How security failures enabled Trump mob to storm U.S. Capitol

By Joseph Tanfani, John Shiffman, Brad Heath and Mark Hosenball

 

FILE PHOTO: Pro-Trump protesters react amidst a cloud of tear gas during clashes with Capitol police at a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by the U.S. Congress, at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, U.S, January 6, 2021. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

 

(Reuters) -The bloody chaos inside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday came after the police force that protects the legislative complex was overrun by a mob of Trump supporters in what law enforcement officials called a catastrophic failure to prepare.

 

The siege of the Capitol, home to both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, represents one of the gravest security lapses in recent U.S. history, current and former law enforcement officials said, turning one of the most recognizable symbols of American power into a locus of political violence.

 

While events such as a presidential inauguration involve detailed security plans by numerous security agencies, far less planning went into protecting the joint session of Congress that convened on Wednesday to ratify the results of the 2020 presidential election, the officials said. That lapse came despite glaring warning signs of potential violence by hardline supporters of President Donald Trump, who are inflamed by Trump’s baseless claims of a stolen election and hope to block the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.

 

And security initially was handled almost entirely alone by the U.S. Capitol Police, a 2,000-member force under the control of Congress and dedicated to protecting the 126-acre Capitol Grounds. For reasons that remained unclear as of early Thursday, other arms of the U.S. federal government’s vast security apparatus did not arrive in force for hours as rioters besieged the seat of Congress. The Capitol is a short walk from where Trump in a speech railed against the election just before the riot began, calling the vote an “egregious assault on our democracy” and urging his supporters to “walk down to the Capitol” in a “Save America March.”

 

The counting of the electoral votes of the presidential election by Congress, normally a formality, was preceded by weeks of threats in social media that planned pro-Trump protests could descend into violence. Despite those rumblings of danger, the Capitol Police force did not request advance help to secure the building from other federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, according to one senior official. And National Guard reinforcements, summoned by the city’s mayor, were not mobilized until more than an hour after protesters had first breached the barricades.

 

In stark contrast, those agencies were aggressively deployed by the Trump administration during last summer’s police brutality protests in Washington and elsewhere in the United States.

 

The Capitol Police did not respond to requests for comment.

 

The force’s officers are trained to keep protesters off the Capitol’s marble outdoor steps, to protect the complex like a citadel. But there are so many windows and doors in the 19th-century complex that it is difficult to defend them all, said Terrance Gainer, who served as Capitol Police chief and later as the U.S. Senate’s Sergeant at Arms, its chief law enforcement officer.

 

“Once they lost the steps, they lost the doors and windows,” Gainer said.

 

As hordes of rioters streamed into the heart of American government, they could be seen on camera roaming freely through the historic halls – swinging from a balcony, rifling through the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and even sitting in the chair reserved for the Senate’s presiding officer. One rioter was captured by a Reuters photographer casually shouldering a large Confederate battle flag as he strode inside the Capitol - a searingly evocative inversion of the failed 1861-1865 insurrection against the American republic by Southern states in an effort to perpetuate slavery.

 

“I truly had to suspend my disbelief because I didn’t think you could breach the Capitol,” said Gainer, the former Capitol Police chief. “I have great confidence in the men and women who protect Congress, but there will need to be a full accounting. We’re going to have to have a deep dive into what went wrong.”

 

Lawmakers inside the building blamed a lack of preparation for the historic security breach. “I think police did a good job under the circumstances, but there clearly wasn’t enough planning,” said Representative Vicente Gonzalez, a Texas Democrat.

 

The long-planned protest, Gonzalez said, called for an “overwhelming display of force” by police.

 

‘IT LOOKED LIKE THE KEYSTONE COPS’

 

Some Democratic members of Congress, worried about the prospects of violence, tried for more than a week to press agencies for information about what they knew about threats or countermeasures, according to one congressional source. But there was no sign anyone was gathering serious intelligence about possible disturbances or planning to counter them, this source said.

 

Typically, law enforcement agencies in the American capital spend weeks or months planning for large protests, one former Justice Department official said. Officials from dozens of agencies, including local police, Capitol Police, the Secret Service and the federal Parks Police, ordinarily gather at the Washington field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the premier national law-enforcement agency, to coordinate their response. But it’s not clear how much of that planning happened for Wednesday’s event.

 

A senior federal law enforcement official familiar with the planning to protect other federal sites on Wednesday, including the grounds where Trump spoke, said that he was shocked that the Capitol Police were not better prepared.

 

“It looked like the Keystone Cops out there,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It should have never happened. We all knew in advance that these people were coming, and the first order of policing is presence.”

 

“The Capitol Police force is essentially a guard force, so it’s hard to understand why they weren’t better prepared.”

 

The challenges of securing the Capitol have been discussed in hearings and in reports for years. In 2013, Gainer said he proposed a fence, to be called the Capitol Gateway, to stop such a mass assault. It was never built.

 

“The idea was roundly defeated,” he said, because members of Congress wanted to protect the public’s access, and did not want the complex to look like a fortress.

 

TRUMP LAUNCHED MARCH TO THE CAPITOL

 

Trump on Twitter promised a “wild” event aimed at reversing his loss in last November’s election - and appeared to encourage his supporters to act. “Our country has had enough, and we will not take it anymore,” Trump said at Wednesday’s rally. “You have to show strength, and you have to be strong."

 

The White House did not respond to requests for comment on Trump’s role in inspiring the violent protests or on the collapse of security at the Capitol.

 

As Trump returned to the White House, the crowd headed to the Capitol building.

 

After a perimeter was quickly breached, Capitol Police officers seemed to be alone in battling the extremists on the building’s steps, according to witness accounts and video from the scene. They were unable to secure all the doors and windows in the sprawling complex. Protesters surged inside the building, which contains the chambers of both houses of Congress. Video footage showed Capitol Police overwhelmed by vastly superior numbers of intruders as the mob grew into the thousands.

 

Two U.S. officials said that Washington city officials had hoped to avoid a militarized response in the days before the protest. The fear: They were concerned about a repeat of the scenes of the harsh federal response to anti-racism protests that took place across the street from the White House in June. They said it was unclear why it took as long as it did for the city police force to arrive at the Capitol.

 

Whatever the case, they added, the delay was too long. A U.S. defense official said Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser requested National Guard troops at around 2 p.m. That was about 45 minutes after the rioters had breached the first barricade. Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller activated the full D.C. National Guard at about 2:30, the official said.

 

By then, the Capitol was under lockdown. In the rotunda, the iconic circular room under the Capitol dome, tear gas masks were being distributed. Police evacuated Vice President Mike Pence - who was there to preside over the formal counting of the Electoral College votes for the election he and Trump lost - and members of the House of Representatives and Senate. The police used pepper spray and tear gas on the protesters. They tried to barricade doors with furniture but quickly lost the battle.

 

One woman was shot and killed by Capitol police inside the building, and pipe bombs were recovered at the offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees, Washington Police Chief Robert Contee said. He didn’t explain what prompted officers to shoot the woman.

 

CALLS TO ‘RISE UP’ FOR TRUMP

 

While the mob invasion of the Capitol was unprecedented, there were ample warning signs in the days leading up to the protests. Many Trump supporters who traveled to the capital shared plans and organized on social media websites such as Parler, a Twitter-like service that has attracted right-wing extremist groups.

 

Some posters discussed ways to illegally sneak guns into Washington. In a post on the social media app Parler, the leader of the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, promised the group’s attendance at Wednesday’s rally. Tarrio was arrested on Monday in Washington for destruction of property during a protest last month and possession of a firearm magazine. He pleaded not guilty but was ordered to leave the city on Tuesday.

 

Joe Biggs, a Proud Boys organizer, said more than 65 members of his group attended the protests but that he did not know whether any of them entered the Capitol building. He said he advised other Proud Boys to stay inside and avoid confrontations with police.

 

On Twitter, starting on Jan. 1, there were 1,480 posts from accounts related to the QAnon conspiracy theory movement that referenced Trump’s rally on Jan. 6 and contained references to violence, said a former intelligence official who monitors extremists on social media. These included calls for “Patriots to Rise Up.”

 

In one popular post on the TikTok video app, a man said that bringing guns to Washington is the “entire reason we’re going.”

 

Neil Trugman, a former Capitol Police intelligence officer, called Wednesday’s invasion of the complex unfathomable. He said the force generally prepares for much smaller groups under rules designed to allow for maximum expression of free speech rights.

 

“We’re all witnessing something we never imagined," said Trugman, who recently retired as chief of police for Amtrak, the U.S. passenger rail company. “I’m not sure any chief of police could have handled this any differently.”

 

He blamed Trump for inciting the riot: “This is no longer just a protest. They crossed the line. This is terrorism.”

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-01-07

 

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That's World leaders and selected people above any law for you with the current crop we could all be back in the thirties time to drain the swam ???? 

18 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

How security failures enabled Trump mob to storm U.S. Capitol

many different ways of peeling a rabbit or many different ways of calling a conspiracy theory, the mob had assistance from the inside, traitors/Trumpists are everywhere, better start an investigation ASAP, meaning now to tomorrow

Trump incited sedition. Lock him up, along with any of the "protestors" that can be identified and arrested. They soiled democracy.

IMO it was the brazen nature of the mob that caught the police off guard. Events moved too fast for them

Such a sad day for those who gave their health, life and freedom to establish and defend the Republic that was the U.S.

On a finer point, Washington DC could not have called out for the National Guards.  That power belongs to a governor and DC doesn't have one. Therefore the request had to be made to the Trump admin to make the call, and guess where that request had gone (hint, the waste basket.) Notice how the DoD, the AG et al remained strangely "calm" during the whole fiasco. Trump relished every second of mayhem on TV and when he thought the right dose had been delivered, he jumped on twitter and wagged a finger to the ones who did not vote for him, "How did ya like that, cheaters!" Helpful tip next time: DC could have sourced out the security details to Michigan. The female trio governing that state love to kick asses, especially when they are big and orange.

41 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

in what law enforcement officials called a catastrophic failure to prepare.

 

Catastrophic failure to prepare? Or deliberate shirking of duty on the part of federal authorities who ultimately work for Trump?

 

I certainly hope a serious investigation results and gets to the bottom of this "catastrophic failure."

 

Quote

For reasons that remained unclear as of early Thursday, other arms of the U.S. federal government’s vast security apparatus did not arrive in force for hours as rioters besieged the seat of Congress.

 

Let's hope the reasons get made clear...and public!

 

And then the concluding OP comment:
 

Quote

 

He blamed Trump for inciting the riot: “This is no longer just a protest. They crossed the line. This is terrorism.”

 

Trump presidentially incited terrorism, that is.

 

I think the Washington Post had a more telling take on the debacle:

Capitol breach prompts urgent questions about security failures

The storming of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of President Trump’s supporters on Wednesday was a disastrous failure of security: In a city on high alert, in a building with its own 2,000-officer police department, people forced their way into the sanctums of American democracy with nothing more than flagpoles, riot shields and shoves.

 

Nobody stopped them — and some officers were captured on video appearing to stand back as rioters streamed inside.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/capitol-breach-security-failures/2021/01/06/e1e09b80-5061-11eb-b96e-0e54447b23a1_story.html

 

And what kinds of things should be looked at in whatever investigation is to come:

 

"But other police seemed to stand by, observing the disorder instead of stopping it: One image posted on social media showed an officer taking a selfie with one of the intruders, and a video seemed to show officers opening the security fence to let Trump supporters closer.

 

Police did not appear to try to detain the rioters, allowing them to leave unhindered."

 

Interesting article on CNN website

Rioters breached US Capitol security on Wednesday. This was the police response when it was Black protesters on DC streets last year

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/07/us/police-response-black-lives-matter-protest-us-capitol/index.html

This failure cannot be allowed to stand those responsible should be fired and if it’s found they had a part in then jailed trump should be removed tryed and if found guilty of lying about election interference inciting insurrection then jailed for beeing the traitor he is

Any security organization that didn't see this coming was either negligent, or complicit.

 

3 hours ago, Lacessit said:

Trump incited sedition. Lock him up, along with any of the "protestors" that can be identified and arrested. They soiled democracy.

IMO it was the brazen nature of the mob that caught the police off guard. Events moved too fast for them

Yes, prosecute him ASAP.

 

Also start impeachment proceedings before he leaves office. The conviction can happen afterwards. Impeaching this enemy of democracy would serve good purposes. If done, he would be the only president ever impeached twice (and likely hold that record for eternity) and also it would prevent him from seeking any future public office, including dog catcher. 

 

BTW, the election tampering attempt phone call to Georgia (have people forgotten already) is a clear cut and easy conviction. 

4 hours ago, candide said:

Interesting article on CNN website

Rioters breached US Capitol security on Wednesday. This was the police response when it was Black protesters on DC streets last year

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/07/us/police-response-black-lives-matter-protest-us-capitol/index.html

 

There is NO question that the Trump mob was allowed to do what they did from inside help and apathy from the police. The incredibly stark contrast of what we see in this image during the BLM protests (and was typical all around DC) to what happened yesterday in DC is amazing and VERY obviously intentional.  

 

Trump called on these people to "march on the Capitol" and "fight" for his second term. He clearly incited these low-IQ knuckle-draggers to do irreparable damage to the Fifty States of America because he has no use to it (at the moment) and couldn't care less what happens to it. 

The information that they planned to storm the Capitol was well known.  As the above tweet shows, it wasn't a secret.  I suspect there was plenty of 'chatter' picked up by the Security agencies, but who controls the Security agencies?   That would be the President and he didn't give fair warning, except to say something to the effect, "Be there, It'll be Wild."

 

He's a man who has been banned from Twitter, banned from Facebook, but he still has the nuclear codes.   

 

Although we can't rule out plain old incompetence, it looks like a coup attempt to me.  They left the whole defense of the Capitol in the hands of the Capitol police, who are basically museum guards who tell visitors not to touch the paintings.  And this happened after meetings of the relevant dept. heads of the security apparatus.

 

So, depending on how the takeover of the Capitol went, the next phase could easily have been declaration of martial law and cancellation of the inauguration.  Reminds me of Suthep's disruption of the election which became the justification for Prayut's coup.

 

May not be the case here, but my inclination is to think that it was.

12 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

 

On Twitter, starting on Jan. 1, there were 1,480 posts from accounts related to the QAnon conspiracy theory movement that referenced Trump’s rally on Jan. 6

 

I first read about QAnon I thought it was a Qatar Airlines boarding pass for a non stop flight .. but then I seen shamen Buffalo Bill , the dude with the face paint , Tatt's and buffalo horns who by all accounts is a head shamen for QAnon inside the Congress building barking at the moon .. the only thing missing from the pic' was a crazy horse .. he'll be needing all his mystical mysticism when law enforcement come thru' his door early morning to take him in for his part in it .. shame that .. 

 

There's been lots of speculation that Trump might resign in order for Pence to pardon him. That seems less likely now but I wouldn't put it past President Pence to do just that.

Some movement.  The chief of the Capitol police has resigned. The sargent at arms will soon.  And more heads will roll. 

 

They were under prepared even though they knew what was coming.  Violent domestic terrorists.  I think some were working with them to allow entry.

 

Sadly, one of the policemen just died. That makes 5 deaths so far.  Blood that is on the hands of Trump and his enablers.  Remember their names.

2 hours ago, placeholder said:

There's been lots of speculation that Trump might resign in order for Pence to pardon him. That seems less likely now but I wouldn't put it past President Pence to do just that.

 

All of Trump's lawyers have been advising him that a pardon from Pence, one way or another, is the smart move, since a self-pardon probably would not hold up in court.  If Trump does pardon himself, which is what I expect, it will only be because Pence wasn't willing to go along with the scheme.  Pence will have noticed how the Nixon pardon ended Ford's political career.

https://politicalwire.com/2021/01/07/betsy-devos-resigns-in-protest/

 

Betsy resigned!  Yahoo!!!

7 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

 

All of Trump's lawyers have been advising him that a pardon from Pence, one way or another, is the smart move, since a self-pardon probably would not hold up in court.  If Trump does pardon himself, which is what I expect, it will only be because Pence wasn't willing to go along with the scheme.  Pence will have noticed how the Nixon pardon ended Ford's political career.

I'd tend to agree.  Pence has been incredibly loyal to Trump, sometimes embarrassingly so.  But Trump has treated him badly these last few days and it hasn't gone unnoticed.  It should be obvious to Pence by now that he's just another minion to Trump.  

 

[During the chaos, some of the rioters could be heard screaming, "where's Mike Pence?"according to the source close to the vice president who spoke to CNN.]

["Was [Trump] concerned at all that an angry mob that he commanded to march on the Capitol might injure the vice president or his family?" the source said, going on to say that Trump and his allies made Pence a "scapegoat" for his 2020 loss.]

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-didnt-check-pence-safety-after-inciting-capitol-mob-2021-1

 

Compared to Portland, where protestors who came close to government buildings were treated quite harshly, this reeks of favoritism toward the white Trump crowd. How can the capital building, with congress in session, not be considered a far greater security threat, than a nearly empty government building in Portland? Something smells fishy here. And considering that the capital police force has 2,000 cops, and they knew this protest was about to take place, why were they not better prepared? Was that deliberate? 

 

And as far as charging his rioters with sedition, I have no issue with that. But, only a small percentage of the ones who broke into the capital building were arrested. No doubt the capital police failed miserably. But, was it a deliberate failure? And if so, should they be charged with a crime? 

With Trump, it is an astonishing thing, to witness a man who was already psychologically unstable, come completely unhinged. He is rambling and incoherent in his speech now, utterly desperate, and increasingly dangerous. There should be some national security laws in place, that allow Trump to be locked up in jail, until the 20th. He is a dangerous man, and a threat to the nation. 

Just now, spidermike007 said:

Compared to Portland, where protestors who came close to government buildings were treated quite harshly, this reeks of favoritism toward the white Trump crowd. How can the capital building, with congress in session, not be considered a far greater security threat, than a nearly empty government building in Portland? Something smells fishy here. And considering that the capital police force has 2,000 cops, and they knew this protest was about to take place, why were they not better prepared? Was that deliberate? 

 

And as far as charging his rioters with sedition, I have no issue with that. But, only a small percentage of the ones who broke into the capital building were arrested. No doubt the capital police failed miserably. But, was it a deliberate failure? And if so, should they be charged with a crime? 

With Trump, it is an astonishing thing, to witness a man who was already psychologically unstable, come completely unhinged. He is rambling and incoherent in his speech now, utterly desperate, and increasingly dangerous. There should be some national security laws in place, that allow Trump to be locked up in jail, until the 20th. He is a dangerous man, and a threat to the nation. 

These protesters aren't very smart.  The interviews coming out with them proves this.  They live streamed, posted pics on social media, gave out their names, etc. 

 

From what I just heard on the news, the FBI is using this to track them down and probably charge them with sedition.  CNN is showing their faces and names.  Again, not very smart people.

 

One guy even said he was suppose to be at work...so don't tell his boss!!!  On live TV.  One guy, a lawyer, just got fired.  Another, a politician from another state, is hiding behind is lawyer.  Insane.

Pelosi will impeach Trump this week.  McConnell will refuse to hold a trial in the Senate which the Dems will let him decide.  Eventually, Schumer will become Majority Leader and will hold the trial, but they won't get 17 Republican senators to convict.

 

However, it is now a certainty that Atty Gen Garland will indict Trump for sedition and probably other crimes, which charge will test Trump's self-pardon in the Supreme Court.  The SC will declare the self-pardon illegitimate.

 

Trump will flee the country to avoid imprisonment.

But matt gaetz said it was antifa terrorists.

 

I see trump has a new vid, throwing them under the bus as usual. Incites them to riot then says they will pay.

1 minute ago, Sujo said:

But matt gaetz said it was antifa terrorists.

 

I see trump has a new vid, throwing them under the bus as usual. Incites them to riot then says they will pay.

 

Trump made that video only to try to head off removal from office.

28 minutes ago, Jeffr2 said:

These protesters aren't very smart.  The interviews coming out with them proves this.  They live streamed, posted pics on social media, gave out their names, etc. 

 

From what I just heard on the news, the FBI is using this to track them down and probably charge them with sedition.  CNN is showing their faces and names.  Again, not very smart people.

 

One guy even said he was suppose to be at work...so don't tell his boss!!!  On live TV.  One guy, a lawyer, just got fired.  Another, a politician from another state, is hiding behind is lawyer.  Insane.

 

Excellent news. Would love to see these hooligans arrested, tried, convicted and imprisoned. That is the least they deserve for their total foolishness. 

I can't see Pence pardoning Trump. From how he conducts himself, I just can't see it happening.

14 minutes ago, Sujo said:

But matt gaetz said it was antifa terrorists.

So, DT addressed an antifa rally before the riot?

 

 

55 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

 

Excellent news. Would love to see these hooligans arrested, tried, convicted and imprisoned. That is the least they deserve for their total foolishness. 

 

There is plenty of footage, so it's going to be an easy job to find those who entered the Capitol. 

 

I support protests no matter which side protest because that's a very important right in a democracy, but some protesters just crossed a line and should face the consequences. 

 

I don't know what they were thinking. 

Did they seriously think they could start a revolution or change the outcome by using violence and gaining entrance to the Capitol.