Friday Photos: January 6, 2021
My account of the Capitol insurrection
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Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, it will be wild!
- President Donald Trump on Twitter (@realDonaldTrump), December 19, 2020
January 6, 2021, was the day prescribed by the U.S. Constitution for Congress to formally certify the 2020 election as won by President-elect Joe Biden. When that day came, tens of thousands of Trump supporters from all around the country descended upon the Washington Monument grounds to hear him and his surrogates speak about how the Biden campaign stole the election to deny him a second term. The president of the United States, standing on a stage adorned with American flags and speaking from a podium bearing the great seal of the highest of all high public offices, encouraged the assembled legions of his fans to “fight like hell” and “take back America,” after which a very large number of them marched down Constitution Avenue toward the Capitol.
At that time, the Capitol grounds were fenced off as construction crews were preparing the area for the inauguration of Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, which was scheduled to occur by constitutional mandate at noon on January 20. The Trump crowd surrounded the outer security perimeter before large groups of them started breaking through temporary barricades set up by the Capitol Police.
Upon breaching the perimeter, thousands of people poured into the lawn and began fighting the cops with flagpoles, pepper and bear spray, riot shields, police clubs, temporary fencing — anything they can get their hands on to get inside the building. They broke through windows and doors to breach the Capitol, where cell phones and security cameras captured the chaos and destruction that followed for hours. Members of Congress, assembled to fulfill their constitutional duty of affirming a free and fair election, ran for their lives with their staffs, some cowering in barricaded offices and closets as the mob swept through the building. The Capitol Police, overwhelmed by the sheer number of rioters, would not regain control of the building for hours with reinforcements from the DC Metropolitan Police (MPD) and other local law enforcement agencies.
That morning, I rode my bike to the Washington Monument, camera in hand, to document the events. I was astonished not by the number of people (I’ve seen much larger protests in the past) but by the flags. They were everywhere — Trump campaign flags, Trump caricature flags, Confederate battle flags, militia group banners, flags bearing white supremacist symbols. As for the people, many of them were dressed like they were going to war, which is something not typical of a more standard DC protest rally.
A Confederate battle flag waves at the “Save America March,” the morning rally at the Washington Monument.
A woman films the “Save America March” with a phone bearing a QAnon symbol.
President Trump addresses his supporters.
Many rally participants wore full military-style gear.
A Trump supporter shows his appreciation.
Some protesters brought Christian symbols to the morning rally.
A member of the far-right Three Percent militia watches the proceedings.
Trump flags fly at the Washington Monument during the morning rally.
Flags with caricatures of Trump were common at the morning rally.
Large numbers of people left for the Capitol while Trump was still speaking, which he did for more than an hour. I started biking down Constitution Avenue myself when I got tired of the speech. When I got to the Capitol, the barricades had not yet been breached, but at some point soon after I arrived large numbers of people started pouring into the West Lawn.
Members of the Proud Boys march to the Capitol.
A woman encourages people to jump the barricades to rush the Capitol.
A man holds a Capitol Police sign.
A militia member in military gear waits outside the Capitol.
Trump supports walk through a breached barricade at the Maryland Avenue, SW, entrance to the Capitol grounds.
Trump supporters wave flags from the base of the Capitol.
A man holds a Confederate battle flag high as he mounts a statute at the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial near the Capitol.
Rioters occupy the inauguration stage.
Capitol Police in riot gear monitor the crowd from the spot where Biden and Harris would take their oaths of office on January 20.
The crowd around the building grew until people started climbing into temporary structures built for the inauguration. I stayed on the sidewalk around the lawn so I couldn’t see when the building itself was breached, but I knew it wasn’t good when I started hearing loud explosions followed by smoke at the base of the building, as police were setting off flash-bang grenades. At some point, I heard people saying that the building was breached, and that rioters had successfully stormed the Capitol.
1. Flag-waving Trump supporters climb a temporary inauguration media tower on the Capitol lawn.
2. Green smoke from a flash-bang grenade hangs in the air.
3. Rioters clash with police on the inauguration riser on the Capitol’s west front.
4 to 6. Rioters occupy the east steps of the Capitol.
I stayed out until about 4 pm when I depleted my camera’s and phone’s batteries. It wasn’t until I got home when I saw what was happening on television, that rioters had ransacked the Capitol and halted proceedings on the certification of the election, and that the mayor had declared a 6 pm curfew that evening. Within days after the insurrection, a high fence topped with razor wire surrounded the Capitol, extending several blocks from the building, a stark reminder of the chilling events of January 6th that would remain in place until it was finally removed in July.
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