CHAOS ON CAPITOL HILL
 
Witness to history: The Capitol was breached on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, by hundreds of rioters who vandalized offices, fought with police, posed for pictures and trashed the greatest of all symbols of American democracy. Details & analysis thread here.

@mmillerwtop witnessed it all.

“When this started to unfold, we were as reporters inside the Capitol focused pretty squarely on what was happening on the House and Senate floor. But then you could actually start to hear things going on outside of the Capitol.
We're working inside these very tightly confined areas for broadcasting, but you can tell there's definitely some problems going on.
So I immediately looked out the front window on the west side of the capitol and course you could just see a sea of humanity making its way.
little did I know at that very moment -that was the time when all the demonstrators were just about to breach that security barrier which really, frankly is just a bunch of bike racks that are set up outside the east side of the capitol.
They rushed them and then before you knew it they were on top of the Capitol steps and as I first realized what was happening -I mean it reminded me of something out 1970 in Central America or somewhere where there was some kind of coup taking place.”
How could it happen? Sources tell Inside the SCIF it was simply a failure to take appropriate action by the Capitol police.
“We knew it was coming. The date had been telegraphed for weeks. Their intentions were made clear. We saw the social media posts & open source reporting.
We had meetings, conference calls that included dozens of representatives from all of the law enforcement players in DC. It was clear what was coming.”

-A senior federal law enforcement source
But here’s something to consider. It seemed as though Capitol Police were expecting the protesters, some of whom turned into rioters and now as D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser calls them, domestic terrorists, 2 obey the law & the police instructions. They didn’t expect them 2 break in
Follow @insidethescif for exclusive details on what really triggered the rampage. @WTOP @mvhaydencenter @ElectConnolly @threadreaderapp unroll

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