
The Senate gaveled back into session at 8:06 to confirm Joe Biden as President-elect.