WASHINGTON – They slept on the marble floors, lined up in the 24-hour snack bar for coffee and marveled at the marble shapes of the founders of the land in the Rotunda and Statuary Hall. They took photos with their phones, ate pizza and sometimes played cards, with their M4 carbines.
Crowds of armed, camouflage hard-line members of the National Guard rang around the Capitol and lay in its halls on Wednesday, weapons, helmets and backpacks apparently piled up in every corner of the complex. The strongly militarized presence provided a shocking and sobering backdrop for the House, as a majority of lawmakers committed a sitting U.S. president for inciting an uprising in the country’s capital.
It evoked memories of the rioters who stormed the complex just one week earlier when its terrified residents took refuge in the cordoned-off living room and safe places across the Capitol – and the accusations leveled at the election of Pres. Joseph R. Biden Jr. inauguration.
“It does not belong here,” said Elaine Luria, a Democrat from Virginia and a veteran who served 20 years in the Navy, about the military presence in the building. “It’s something out of place.”
“I hate the idea that we are going to change in any way, it will be harder or harder for people to come and enjoy the historical monument because it happened last week,” she added.
Just like lawmakers, assistants and reporters who are still exchanging bills about where they were during the siege of Trump supporters, Capitol Hill on Wednesday tore even between the open wounds left by deadly riots and the need to lay the groundwork. for healing under a new administration.
Capitol workers have been working feverishly in recent days to complete preparations for the January 20 inauguration – hanging blue curtains over the Rotunda entrance and brushing dust off the statues – in remembrance of the violence. Window panes shattered and burst in parts of the Capitol, leaving two holes behind the entrance to the office of California Speaker Nancy Pelosi after rioters stole the speaker’s embossed wooden board.
Newbie lawmakers have delivered their first speeches on the merits of accusing President Trump of major crimes and crimes for inciting an uprising. After a majority of the House for the accusation of Mr. Trump voted, me. Pelosi spoke from the same reader that a supporter of Trump was photographed with a cheerful photo all over the Capitol.
“I do not have enough adjectives to describe how disgusting I am about what happened and the point we are at – it’s sad, it’s disgusting, it’s sad,” said Florida Republican Brian Mast. He was a veteran of the army who lost his legs while serving in Afghanistan. He gave tours through the Rotunda to members of the guard to show gratitude for their service. (Mr. Mast also voted to block the results in Arizona and Pennsylvania, and did not regret the votes. He was not one of the ten Republicans who voted to accuse Trump.)
Some lawmakers lament the threat posed by the military’s presence, and many Democrats were furious at the role they played, according to their own Republican counterparts, in fueling the anger of the mob that assaulted the Capitol and the lives of endangering legislators.
“This should and will not be tolerated,” New York Democrat Hakeem Jeffries told reporters. “And that’s why extraordinary security measures have been taken.”
In response in part to concerns about Republicans bringing weapons to the House floor, new magnetometers were installed outside the doors of the room, a new security measure that was challenging for several lawmakers. Several Republicans usually allowed the magnetometers to bypass at the entrances to the building, and they grumbled about the additional security layer and some tried to push police officers past, despite the alarm.
“You are taking valuable resources completely away from where they should be without any consultation, and you have done so without any consultation from the minority,” said Rodney Davis of Illinois, the leading Republican on the House Administration Committee, said Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland , the majority leader, Tuesday. With multiple people testing positive for the coronavirus after sheltering in a room with maskless Republicans, the Democrats also applied a fine system to refuse to wear a mask on the room floor.
The magnetometers and the increased security were a small consolation during the vote to accuse Trump, as several lawmakers continued to shake and questioned the ability to attend the inauguration safely. On Wednesday, me. Pelosi said the House will vote this month on a rule change that would apply a fine system to refuse to comply with the new security protocols, which deduct $ 5,000 and $ 10,000 from the membership fee for the first and second offenses.
“What we’re dealing with now is fighting an uprising, so I feel like everything’s upside down,” said Texas Democrat Rep. Colin Allred. He recalled taking off his jacket on the house floor and preparing to defend his colleagues against the rioters. . “To see National Guards sleeping in the halls, to have the necessary protection to set up metal detectors to go to the house floor – I know the word ‘unprecedented’ is used a lot, but it is unprecedented. And it’s so sad, just as sad. ”
“It’s meant to be open,” he said. Allred of the Capitol added. “It’s a museum, it’s a place where ordinary Americans need to feel they can come and see how the government works.”
Although it contains both artifacts of American history and the incumbents of the highest offices of American democracy, the Capitol complex is an accessible fortress in ordinary times. But because tourists were banned as a way to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the presence of hundreds of armed soldiers was even more disturbing after months of almost empty corridors.
Several of the soldiers who scratched their necks to look at the paintings and sculptures in the ceiling of the Rotunda said they had never been to the Capitol, not even as tourists. Their colleagues in another room could see slumber next to a memorial plaque commemorating troops stationed in the Capitol in Statuary Hall in 1861, and a small group of soldiers posed for a photo with the statue of Rosa Parks.
John Ismay and Luke Broadwater contribution made.