Shocking footage released on Sunday offers a new look at the deadly riot of the American Capitol – following the intruders as they search House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers, they sit in Vice President Mike Pence’s seat and gun through the legislators’ documents.
The nearly 13 edited minutes were recorded by war correspondent Luke Mogelson and were 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 U.S. Capitol police and streaming through doors and broken windows to the seat of American democracy.
“You’re in the minority!” one riot can be heard telling a small contingent of policemen trying to keep the rope inside a corridor in the Capitol. “There are about a million of us out there, and we’re listening to Trump, you boss!”
The contingent of rioters supported the overwhelming cops in a corridor through the sheer size of their group and marched up a flight of stairs, with one intruder shouting, “We love you! Take it easy!”
A group of dozens chanted: “Betrayal! Betrayal! Betrayal! As they chase the halls, the video shows.
“Knock knock!” one man teased when the doors to the Senate Gallery were slammed open and sent rioters inside. “Was here!”
Members of the group can be heard wondering where the lawmakers of Congress were, trying to validate the results of Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election when the riot broke out after a rally in which Trump encouraged his supporters to ‘fight like hell’ against the process.
“Where’s the f – k?” one man shouted when he saw the deserted Senate floor.
“Where’s fancy Nancy?” was another call.
As rioters dressed in battle clothes arrive on the Senate floor, a debate erupts over the optics of the takeover.
The spit centered around one intruder sitting in the seat reserved for Senate President Pence – who is accused by Trump of not doing enough to fight the election results and was among those who was forced to evacuate when the riot struck.
“Hey, get out of that chair!” Larry Brock, a delegated Air Force lieutenant colonel from Texas, with a zipper, can be heard telling the unknown man in Pence’s seat.
“No, this is our chair!” shouted a third man back.
“This is not our chair,” Brock replied. “I love you, you are brothers, but we can not be disrespectful.”
A riot has further challenged Brock, citing a conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election is directed against Trump.
“They can steal an election, but can’t we sit in their seats?” asked the man.
“No, we can’t stand it either!” insists Brock. ‘Look, this is a PR war. … We’re better than that. ”
While the group quarreled, others tossed through the legislators’ desks, apparently looking for documents to support their claim that the election was inappropriate.
A handful of intruders came across papers outlining what one identified as Republican Senator Ted Cruz’s Texas’ objection to the Arizona election results.
The discovery left some confused about exactly what the newspapers allegedly showed.
“His objection! He would sell us out all the time! Robbed a man.
“Wait, no, that’s a good thing!” another giggled around the document.
One of Trump’s most loyal supporters in Congress, Cruz was among those who questioned the legitimacy of Biden’s victory in Arizona, and even delivered an unsuccessful protest in the hours after the riot.
Two others flipped through a band, apparently also looking for evidence or otherwise incriminating material, the video shows.
“There must be something we can use against this discomfort,” one man muttered, flipping through pages at random.
‘[Republican Missouri Sen. Josh] Hawley, Cruz. “I think Cruz wants us to do that,” said another man. “I think we’re fine.”
Above them in the gallery, ‘QAnon Shaman’, Jacob Chansley – done in a horned helmet and red, white and blue face paint – incomprehensibly rumbled, rhythmically bumped with his feet and the pole of an American flag.
In a later segment, Chansley – also known as Jake Angeli – sank to the Senate floor, followed by a lone man, the video shows.
“You are patriots,” Angeli told the group. ‘Look at this man. He’s full of blood. God bless you. ”
The man to whom Angeli referred splashed on the floor with a small blood stain on his t-shirt, saying he was ‘shot in the face with a kind of plastic bullet’, but an offer of medical help from the hand shown.
When Angeli ascends the scene and gets ready to sit in Pence’s seat, the policeman takes his best chance to disperse the crowd.
“Is there a chance I could leave the Senate wing?” he asked.
The bloodied man replied on the floor: ‘We will. I made sure they did not despise the place. ”
However, Angeli decided to make himself at home.
“I’ll sit in this chair because Mike Pence is a traitor,” he said.
While the policeman watches, Angeli asks another riot to use his phone to take a picture of him in Pence’s chair.
Once Angeli had his photo, the policeman took a crack again.
“Now that you’ve done this, can I please get out of this room?” he asked.
The group seems to be complying, but not before Angeli scraped a message on a sheet of paper in front of Pence’s seat: ‘It’s just a matter of time[,] justice is coming! ”
In a later segment, however, Angeli and others were on the scene again and used a megaphone to shout a ‘prayer’.
“Thank you, heavenly Father, for being the inspiration these police officers needed to allow us into the building, to enable us to exercise our rights, to send a message to all the tyrants, the communists and to send the globalists, “says Angeli.
In the hall outside the Senate Hall, the police did what they could to lead rioters out of the building.
“We support you, OK?” one riot can be heard saying to 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 police to restore order.
“F – k the blue! F – k the blue! Some in the crowd sang, the video shows in an apparent reference to the police.
Five people died in the chaos, including a U.S. police officer in the Capitol sprayed with pepper spray and beaten with a fire extinguisher.
Dozens of people have been arrested and charged so far, though authorities have said the number is expected to grow into the hundreds.