Trump Supporters Attack the Capitol

This Wednesday we saw history be made as President Trump’s supporters broke into the United States capitol building in Washington D.C. Wednesday morning thousands of Trump supporters gathered in Washington, but it quickly escalated into violence. Trump supporters saw Wednesday as a “last stand” for President Trump because Congress was set to confirm that Joe Biden had won the election. President Trump lost by popular and electoral votes but continues to spread false information about the election process.  He got on stage around noon to falsely claim that he had actually won the election.  Later that day a massive group of Trump supporters broke into the United States capitol building while lawmakers were deciding whether or not to count the electoral college votes, which would confirm Biden’s victory.  A mob of people successfully breached security to get into the building where one person was shot and ultimately killed.  

“You could hear a pounding on the doors on the outside,” said representative David Throne as he explained what was happening from inside the chambers that the lawmakers were evacuated to.  After lawmakers were evacuated from the chambers to a secure undisclosed location, they described what it was like from their point of view.  Representative Jamie Raskin said that all he could think about was his family, mourning the death of his 25-year-old son last week. Raskin brought one of his daughters and her husband to the Capitol to watch the debate over the presidential electors unfold “because we wanted to be together,” he said.  Raskin said “I thought I could show them the peaceful transfer of power in the United States of America,” but he expressed his extreme worry for his family because they were not evacuated to the chamber with him.  Rep Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA case worker, said that members were told that chemical irritants were released in the Statuary Hall. Lawmakers prepared themselves to be potentially exposed to tear gas. Maryland Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen said they hoped to resume the counting later Wednesday night “so the world knows that despite this chaos, despite a lawless president, we will transfer power on Jan. 20,” 

Wednesday afternoon rioters scaled walls to join the crowd on the elevated plaza, climbed the viewing platforms while chanting “shame on Pence” and lighting firecrackers off. A line of police officers formed a barricade between the rioters and the lighted windows of the Capitol building.  Around five o’clock Wednesday evening law enforcement officers on the upper levels of the Capitol building had begun breaking up the mobs of Trump supporters and by 5:30 the officers were forcing the protesters off the capitol grounds. A small group stayed at the Garfield monument but for the most part, the group had taken their attention off of the officers and onto the news media stations still reporting and yelling “fake news! fake news!”