WASHINGTON The sound started softly, cheers and chants from supporters of President Donald Trump that could be heard from inside the U.S. Capitol, not unusual when large-scale protests are staged on the grounds.
But the noise continued to grow louder and the chants of protesters outside turned into the shouts of a mob inside, the soundtrack to the most troubling day I’ve witnessed on Capitol Hill.
On Wednesday, I stood in the cavernous spaces and I watched members of the Senate file through, leaving the House to consider an objection to the Electoral College vote count. Vice President Mike Pence ignored me as I asked him what he had told Trump at lunch the day before.
But when the senators were gone, the room grew quiet and then the roar outside got louder. I looked up at the mural on the ceiling, depicting George Washington ascending into heaven, to try to hear which direction the sound was coming from and realized, it was coming from all sides.
I moved upstairs to a third-floor office, where I could see out over the west lawn and down the National Mall, where four years earlier I had watched as Trump took the oath of office, thousands of people streaming down Pennsylvania Avenue in support of the president. The risers that had been constructed again to host Joe Bidens swearing-in were now covered in Trump supporters.
It became apparent, quickly, that the tone was changing. I watched as protesters streamed past barricades and walked up to the building. The police, vastly outnumbered, watched.
And thats when the shouting began inside the building. First, Capitol Police officers hurried into the hallway and began yelling at reporters to move way from the windows. We complied, but still complacent with the sense of security that comes with being inside what I assumed was one of the safest buildings in the world, I walked down the hallway toward the noise.
It was the sound of the crowd, but this time, coming from inside, echoing against the marble instead of seeping, slightly muffled through the windows. Another police officer appeared, telling myself and another producer to take cover the building had been breached.
I took shelter in the small, fourth-floor workspace. Up a winding set of stairs, it has the feeling of being in the Capitol attic.
There was a sense of panic and concern among the dozen reporters who were there. Photos streamed in of rioters flooding the building. I watched on a television screen as protesters moved about freely in the rotunda where I had just stood minutes before.
We realized the mob had made it to the third floor. We decided to turn the lights off, try to make it look as if no one was there. We barricaded the door.
And then we watched for every piece of information we could find, both trying to send them back to our news organizations and know what was happening outside our room there were guns drawn in the House, a woman shot, people in the Senate, tear gas in the crypt. I answered an onslaught of concerned texts. I called my husband, still at home with our 8-month-old.
It would be more than two-and-a-half hours before police would arrive to evacuate us from the building. Their radios continued to squawk with details of another group inside, calls for backup. It smelled of tear gas and smoke as we walked down the basement hallways, mingling with the remaining scent of lunch as we walked past the kitchens.
As dozens of armed police lined the hallways, we held our IDs up to prove we belonged there. Taken to an undisclosed location, reporters sat on the floor, eating chicken or beef dinners that were passed around in plastic containers. Senators shuffled in and out, staff recalled sitting in dark offices while rioters banged on the doors.
Eventually, the saga ended and we were allowed back into the Capitol.
A line of lawmakers streamed back into the Senate chambers, I stopped Sen. Chris Coons, who thinks the nation will get through this moment and that our democracy will be stronger for having survived Trump.
Then I asked if Coons thought this would be the craziest day of his political career.
Im not convinced it is, he responded. He still has two more weeks in office.
