CHAPTER 6: 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 (D-CO) 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. Cham ber 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.”
publishes an interview with
