{"id":6058,"date":"2021-01-06T22:44:48","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T22:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=146967"},"modified":"2021-01-06T22:44:48","modified_gmt":"2021-01-06T22:44:48","slug":"trump-unleashes-mob-to-storm-capitol-and-disrupt-functioning-of-u-s-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/06\/trump-unleashes-mob-to-storm-capitol-and-disrupt-functioning-of-u-s-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Unleashes Mob to Storm Capitol and Disrupt Functioning of U.S. Government"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This breaking news report will be updated as events continue to unfold.<\/em><\/p>\n

Responding to outgoing<\/u> President Donald Trump\u2019s call to disrupt the counting of electoral votes that would confirm his defeat, hundreds of his supporters broke into the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, forcing Congress to halt its work and Vice President Mike Pence to be evacuated as the mob overcame token resistance from the police.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n

Whoa: Trump supporters going at it with the police on the steps of the Capitol as Congress counts the Electoral College ballots inside pic.twitter.com\/LiQhaa5KkQ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) January 6, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The chaos entered the House chamber with a loud shout from the hall outside as Rep. Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican, was reciting a litany of false claims about the validity of the vote count in his state as part of a planned series of bogus objections to the certified results from Trump supporters in Congress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Within minutes, Congressional reporters shared images of windows being smashed by the mob, and Trump supporters marauding through the halls, eventually seizing the Senate chamber and facing off with armed officers at the door of the House.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n

Here\u2019s the scary moment when protesters initially got into the building from the first floor and made their way outside Senate chamber. pic.twitter.com\/CfVIBsgywK<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) January 6, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n

Members of Congress shelter in the House gallery as protesters try to break into the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Andrew Harnik) pic.twitter.com\/0iULwIr24Q<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Andrew Harnik (@andyharnik) January 6, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The far-right YouTuber, Elijah Schaffer, who was embedded with the pro-Trump mob, shared footage of the police losing control of the Capitol to the president\u2019s vigilantes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n

BREAKING: Trump supporters have breached the Capitol building, tearing down 4 layers of security fencing and are attempting to occupy the building \u2014 fighting federal police who are overrun <\/p>\n

This is the craziest thing I\u2019ve ever seen in my life. Thousands, police can\u2019t stop them pic.twitter.com\/VVdTUwV5YN<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 ELIJAH SCHAFFER (@ElijahSchaffer) January 6, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

As the Capitol police were overwhelmed, a source in the Defense Department gave conflicting accounts to reporters as to why a request from Washington\u2019s mayor, Muriel Bowser, for the National Guard to be deployed was not immediately met.<\/p>\n

Virginia\u2019s governor, Ralph Northam, announced<\/a> that he was responding to a request from the mayor, to send \u201cmembers of the Virginia National Guard along with 200 Virginia State Troopers\u201d to the Capitol.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we figured out during the BLM protests,\u201d Charlie Savage of The New York Times observed on Twitter<\/a>, \u201cthe thing about calling out the National Guard to quell this riot is that because D.C. is not a state, the commander of those troops would not be Muriel Bowser, D.C.\u2019s elected leader. They would instead be controlled by\u2026 Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later in the afternoon, a defense official told Dan Lamothe of The Washington Post that \u201cThe entire D.C. National Guard will be activated today, putting about 1,100 guardsmen on duty tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"WASHINGTON,<\/a><\/p>\n

A member of a pro-Trump mob dropped to the floor of the Senate on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\nPhoto: Win McNamee\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Even when the Capitol police attempted to retake the building from the mob, the officers seemed generally reluctant to use force.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

As many observers noted on social networks, the restraint demonstrated by the police during the initial storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump\u2019s supporters stood in stark contrast to the far greater levels of violence routinely inflicted on racial justice protesters over the past year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Amid the chaos inside the Capitol building, a radical anti-abortion activist tweeted video that appeared to show a woman wrapped in a Trump flag bleeding heavily after being shot in the neck. The video quickly went viral online, but the exact circumstances have not yet been confirmed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Speaking in Wilmington, Delaware, President-elect Joe Biden called on Trump \u201cto go on national television now to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege.\u201d<\/p>\n

Late Wednesday afternoon, Trump made a half-hearted effort to end the attempted coup he had requested, tweeting a video in which he reiterated his false claim that he won the election in a landslide but calling for his supporters to \u201cgo home now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The Washington Post reported<\/a> that a man with a megaphone told a crowd of hundreds outside the Capitol: \u201cHey, everyone, Donald Trump says he wants everyone to go home.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was met with loud booing.<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s call for \u201cpeace\u201d appeared not to reach his supporters outside the Capitol, who attacked reporters and destroyed their equipment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n

Just witnessed an alarming scene with @mjcontrera<\/a> outside the US Capitol. A group of TV reporters were swarmed and chased away from their cameras, which a mob of President Trump\u2019s supporters trashed. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the aftermath: pic.twitter.com\/rB8QULwm5y<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Katie Mettler (@kemettler) January 6, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This breaking news report will be updated as events continue to unfold. Responding to outgoing President Donald Trump\u2019s call to disrupt the counting of electoral votes that would\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,14,413],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6058"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6059,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6058\/revisions\/6059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}