Protesters supporting President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, causing Congress to suspend proceedings to confirm the election of Joe Biden as president.
Protesters freely roamed through the Capitol complex, including the Senate chamber, where one man stood on the president of the Senate’s chair and shouted, “Trump won that election!”
Several law enforcement officials said at least one person in the Capitol building had been shot, and that at least one improvised explosive device was been found on the Capitol grounds.
Vice President Mike Pence, who had been presiding over the count of Electoral College votes, was rushed out of the Senate as the Capitol complex went into lockdown when Trump supporters began pouring into the building.
Pence and Sen. Charles Grassley, the president pro-tempore, were taken to a secure location.
A spokesperson for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., she was “safe,” but would not elaborate on her whereabouts.
Members of Congress were ordered to take shelter in the complex.
At the same time, shocking images of a protester dangling from the balcony of the Senate chamber, a woman drenched in blood on a stretcher, Capitol police pointing guns on the floor of the House of Representatives, and other chaotic scenes played on television screens and Twitter feeds around the nation.
Members of Congress were photographed wearing plastic breathing devices over their heads to protect themselves from tear gas. CNN broadcast an image of protester sitting at Pelosi’s desk, with a handwritten note near her computer that read, “WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN.”
Hours after the riot began, authorities began tossing flash-bang grenades and dispersing tear gas into a crowd of people in front of the Capitol building.
“This is a coup attempt,” tweeted Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican.
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah blamed Trump for the riot.
“This is what the president has caused today, this insurrection,” said Romney, the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee.
Trump, during a rally earlier outside the White House, had encouraged thousands of supporters to march to the Capitol to protest what historically have been ceremonial proceedings.
Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and top federal prosecutor, during the same rally suggested that the dispute over the election results be resolved by “trial by combat.”
The president later was angered to learn that Pence had said he would refuse to go along with Trump’s demand that he try to block the confirmation of Biden’s Electoral College victory.
More than an hour after the riot began, Trump’s spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said “the National Guard is on the way along with other federal protective services.”
“We reiterate President Trump’s call against violence and to remain peaceful,” McEnany said.
Biden, in a nationally television address, said, “At this hour, our democracy is under unprecedented assault.”
“It’s chaos, it borders on sedition and it must end now. I call this mob to pull back and allow this work of democracy to go forward,” Biden said.
“Therefore I call on President Trump to go on national television now to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution, and demand an end to this siege,” the president-elect said.
“President Trump, step up.”
CNBC