ON THE COVER
Caption Credit
Insurrection in the Capitol
Left: Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump clash with police officers outside of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6. Alex Gakos / Shutterstock Above: Members of Congress run for cover as insurrectionists try to enter the House chamber during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6. Alex Gakos / Shutterstock Opposite: Smoke rises after police used pepper-ball guns against Pro-Trump protesters rallying around the U.S. Capitol before the siege. Lev Radin / Shutterstock
North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman on the siege that occupied Congress … and the path forward. By Thadeus Greenson thad@northcoastjournal.com
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peaking to the Journal by phone the afternoon of Jan. 6 from his Capitol office during a mandatory lockdown instituted by Capitol Police as officers worked to clear the building of a violent pro-Trump crowd, North Coast Congressmember Jared Huffman said he entered the day braced for the possibility of conflict but couldn’t have imagined what was to come. “There were some red flags that we could have disruption and maybe even some conflict today,” Huffman said. “So most of us asked our staff not to come to work. I’m the only person in my office. We were here thinking that we would be largely doing a ministerial job of certifying the Electoral College results. I expected it to go late into the night but certainly didn’t expect a mob to show up or anything like this.” Congress went into emergency recess early in the afternoon as rioters supporting President Donald Trump’s false election fraud claims pushed through police lines and stormed the U.S. Capitol, breaking windows and occupying the Senate floor.
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There were multiple violent clashes with Capitol Police and five people ultimately died, including a Capitol Police officer beaten by rioters, a woman shot by police and another woman crushed by the surging crowd. Lawmakers were forced to shelter in place where secure, with Congressional leaders moved to an undisclosed location, as Capitol Police worked to clear the building amid a chaotic scene. The protests came as Congress was preparing to certify the Electoral College results from the Nov. 3 election, which saw Democrat Joe Biden win the popular vote by some 8 million votes and a commanding Electoral College victory after narrow wins in six states. In the weeks following the election, Trump’s campaign and supporters filed nearly 60 lawsuits challenging the election results but almost all were dismissed and U.S. Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, said his Department of Justice found no evidence of widespread fraud in the election. Nonetheless, Trump has refused to concede defeat and repeatedly espoused baseless conspiracy theories without of-
NORTH COAST JOURNAL • Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021 • northcoastjournal.com
“We were told to push back from windows, pull shades and lock all our doors, almost like an active shooter situation.”
fering any evidence of widespread fraud or irregularities, while also pressuring state officials to overturn results. On the morning of Jan. 6, as Huffman prepared for the joint session of Congress scheduled to begin at about 1 p.m. EST, he said he watched C-SPAN footage from the rally in support of Trump and the president’s repeated false conspiracy theories and claims that widespread voter fraud across six states was the reason he’d lost the Nov. 3 election to Biden. Huffman said he watched with increasing alarm as Trump, his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and son Donald Trump Jr. addressed the crowd. According to a transcript, in a rambling 70-minute address that was part campaign speech and part airing of unfounded election conspiracy theories, Trump told the crowd the election was “rigged” and “stolen,” pledging never to give up and “never concede,” and urging his supporters
to “fight like hell and, if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” He then urged them to march to Congress. Giuliani called for “trial by combat.” Trump Jr. told Republican members of Congress unwilling to stand with the president — who include Sen. Maj. Leader Mitch McConnell and conservative stalwart Sen. Tom Cotton — “we’re coming for you.” “Trump and Giuliani and these others were just throwing all this incendiary red meat on the mob and telling them to march on the Capitol, and that’s what they did,” Huffman said. “We are in an indefinite lockdown,” he said at the time. “We don’t know when they will get the security situation under control. Once they do, we are eager to get back to work to finish this election certification. We are not going to be dissuaded from that. But they’re going to have to do
