While you’ve likely seen the photos of pro-Trump rioters smiling and acting goofy as they ransacked the U.S. Capitol, MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes said the reality is “way darker, more violent, more sinister, and more organized” that we realized.
In his roundup of disturbing facts from the attempted coup, here are aspects of the riot you may not have known about:
– A cop was murdered by being beaten to death with a fire extinguisher in the halls of Congress.
– A woman was shot in the neck while trying to smash a window leading into the Speaker’s Lobby outside the House Chamber.
– A woman was trampled to death by her fellow rioters.
– Trump’s supporters literally smeared feces on the walls and floors of the building.
– Reuters editor Jim Bourg said he heard at least three different rioters saying that they wanted to find and execute Vice President Mike Pence for betraying Trump.
– One rioter erected a gallows with a noose outside the capitol. A group chanted “Hang Mike Pence” outside the Capitol.
– Rioters attacked an Associated Press photographer who had to be pulled to safety from the mob.
– Rioters threw a New York Times reporter to the floor and tried to break her cameras when they realized who her employer was. She screamed and no one helped.
– A man in full tactical gear and holding zip ties “flex cuffs” used to restrain people’s hands behind their backs infiltrated the Senate chamber. That is, he was equipped to take hostages and physically seize officials. The man, Larry Rendall Brock Jr., has since claimed that he found the zip ties on the ground and planned to give them to police.
– They stole documents and electronic equipment that constitutes a serious breach in national security.
– Insurrectionists ripped off the gas mask of one capitol police officer and began crushing him inside a doorway as a mob chanted “heave ho” to break down the door he was wedged in as he began bellowing in pain.
At the Stop the Steal rally earlier that day, Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani told the crowd that the election should be settled through a “trial by combat.” Trump himself told the crowd, “You’ll never take back our country through weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”
Keep in mind, for months before the insurrection, the Trump campaign sent out emails asking recipients to join the “Trump Army” not to mention the nearly 200 times after election day that Trump, his family, campaign lawyers and official allies tweeted about the non-existent election fraud while Trump’s other surrogates repeatedly spoke of “constitutional crisis” and “civil war.”