Senior politics editor MEPFuller had a front-row seat to the Capitol riot. A year later, one thing is still clear to him: 'Nothing has changed.'
After almost extinguishing his political career by not standing completely with Trump in 2016, Cruz was prepared to do everything he could to keep in power a man who had once ridiculed his wife’s looks and threatened to “spill the beans” on her.
As soon as I returned to my seat overlooking the House floor, Capitol Police officers dressed in coats and ties started rushing around the gallery slamming the doors shut. I’ll always remember the heavy sound of those doors closing; there was an urgency in those echoes. The House chamber, I’d previously been assured, is sort of like a fortress. It has its own air supply. I once learned from a Rep. Louie Gohmert floor speech that it’s hermetically sealed so that lawmakers could debate controversial topics and be unbothered by protesters outside.
Many of these Republicans would have proudly overruled the voters. They are people who not only downplay the violence and the seriousness of the attack but celebrate rioters, who lionize the insurrectionists who paid the ultimate price for believing their lies. If you talk to smart people about politics, the sorts of people who know these Republicans—like staffers, lobbyists, and reporters—Tom Cole’s name is frequently invoked as the most surprising vote among the 147 Republicans who came back after a deadly attack on their workplace and sided with the insurrectionists.Rep. Tom Cole returned to the Capitol after the deadly attack and voted with the insurrectionists.
President-elect Donald Trump and U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers before their 2016 meeting at Trump International Golf Club.It was 2:26 p.m., and Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern had taken over duties for Pelosi at the speaker’s lectern. It looked like we might just press on this way, with the House locked down but members continuing to debate.The House recessed again. They turned off the C-SPAN cameras, and this time, it was immediately clear we were in real danger.
At 2:33 p.m., they told members that rioters were in the rotunda. The grand area underneath the Capitol dome had been overrun. At that point, Rep. Steve Cohen shouted down from the gallery for Republicans to “call Trump” and tell him to “call off the dogs!” Very quickly, the entire House chamber was filled with this high-pitched kazoo sound as members prepared to evacuate the floor.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
As members exited out a door on the Republican side in the Speaker’s Lobby off the House floor, rioters started congregating at an entrance to the Speaker’s Lobby on the Democratic side. I can’t say for certain how it all happened, but my guess is Capitol Police directed the crowd to that door so that members could escape in the other direction. It was just likeon the Senate side, baiting rioters one way so that senators could exit the other.