This text, however, shocked him and other members. Security warnings are not that unusual around Congress - they’re often false alarms over suspicious packages. It was an incredible day.”ĭoggett could hear alarms going off, and began receiving text alerts to his phone. They eventually got up on the stand for the cameras for the inaugural and eventually got in the door there. “I saw a few of the police running around the Capitol to get over there to the west front and seeing more and more protesters arrive. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, watched the same scene through his office window in the Rayburn House Office Building. “It went from bad to worse,” he later recounted. “There was some kind of cherry bombs or fireworks amid the megaphones and speeches.” “It just started building and building and building,” he told the Tribune. As the debate began, one Republican staffer watched the crowds outside of the Capitol swell. In the gallery looking down, other members observed the floor proceedings in assigned time slots.Īcross the street, other Texas staffers and members were stationed in their offices. Only a few members were on the floor, in accordance with COVID-19 precautions. In the House, members were also debating the Arizona votes. Then Cruz took to the floor, declaring it “a time when democracy is in crisis” and making his case for interfering in what is traditionally a mostly ignored and ceremonial step on the way to a presidential inauguration. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell delivered an emotional speech from the Senate floor, an implicit broadside to Cruz and others who were objecting to the certifying the votes. Members went into their respective chambers - the Senate and the House - to debate counting of Arizona’s certification after Republican members, including U.S. members began counting the Electoral College votes of the states, in alphabetical order. “Find a place to hide or seek cover”Īt 1 p.m. A number of staffers requested anonymity for fear of violence. This is the account of about a dozen Texas staffers and members who experienced the moment pro-Trump rioters breached security at the U.S. Some more senior members of the delegation recalled the bitter protests around the facility in 2010, ahead of the vote for President Barack Obama’s health care law. House Democratic members had encouraged each other to avoid walks to the Capitol in the open streets, from wearing the Congressional pins that might mark them as potential targets for violence, and to generally stay within the relative safety of the U.S. But when pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol steps, halls and offices, Texans who serve in Congress and the people who work for them were left frightened for their physical safety and for the future of American democracy. Practically everyone with anything to do with Congress anticipated a bad day. “I said goodbye to them this morning knowing it was going to be a tough day, expecting there might be some incidents,” he said. Colin Allred, a Dallas Democrat, also happened to be in town. “Eerie quietness and no one on the street, silence where on a normal day would be anything but silent,” she described the neighborhood. Just a block or two away from the Capitol, Texas-based GOP consultant Susan Lilly was in town and felt a similar unease as she walked around Capitol Hill on Wednesday morning. The president’s rhetoric does not help in this matter, so I took all the measures needed. “It’s a very unfortunate day for this country,” Borjan told The Texas Tribune on Wednesday. Across the chambers and aisles of Congress, other chiefs of staff took the same approach. Vicente Gonzalez was unnerved by President Donald Trump’s rhetoric and that of his followers ahead of Congress’ traditionally ceremonial counting of the Electoral Votes - so much so that he ordered all but one of the staffers in the McAllen Democrat’s office to work from home. Like just about every other Capitol Hill staffer, Jose Borjon was worried about trouble on Wednesday.
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