Hundreds of President Trump’s supporters who gathered in Washington to protest the election of President-elect Joe Biden stormed the U.S. Capitol in what amounted to an attempted coup that they hoped would overturn Trump’s election defeat. By the day’s end Wednesday, four people were dead: one from gunfire and three from medical emergencies.
What you need to know
D.C. Mayor Bowser: ‘Trumpism will not die on Jan. 20’
Return to menuD.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) provided new details about the city’s effort to coordinate with federal law enforcement and police throughout the region in preparation for this week’s protests. But asked if she felt Capitol Police failed on Wednesday, Bowser answered simply: “yes.”
“Their police force was completely overwhelmed, and quickly. I mean, it didn’t take long. It was quickly overtaken,” she said in an interview Thursday night. “It seems pretty obvious that they did not have enough people — or the proper way to deploy those people — to stop people from coming up the steps of the Capitol. And once they were on the steps of the Capitol, the battle was lost.”
Bracing for Wednesday’s protests, Bowser requested help from the National Guard on Dec. 31. Around that time, members of her Cabinet were talking to officials around the region to activate mutual-aid requests on behalf of the D.C. police, two administration officials said Thursday. Those conversations continued into Monday, and laid the groundwork for law enforcement from Virginia and Maryland to be ready to assist in the District.
Throughout the day Wednesday, Bowser spoke with the White House, leaders in Maryland and Virginia and members of Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) to ensure the District had what it needed to respond to the siege on the Capitol. As tensions reached a crescendo Wednesday even more regional partners offered their support. She spoke with the governors of Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey as well as Baltimore’s mayor, among others.
Capitol Police requested additional D.C. National Guard resources on Wednesday, but the Secretary of the Army was not ready to approve it, said the two administration officials, who were granted anonymity to discuss the private communications. Officials are unsure why that request was initially denied, despite Bowser’s plea to the Secretary of the Army to provide Capitol Police whatever they needed.
Bowser felt the gravity of the situation Wednesday when acting D.C. police chief Robert Contee III recommended that she enact a curfew.
“Any time my chief is telling me we have to limit the activities of Washingtonians and implement a curfew, I know we have a serious issue,” she said.
Asked whether the incoming Biden administration would lessen the number of demonstrations in the District, Bowser said, “Trumpism will not die on January 20.”
“We have to think about what that means for how we as a city, who is host to the federal government change,” she added. “We have to be prepared for this new type of civic debate.”
Capitol Police chief to resign over botched handling of riot attack
Return to menuU.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund announced his resignation effective Jan. 16, a decision that came hours after Pelosi publicly called on him to step down over the department’s handling of the violent pro-Trump siege of the Capitol.
A law enforcement official close to Sund confirmed his resignation.
Sund confided to colleagues he felt responsible for letting down his force. The irony, colleagues said, is that Sund cut his teeth on planning major events, but his relatively modest-sized force was overwhelmed by swarms of rioters, two pipe bombs they had to defuse and clear, and an assumption that protesters would not seek to physically storm the building.
His resignation came on a day a union of Capitol Police officers issued a public statement saying their leadership had failed them and the lack of planning created the worst breach on the Capitol since the War of 1812.
Earlier in the day Sund suggested that while plans to protect the Capitol were in place, his department was unprepared for the intensity of the insurrection. “The violent attack on the U.S. Capitol was unlike any I have ever experienced in my 30 years in law enforcement here in Washington, D.C.,” he said.
Sund’s comments were roundly criticized because rioters had for days been hashing out plans on right-wing websites to storm the Capitol.
He said law enforcement officers were attacked with “metal pipes, discharged chemical irritants, and took up other weapons against our officers. They were determined to enter into the Capitol Building by causing great damage.”
Pelosi told reporters in the morning that Sund had not reached out to her after the attack and that she wanted him to resign.
Kayleigh McEnany compares riot to scene this summer outside St. John’s Church
Return to menuWhite House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany on Thursday compared the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol to the scene this summer outside St. John’s Church, when protesters were tear-gassed for President Trump to have a photo op outside the church holding a Bible.
In the White House’s first statement about those who busted into the Capitol amid chaos that left four people dead, McEnany gave a brief statement condemning the crowd.
“The violence we saw yesterday was appalling, reprehensible and antithetical to the American way,” she said. “It is unacceptable and those who broke the law should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Then McEnany quickly turned to an explosive 24 hours last summer. On May 31, during an intense week of anti-racism protests across the country, the basement of St. John’s Church, a historic church on Lafayette Square attended by many presidents, was set on fire.
There had been largely peaceful protests on the square during the day, but after night fell, small groups of people began setting fires and smashing windows. Graffiti was sprayed on the church: “The Devil is across the street.”
D.C. police said the small fire was deliberately set and firefighters quickly extinguished it. It did not cause significant damage, a fire spokesman said.
The next day, Trump visited the church after spending the night watching cable news coverage of protests across the country. Without asking the rector, Trump planned his visit to the church. Security forces then used smoke and pepper bombs, tear gas and flash bangs to clear peaceful protesters from the park so Trump could stand in front of the church holding aloft a Bible.
It became one of the iconic scenes of his presidency, with religious supporters saying he was showing support for religion while a wide range of clergy — including the rector of St. John’s and the region’s Episcopal bishop — slammed him for using the church and faith as propaganda.
Congressman calls for Capitol rioters to be added to federal no-fly list
Return to menuThe chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee is calling on federal officials to add those involved in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to the federal no-fly list to keep them off planes.
“Given the heinous domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol yesterday, I am urging the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to use their authorities to add the names of all identified individuals involved in the attack to the federal No-Fly List,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said in a statement released Thursday.
He said the list should include all people who entered the Capitol building. Thompson’s statement comes a day after Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, issued a similar call, and as airports and airlines moved to tighten security in the wake of Wednesday’s violent assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Robert Yingling, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which operates Reagan National and Dulles International airports, said that they remain open but that travelers should expect to see “an increased law enforcement presence.” Yingling also said passenger counts were likely to be higher than they have been throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Officials with American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines said they were taking additional security measures in the Washington region. On Wednesday, Nelson, whose union represents nearly 5,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines, cited the unruly behavior of passengers on several flights carrying people traveling to Washington for the pro-Trump demonstrations, saying such behavior must not be repeated.
“Our first priority in aviation safety and security is to keep any problems on the ground,” she said in a statement. “We in aviation have a serious role to play in national security. Airlines, in coordination with TSA, DHS, FAA, DOT and law enforcement must take all steps to ensure the safety and security of passengers and crew by leaving all problems on the ground.”
Maryland company fires employee photographed inside Capitol
Return to menuA Maryland marketing company has fired an employee who was photographed inside the Capitol Wednesday alongside a mob of pro-Trump supporters.
The man, who was not identified, was wearing his company badge on a lanyard around his neck. Navistar Direct Marketing, based in Frederick, Md., said in a statement that they took the step after investigating a social media post that showed the employee inside the Capitol during the riot.
The statement went on to say the employee was terminated “for cause.” Officials declined to identify him. The statement said that while the company supports free speech, they took action because the person had demonstrated “dangerous conduct that endangers the health and safety of others.”
Experts cite multiple breakdowns in Capitol Police response
Return to menuFrank Larkin, former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms who has planned for many security threats to the U.S. Capitol, said the first obvious failure to control the mob that stormed the building was the Capitol Police’s lack of preparedness and inability to hold a secure perimeter around the Capitol.
“The police should have defined a hard line, and there should have been consequences for crossing it,” said Larkin, a former Secret Service agent and Navy SEAL. “The fight should have been outside, not inside. To have that confrontation at the door — that was a losing formula.”
Larkin said that Capitol Police has had amazing success in sending scouts to talk with protesters ahead of demonstrations, to find out the group’s goals and warn them about the security rules they would have to follow on Capitol grounds. He questioned if the Capitol Police ever investigated these groups.
“I think we are going to find out that … one or two of these groups had a plan to penetrate the Capitol,” Larkin said. “This is such a dark spot on our history and on our world image. We really need to learn from this to make sure we heal … Hopefully the multiple investigations will be used to ensure nothing like this will ever happen again.”
Jonathan Wackrow, a security expert and former agent in the president’s detail, said the Capitol Police not only had a complete breakdown of order at the Capitol but also a clear breakdown in their own command structure — one that was obvious from watching the event unfold on live television. Some officers outside simply gave up protecting the perimeter around the Capitol, but there was no clear organized backup plan, Wackrow said.
Some heroically ran toward the main entry doors at the top of some stairs, trying unsuccessfully to block a rush of protesters who breached the fallen barricades below. Some stood exhausted from battling the group’s repeated assaults and efforts to attack them with pipes and bike racks.
“The moment there was a breach on the Capitol grounds, it appears there was a lack of command and control,” Wackrow said. “Time went by. and there were no backup coming in. The incident command structure had broken down — there was no multi-organizational control center, meaning nothing run by the Capitol Police.”
Northam recounts call for help from Speaker Pelosi during Capitol siege
Return to menuVirginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) and his staff were preparing Wednesday for a news conference to discuss the state’s coronavirus vaccination plans — but with the televisions on so they could follow what was happening in Washington. By the time Northam stepped to the podium in a state office building conference room in Richmond at 2 p.m., he’d seen floor speeches and images of swelling crowds in the nation’s capital 100 miles north, but nothing approaching an attempted coup.
Northam was still fielding questions about vaccine distribution from reporters at 2:26 p.m. when spokeswoman Alena Yarmosky got a text, saying that rioters had stormed the U.S. Capitol. His chief of staff, Clark Mercer, got a call about that same time and stepped into the hallway. It was the office of D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, saying the Defense Department was refusing to activate the District’s National Guard. The mayor wanted Northam to send in Virginia’s, as well as state police.
Only Northam could deploy the Guard, but because of mutual-aid agreements, Public Safety Secretary Brian Moran, who had stepped into the hall with Mercer, had the power to dispatch state police without waiting for the governor’s approval. Moran and Mercer signed off on the troopers on the spot, and they were rolling into the District by 3:15 p.m.
As Northam stepped back from the podium to let his health commissioner field a question, Yarmosky waved him over and whispered: “They’ve breached the Capitol.” He quickly wrapped up the news conference and headed to his third-floor office, getting on the phone with Bowser.
“She said they needed help,” the governor recounted, and “I told her, ‘As always, we stand ready and willing to help any way we can.’ ”
Mercer’s phone kept ringing with calls from staff for Virginia Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine asking for help. Northam’s own phone lit up about 3:15 p.m. The caller ID read: “Nancy Pelosi.”
Northam had spoken with Pelosi “on a couple of occasions,” but those calls had been arranged through staff. He and Pelosi had exchanged direct numbers at some point, as leaders sometimes do, without really expecting to use them.
“She was really concerned,” Northam said. “She said they needed help, and I assured her that we had deployed the Guard and we’d sent the Virginia State Police. She said: ‘Ralph there’s glass being broken around me. I’ve heard there’s been gunfire. We’re just very, very concerned right now.’ ”
Pelosi and others apparently had been sequestered somewhere in the Capitol complex when she called. Virginia guardsmen gathered in Manassas by that evening and were on the ground at the Capitol on Thursday morning, Northam said, praising their quick action.
But Northam also noted a glaring contrast between the Trump administration’s attitude toward deploying the guard in the summer against protesters demanding racial justice and the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol.
“Back when the Black Lives Matter march was going on in Washington, the president — his secretary of defense — called and requested that we send our National Guard. And he said it was for the protection of the Capitol,” Northam said. “And that was a peaceful protest, in contrast to what happened yesterday.”
Northam said the Trump administration’s resistance to using the guard this time is telling.
“If anybody doesn’t believe in White privilege, they need to go back and review some of the footage of the Black Lives Matter march and what happened yesterday,” the governor said. “I would just say if African Americans or Muslims had been scaling the side of the nation’s Capitol or barging through barricades or marching through checkpoints, it would have been a very different picture.”
Hogan details panicked call from House leader Hoyer asking for Maryland’s help
Return to menuMaryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) offered new details Thursday about the delayed response to assist law enforcement at the Capitol, saying the Maryland National Guard was ready to help but was “repeatedly” told they did not have the authorization needed to join the effort. Hogan received a panicked call from House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md)., who pleaded with him to send in troops from Maryland, the governor said. Hoyer told him that he was calling from a secure location with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).
“I was actually on the phone with Leader Hoyer who was pleading with us to send the guard,” Hogan said. “He was yelling across the room to Schumer and they were back and forth saying we do have the authorization and I’m saying, ‘I’m telling you we do not have the authorization.' ”
Hogan said Maj. Gen. Timothy Gowen, the adjutant general of the Maryland National Guard, was repeatedly rebuffed by the Pentagon.
Gowen “kept running it up the flagpole, and we don’t have authorization,” Hogan said. “We don’t have authorization.”
Ninety minutes later, Hogan said, he received a call “out of the blue, not from the secretary of defense, not through what would be normal channels,” but from Ryan McCarthy, the secretary of the Army. McCarthy asked if the Maryland guardsmen could “come as soon as possible,” Hogan recounted.
“It was like, yeah, we’re waiting, we’re ready,” Hogan said.
The governor has deployed the Maryland National Guard to Washington through the inauguration and the end of January. Additionally, Hogan said the state immediately offered support to D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) shortly after the attack Wednesday. The mayor submitted a direct request for law enforcement support through the emergency management assistance agreement, and Hogan directed the head of the Maryland State Police to send troopers to provide security.
A source familiar with the effort said state troopers with riot gear were in place quickly, leaving Maryland around 2:45 p.m. The guardsman were more than an hour behind them, the source said. Not all of the 500 guardsmen who were assigned arrived on Wednesday, the source said, but most were in place on Thursday morning at 6 a.m.
Photos: The destruction at the U.S. Capitol
Return to menuHundreds of President Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. Once inside, the mob shattered windows and trashed Senate offices.
Here’s a timeline of the events created from videos, photos and witness accounts.
Scores of congressional personnel spent Wednesday night and Thursday morning working to restore the U.S. Capitol to its usual splendor. But some damage, physical and otherwise, will not be easily erased.
Police identify three people who died from medical emergencies during rioting at the Capitol
Return to menuD.C. police on Thursday identified three individuals who died during violent rioting that led to an hours-long lockdown of the U.S. Capitol.
Police said Rosanne Boyland, 34, of Kennesaw, Ga.; Kevin Greeson, 55, of Athens, Ala.; and Benjamin Phillips, 50, of Ringtown, Pa., suffered medical emergencies.
Greeson’s wife, Kristi Greeson, said that her husband traveled to D.C. to show his support for Trump, but that his death was not related to the rioting.
“He was excited to be there to experience this event — he was not there to participate in violence or rioting, nor did he condone such actions,” she said in a statement on behalf of his family. “Kevin had a history of high blood pressure, and in the midst of the excitement, suffered a heart attack.”
The statement said that Greeson was “a wonderful father and husband who loved life,” and that the family is devastated.
“He loved to ride motorcycles, he loved his job and his co-workers, and he loved his dogs,” the statement said. “We are thankful for all of the thoughts and prayers and appreciate privacy at this time as we grieve.”
Philips, 50, was a computer programmer and an ardent supporter of President Trump.
He had helped to organize transportation for dozens of Trump supporters traveling from Pennsylvania to D.C., the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Thursday. Several people who traveled with him said D.C. police called them on Wednesday evening to inform them that Philips had suffered a stroke and died at George Washington University Hospital.
“Everyone was shocked,” said Gordy Smith, a fellow Trump supporter from Honesdale, Pa.
Nicole Mun of Schuylkill Haven, Pa., said in a statement to the Washington Post that she was married to Philips from 1999 to 2004 but has had limited contact with him since. They share two teenage children.
“As my children are grieving and processing yesterday’s shocking events, I respectfully request privacy. I will have no further comment,” she said.
In an interview earlier this week with the Inquirer, Philips said he had lived for 25 years in Philadelphia before moving to Bloomsburg to care for his ailing mother. He used his expertise in computer programming to make several pro-Trump websites, including “The Scummy Democrats” and “Trumparoo.”
”There needs to be more uncensored spaces,” he said to a reporter on the way to Washington, hours before dying. “I envision a whole network of niche social networks based on interests."
In all, four people died during violent protests Wednesday. Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and avid Trump supporter from San Diego, was shot as rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol Building and later died at a hospital.
Far-right forums that fomented Capitol riots voice glee
Return to menuMen wearing camouflage shirts began building a makeshift defensive camp outside the Capitol Wednesday afternoon. They moved barricades and green fencing into a circle, then pulled helmets from a crate and donned goggles in preparation for a clash that had been brewing for weeks and, arguably, for years on far-right forums devoted to Trump.
“TheDonald.win, that’s where it’s at,” said one of the men, referring to the website where defiant talk, conspiracy theories and tips on how best to lay siege to Washington have grown ever since Trump lost the Nov. 3 election.
The comment underscored the potent, interactive role between the online and offline worlds in Wednesday’s takeover of the Capitol. Violent talk on far-right forums fomented violent real-world action, which was then captured by smartphones, uploaded and celebrated on the same forums. The boundaries between the digital and analog all but disappeared as rage, provocation and gloating bounced back and forth, again and again.
D.C. police chief: No intelligence suggested a breach of the U.S. Capitol
Return to menuThe secretary of the Army and the chief of D.C.’s police force acknowledged Thursday that they did not expect President Trump’s supporters to try to enter the Capitol building, despite extensive online conversations in which far-right groups publicly discussed their plans to do just that.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said a breach of the Capitol was not in his “wildest imagination.”
D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III said, “There was no intelligence that suggested there would be a breach of the U.S. Capitol.”
When that breach did occur, the Capitol Police called D.C. police to help, and eventually the D.C. National Guard moved in to help. But Bowser pointed out Thursday that her hands were tied in calling in the National Guard — unlike the governors of states, Bowser cannot summon the Guard on her own but must seek the approval of the Pentagon.
If D.C. became a state or if Congress approved a bill giving the mayor less restricted powers, Bowser said, “We wouldn’t have to clear a deployment plan with the secretary of the Army. We could be nimble in how we change it.”
McCarthy said the increased Guard presence and the new fencing around the Capitol will last past the inauguration, and Bowser warned that violence might continue even longer.
“We as Americans have to also ask ourselves: Is this going to be a new normal in America, regardless of if Donald Trump is the president? Are people still going to be inspired to violence to overthrow institutions of our government?” she asked. “I think that frame for everybody has to reset. It may not end on the 20th.”
D.C. mayor after Capitol riot: ‘We must get statehood’
Return to menuMayor Muriel E. Bowser used the national spotlight in the wake of the Capitol riot to advocate for D.C. statehood as city officials argued the local government helped save a branch of the federal government.
“We must get statehood on the president’s desk within the first 100 days of the 117th Congress,” Bowser (D) said at a Thursday news conference.
The House approved legislation to make the District a state last year, but it did not get a vote in the GOP-held Senate. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is expected to lead the Senate Democratic majority, has previously said he would make D.C. statehood among his top priorities for expanding voting rights. President-elect Joe Biden also supports D.C. statehood. But legislation would need the support of 10 Senate Republicans — none of whom have supported statehood — or the elimination of the filibuster to pass the Senate.
Bowser also urged Congress to strip control over the D.C. National Guard from the president and give it to the D.C. mayor, an authority provided to governors. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) has previously introduced legislation to do so.
The federal control of the Guard led to some confusion ahead of the activation of the full 1,100-strong D.C. National Guard after the breach of the Capitol. Bowser also clarified that even if she had direct control of the Guard, she would not have been able to deploy them to the Capitol without the invitation of federal authorities.
Bowser grew impassioned at a Thursday news conference, noting that D.C. residents risked their lives to defend a Congress that affords them no voting representation.
“I am heartened that our police and guardspeople were able to get control of the building and that our lawmakers went back into that building to vote,” Bowser said. “I’m upset that 706,000 residents of the District of Columbia did not have a single vote in that Congress yesterday despite the fact that our people were putting their lives on the line to protect our democracy.”
Schumer pledges to fire Senate sergeant at arms in wake of security failure
Return to menuSen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who will soon become the Senate’s majority leader, pledged Thursday to fire Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael C. Stenger when Democrats take control of the chamber, in the wake of the takeover of the Capitol on Wednesday by pro-Trump rioters.
“If Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Stenger hasn’t vacated the position by then, I will fire him as soon as Democrats have a majority in the Senate,” Schumer said in a statement.
Stenger is the chief law enforcement and executive officer of the Senate.
“Yesterday represented a massive failure of institutions, protocols, and planning that are supposed to protect the first branch of our federal government,” Schumer said. “A painstaking investigation and thorough review must now take place and significant changes must follow.”
Schumer said the “ultimate blame” for Wednesday’s destructive takeover “lies with the unhinged criminals who broke down doors, trampled our nation’s flag, fought with law enforcement, and tried to disrupt our democracy, and with those who incited them.”
“But this fact does not and will not preclude our addressing the shocking failures in the Capitol’s security posture and protocols.”
Schumer is poised to become majority leader after the two newly elected Democratic Senate candidates from Georgia are sworn in and Kamala D. Harris becomes vice president.