WASHINGTON - House managers introduced previously unpublished security camera footage of the Jan. 6 Capitol siege on Wednesday during the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.
The video included body camera footage from an officer struggling to keep rioters from breaching an entrance on the west side of the Capitol. It also showed Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and other members of Congress rushing to evacuate the building. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., one of the House impeachment managers, said the new video showed rioters were 58 steps away from lawmakers.
The Washington Post analyzed the security camera videos, which shed new light on how close lawmakers came to danger. Here’s what they show.
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2:13 p.m.: Romney reverses course
At 2:12 p.m., rioters breach the Capitol building, entering through a shattered window on the first floor. A minute later, the Senate is called to recess. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman runs down a second-floor hallway on the Senate side. He comes across Romney and a staffer who have exited the Senate floor. Goodman motions for the two to turn around to avoid rioters. Romney, following Goodman, runs out of sight of the camera.
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2:25 p.m.: Pence is evacuated
Pence is evacuated down a flight of stairs on the Senate side of the Capitol 14 minutes after rioters entered the building. Until then, Pence, his family and his security detail were hiding in a room near the Senate chamber. Rioters approached within 100 feet of his location, a previous Washington Post analysis found.
Pence was presiding over the joint session of Congress certifying President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. Video and audio recordings from the siege suggest members of the mob were after Pence for his role in formalizing Biden’s win. At one point, rioters chanted, “Hang Mike Pence!” At 2:24 p.m., two minutes before Pence is seen being evacuated in this video, former president Donald Trump tweeted, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”
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2:30 p.m.: Senators, Schumer run to safety
At 2:30 p.m., staffers and senators, including Schumer evacuate the Senate floor and head down a staircase. At this point, rioters have reached the second floor of the Capitol and many have gathered on the other side of the building in front of the House chamber.
A minute later, the group of senators is seen walking quickly, in some cases running, across the first floor. “You know how close you came to the mob. Some of you, I understand, could hear them,” Swalwell told senators Wednesday. “But most of the public does not know how close these rioters came to you. As you were moving through that hallway, I paced it off. You were just 58 steps away.”
Security camera footage shows Schumer and his security detail in an undisclosed location. They walk up a ramp and through open doors. 17 seconds later, the video shows Schumer running in the opposite direction. The security guards close doors behind them as they exit the hallway. Swalwell said Schumer “came within just yards of rioters” and called the moment “a near miss with the mob.”
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2:41 p.m.: Ashli Babbitt seen walking
Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter and Air Force veteran, is spotted walking around the corner toward the Speaker’s Lobby at 2:41 p.m. Babbitt, who appears to be alone, gestures at Capitol Police officers. She starts to double back until a mass of rioters walk in her direction. The crowd, searching for an entrance to the House chambers, marches to the doors to the Speaker’s Lobby. Babbitt is shot and killed just minutes later when she tries to climb through a broken door window.
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2:51 p.m.: Lawmakers evacuate as rioters are pinned on the ground nearby
Lawmakers are seen exiting the House gallery at 2:51 p.m., including Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. In an interview with The Post, she described seeing “five or six of the insurrectionists who were on the ground spread-eagle with their hands above their heads, with Capitol Police around them.” The House floor had already been evacuated at this point.
[Rioters acting on Trump’s ‘orders,’ Democrats say in trial]
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4:27 p.m.: Rioters attack police
More than two hours after the mob first breached the building, rioters attacked law enforcement as officers tried to protect a main entrance on the west side of Capitol complex. Security camera and body camera footage shows the physical struggle from two different angles.
The video shows an officer warning a rioter to “back up” just before the rioter pushes forward. Others in the crowd try to grab officers’ batons and beat them with a hockey stick, a crutch and a Trump flag. Roseanne Boyland, 34, of Kennesaw, Ga., died in the altercation of a “medical emergency,” according to District of Columbia police.
The officer appears to be on the ground near the end of the clip. The officer’s gloved hands are in front of the camera as a man appears to use his foot to kick at other officers. A voice is heard asking for help twice. About 140 officers were injured in the siege, according to the head of the Capitol Police officers’ union. One Capitol Police officer, Brian Sicknick, 42, died of his injuries.
Del. Stacey Plaskett, D-Virgin Islands, an impeachment manager, said the mob entered the Capitol intending to kill Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., that day. “President Trump put a target on their backs,” she said, “and his mob broke into the Capitol to hunt them down.”