Shocking footage released on Sunday offers a new glimpse inside the deadly US Capitol riot, — following the invaders as they search for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers, sit in Vice President Mike Pence’s seat and rifle through lawmakers’ documents.
The nearly 13 edited minutes of footage were shot by war correspondent Luke Mogelson and published Sunday by The New Yorker, for which Mogelson is a contributing writer.
The video opens with scenes of hordes of pro-Trump rioters overpowering US Capitol Police and streaming into the seat of American democracy through doors and shattered windows.
“You’re outnumbered!” one rioter can be heard telling a small contingent of cops trying to hold the line inside a Capitol hallway. “There’s a f–king million of us out there, and we are listening to Trump, your boss!”
The contingent of rioters backed the overwhelmed cops down a hallway through the sheer size of their group and headed up a stairway, with one invader yelling in parting, “We love you guys! Take it easy!”
One group of dozens chanted, “Treason! Treason! Treason!” as they stalked the halls, the video shows.
“Knock knock!” one man taunted as the doors to the Senate gallery were slammed open, sending rioters streaming inside. “We’re here!”
Members of that group can be heard wondering about the whereabouts of Congressional lawmakers, who had been attempting to certify the results of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory when the riot broke out following a rally in which Trump encouraged his supporters to “fight like hell” against the process.
“Where the f–k are they?” one man yelled upon seeing the deserted Senate floor.
“Where the f–k is Nancy?” was another call.
As rioters clad in combat gear made their way onto the Senate floor, a debate broke out about the optics of the takeover.
The spat centered around one intruder taking a seat in the chair reserved for the president of the Senate, Pence — who was accused by Trump of not doing enough to fight the election results and was among those forced to evacuate when the riot hit.
“Hey, get out of that chair!” Larry Brock, a zip tie-carrying retired Air Force lieutenant colonel from Texas can be heard telling the unidentified man occupying Pence’s seat.
“No, this is our chair!” a third man yelled back.
“It’s not our chair,” countered Brock. “I love you guys, you’re brothers, but we can’t be disrespectful.”
A rioter challenged Brock further, invoking a conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against Trump.
“They can steal an election, but we can’t sit in their chairs?” the man asked.
“No, we’re not putting up with that either!” insisted Brock. “Look, it’s a PR war. … We’re better than that.”
While the group bickered, others rifled through lawmakers’ desks, apparently in search of documents to back their claim that the election was rigged.
A handful of intruders stumbled upon papers detailing what one identified as Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s “objection to the Arizona” election results.
The discovery left some confused over exactly what the papers purportedly showed.
“His objection! He was gonna sell us out all along!” fumed one man.
“Wait, no, that’s a good thing!” chimed in another huddled around the document.
One of Trump’s most loyal supporters in Congress, Cruz was among those who questioned the legitimacy of Biden’s win in Arizona, lodging an unsuccessful protest even in the hours after the riot.
Two others flipped through a binder, apparently also in search of evidence or otherwise incriminating material, the video shows.
“There’s gotta be something in here we can f–king use against these scumbags,” muttered one man, haphazardly leafing through pages.
“[Republican Missouri Sen. Josh] Hawley, Cruz. I think Cruz would want us to do this,” another man intoned. “I think we’re good.”
Above them in the gallery, “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley — done up in a horned helmet and red, white and blue face paint — chanted unintelligibly, rhythmically stomping his feet and the pole of an American flag.
In a later segment, Chansley — also known as Jake Angeli — made his way down onto the Senate floor, closely followed by a lone cop, the video shows.
“You guys are f–king patriots,” said Angeli to the group. “Look at this guy. He’s covered in blood. God bless you.”
The man to whom Angeli was referring, splayed out on the floor with a small smear of blood on his t-shirt, said that he “got shot in the face with some kind of plastic bullet,” but declined an offer of medical help.
As Angeli ascended the dais and prepared to sit in Pence’s seat, the cop took his best shot at dispersing the crowd.
“Is there any chance I can get you guys to leave the Senate wing?” he asked.
Replied the bloodied man on the floor, “We will. I’ve been making sure they ain’t disrespecting the place.”
Angeli, however, decided to make himself at home.
“I’m gonna take a sit in this chair because Mike Pence is a f–king traitor,” he said.
As the cop looked on, Angeli asked another rioter to use his phone to snap a photo of him seated in Pence’s chair.
Once Angeli had his photo, the cop took another crack.
“Now that you’ve done that, can I get you guys to walk out of this room, please?” he asked.
The group appeared to be complying, but not before Angeli scrawled a message on a sheet of paper before Pence’s seat: “It’s only a matter of time[,] justice is coming!”
In a later segment, however, Angeli and others were back on the dais, using a megaphone to shout a “prayer.”
“Thank you, heavenly father, for being the inspiration needed to these police officers to allow us into the building, to allow us to exercise our rights, to allow us to send a message to all the tyrants, the communists and the globalists,” said Angeli.
In the hall outside the Senate chamber, cops were doing what they could to direct rioters out of the building.
“We support you guys, OK?” one rioter could be heard telling an officer. “We know you’re doing your job.”
Back outside the Capitol, however, it was a different scene as another contingent of rioters clashed with cops attempting to restore order.
“F–k the blue! F–k the blue!” some in the mob chanted, the video shows, in an apparent reference to police.
Five people died in the chaos, among them a US Capitol Police officer pepper-sprayed and beaten with a fire extinguisher.
Dozens of people have been arrested and charged thus far, though authorities have said that number is expected to grow into the hundreds.
