The Daily - How They Stormed Congress

Episode Date: January 8, 2021

This episode contains strong language. The pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol on Wednesday made their plans in plain sight. They organized on social media platforms and spoke openly of their intentions to occupy the Capitol.But leaders in Washington opted for a modest law enforcement presence. In the aftermath, those security preparations are attracting intense scrutiny.Today, we explore how the events of Jan. 6 could have happened.Guest: Sheera Frenkel, who covers cybersecurity for The New York Times; Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a homeland security correspondent for The Times. For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.Background reading: Inside Trump supporters’ online echo chambers, the chaos of Jan. 6 could be seen coming.Failures by the police have spurred resignations and complaints of double standards.During the storming of the Capitol, social media sites were used by the mob to share information, including directions on which streets to take to avoid the police and which tools to bring to help pry open doors.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Bilbaro. This is The Daily. Today, the online planning and on-the-ground failures that contributed to the storming of the Capitol building. I spoke to my colleagues, Shira Frankel and Zolan Kano-Youngs. It's Friday, January 8th. Shira, what do we know about how this mob that stormed the Capitol came to be and to what extent it was organized from the start? What are you learning in your reporting? It was extremely well organized.

The day after the election, a group immediately pops up on Facebook called Stop the Steal. It initially builds on this base of kind of Tea Party activists and QAnon supporters and otherwise long-term members of MAGA, the Make America Great Again term that Trump likes to use. And they come together and they start collecting what they see as evidence of voter fraud. So people are coming here to vote for Donald Trump and those votes are all getting invalidated. Now we've got firsthand evidence from our poll watchers, Republican poll watchers that witnessed them changing ballots. We also know that y'all can't win shit, so you've got to cheat so you can. And they're dropping in links and videos and photographs,

a lot of them very obviously photoshopped, but nonetheless building this narrative that voting officials did everything from smuggling ballots in suitcases, allow people to vote in the names of their dead loved ones. And what did you just tell me? My dog voted in the 2020 election. Allow people to vote in the name of their pets. And how did you find this out?

I got an email that now she has her microchip number as her social security. And they are immediately popular in really just an unprecedented way. They are gaining 100 new members every 10 seconds. And they gather hundreds of thousands of people behind this banner that there was voter fraud and that they are the ones that will uphold a democratic process and make sure that Trump serves another term in office. and make sure that Trump serves another term in office. Watching it all happen in real time,

I had this sense of kind of collective mob delusion where someone would post something that, to my eyes, looked very clearly photoshopped. People's images superimposed on one another. A ballot, for instance, where the date was changed and the font looked different to me. And then anyone who dissented, anyone who even said, wait a minute, I don't know if that looks like a ballot, immediately you would see them evicted from the group. So at a certain point, myself and other reporters who are watching this get really alarmed. And so we write to Facebook and ask them if this group is violating their rules, if they're paying attention to it,

or if there's any concern among Facebook that these rumors of widespread voter fraud are going to cause them any problem. And Facebook, within a couple hours, answers and says that they're looking at the group. And then even as I'm reading that email, I see the group come down. And in its short life of 48 hours, it had managed to attract 320,000 people. But more importantly, it spawned hundreds of other Stop the Steal groups on Facebook and on Twitter. And now they've got Reddit boards. And so that inaction by Facebook, that two days that it took them to notice the group, to shut it down, was enough time to get their followers united against this banner of Stop the Steal. So what happens to these hundreds

of thousands of Trump supporters once this Facebook group is disbanded? They start to splinter off into the farthest corners of the web, and they find themselves on these new social media platforms like Gab and Parler, which have really found their moment in this Trump era of being places on the internet where people on the far right can say

whatever they want to say with no fear of moderation or censorship. Those are my people. My name is Ali Alexander. And we start to see leaders emerge, such as Ali Alexander, who's a figure in the far right who's considered himself one of the sort of key characters in the MAGA movement supporting Donald Trump. We're going to make our voices heard

and we're going to protect this president by stopping the steal. And they start to rally and figure out what can we do next. And we see them over the months of November and December seizing upon certain dates, whether it's a court case that's happening in Pennsylvania or a recount that's happening in Arizona.

There's always a date somewhere on the horizon where they think the results of the election are going to be overturned. And every time that doesn't happen, their numbers grow and the kind of sense that they're being wronged grows. And by the middle of December, they've kind of exhausted and Trump has exhausted his legal options. Howdy y'all. Ali Alexander with Stop the Steal. We are the official originators of the January 6th event.

We see these characters, including Ali Alexander, really focus their sights on January 6th as the key date where Congress is going to meet to certify Biden's victory in the election. Big announcement coming up on that. And we hear them using language like, the revolution will come to Washington. We are the darkness into light. On January 6th, the revolution will come to Washington. We are the darkness into light. On January 6th, we will bring light to Washington. A few days ago, and I'm told big things are afoot and that Trump's got major action up his sleeve. It was the day on the horizon where they could change things and where Trump himself would declare that he was serving another term in office and that they, his supporters, were the ones that made it possible.

And I think that's important because in their minds, they are the force of good. They are the revolution for good. They really see themselves as the real protectors of democracy. And on these online groups and forums, almost immediately they begin to talk about ticket prices to Washington, hotel rooms and where they should stay. They start to discuss which restaurants are closest to the mall that they could eat at and gather and have breakfast at before they go to protests. They're saying things like, well, if you want to bring a weapon with you, if you want to bring a gun or a knife or some other type of weapon, I can give you a ride in my car. Don't risk getting on a flight.

I'll pick you up. Where are you? What town are you in? Can you make it to this interstate highway? And there are Twitter threads of this conversation happening where they even discuss how much room they have in the trunk and how big is your gun case.

Sure. As you're watching all this planning and very open discussion of these Trump supporters heading off for D.C., what are you seeing them saying about their actual plan, what they want to do in Washington when they arrive on January 6th? I'm watching them very clearly discuss occupying the Capitol. Those exact words, occupy the Capitol,

were used well over 100 times that I could count in the two days leading up to them coming to Washington Wednesday. There was open talk by one of the organizers of what streets they could converge on that were closest to the Capitol building. And what we saw is as Wednesday morning arrived, they were openly discussing how they would infiltrate the building. Tell me more. What do you mean? During Trump's speech, as Trump addressed the crowd, I was watching a conversation occur between two people who were in attendance who asked one another, how quickly could we walk there? How would we get into the building? Would you be able to smash through a window with a baseball bat or do you think the glass is reinforced?

or do you think the glass is reinforced? So Shira, it feels like it's one thing to see a lot of people talking about the possibility of occupying the Capitol, but at a certain point, it actually starts to happen on Wednesday around 1.30, 2 o'clock in the afternoon. And so as that happens, could you see the coordination of it unfolding online?

The coordination was so quick, I couldn't believe it. Everybody, if you're seeing this, come down here now. We're not backing away. This is our house. They were in real time telling one another what rooms they were in and what streets they took to get there. In my mind, one of the most startling moments was just after two o'clock, President Trump tweeted something about Pence they took to get there. In my mind, one of the most startling moments was just after two o'clock,

President Trump tweeted something about Pence not going along with the plan that he had wanted in Congress. And not even a minute later, I watched a conversation happen between two people on Gab, which said that Pence was a traitor and he wasn't going to do what Trump wanted. And then on a separate live stream of someone inside the Capitol building, you hear dozens of people shouting, where is Pence? Where is Pence? Find Pence. Wow. So there's clearly a dialogue going on here between not just these rioters, these insurrectionists, but between them and the president.

Yeah, when they were in the Capitol building, they repeatedly said things like... Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! We are Trump's army. We are God's army. We are here for democracy. Hey, whose office is this? Oh my gosh, let me come in here. I'm just filming. Yo, what the... One particular moment which stood out in my mind was when one of the members of the Proud Boys

stopped and took a selfie in front of Nancy Pelosi's office. Take a picture. And on Gab, people close to him immediately posted, this is our moment, he should be the next Speaker of the House. This was an absolute celebration for them. Hey, hey, let's call Trump. Let's call Trump, yes! Dude!

Trump would be very upset. No, he'll be happy. What do you mean? We're fighting for Trump. Hey, hold it. Sure, I'm struck, most of all, from what you're saying, by just how much of this was available publicly at all points over the past few months, especially the planning in the weeks and days before these thousands of Trump supporters arrived in Washington. And if you could see it, I have to imagine that federal officials, the people we entrust the security of the United States Capitol to, that they could see it as well.

Yes, I think that there's no question that anyone that has been paying attention to the far right saw this coming and saw that for the people who support Donald Trump, for the people who believe his claims of widespread voter fraud, Wednesday, January the 6th was going to be a momentous day. Right. A day in which, according to what you saw dozens of times, included an explicit warning that they would storm the Capitol. It included a warning not just of them storming the Capitol, but of occupying the Capitol and of bringing guns and other weapons. They were incredibly clear about their intentions. They posted photographs of themselves with guns in cars heading to Washington. There was no doubt, I think, in anyone's minds that their intentions were serious.

I think that quite a few people, including these men and women who converged on Washington on Wednesday, January 6th, thought they were going to be stopped. Shira, thank you very much. We appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. We'll be right back. Zolan, we know from our conversation with Shira Frankel that law enforcement should have understood that all these people were heading to Washington, angry supporters of the president determined to make a last stand on January 6th. So what was the law enforcement plan to contend with that? Well, the plan was to have a modest presence that was led by local police and was not reliant on the president's federal law enforcement. And why would that be? Why would that be?

Well, Michael, I think we have to go back to last June. We had mass protests in Washington, D.C. And really what you saw was the federal government respond with the blunt force of the resources of various federal agencies. We saw DOJ assets deployed, Department of Homeland Security assets deployed. And you might remember that the tactics that were utilized received much backlash. There were the images of Black Hawk helicopters descending on demonstrators in downtown Washington. Many in those crowds were demonstrating peacefully. There was, of course, the president's photo op in which federal agents, as well as other law enforcement members, tear gassed a group of mainly peaceful protesters so that the president could have an opportunity

to have his photo shoot. And what happened is you had local authorities, including Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C., come out and criticize that deployment. You also saw it about a month later in Portland, Oregon, where you have the unilateral intervention of the federal government deploying Homeland Security assets when there were mass protests surrounding a federal courthouse. And what happened there? You have state and local government saying, hey, look, we didn't ask for this. So what happened this time around is you actually had local leaders in Washington hesitant to have that deployment of federal assets surrounding the Capitol because they want to avoid the images that we saw this summer. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser sent a letter just a couple days before the riots in which she referenced

this summer's deployment of federal agents and the aggressive tactics that they deployed on protesters. Got it. So the lesson of the past year, what happened in Washington, what happened in Portland was keep the feds, keep these armed United States government police officials, keep them away and avoid the kind of horrible confrontations that we saw in those two places. Yes, exactly. What you ended up having on January 6th was what many experts would say is a pretty light presence of Capitol Police surrounding the actual building and responsible for the actual building. And then Metropolitan Police Department, which is under the guidance of the local mayor, they were then the coordinator for the area around the Capitol, including the National Mall and the area steps from the White House where the rallies

on Wednesday morning began. And I should say there were other federal assets, teams of federal agents, even some National Guard troops that were on standby or doing traffic control. But what law enforcement officials have really pointed to is their late deployment to the actual Capitol. Okay, so let's talk about what it looked like on the ground. I know that you were there. So from your perspective, how did this security look on January 6th? So from the very start in the morning, what was very apparent is that there wasn't much control of movement. Thousands of Trump supporters throughout Washington, D.C., pretty much able to roam wherever they really wanted at that point. And that includes, you did see groups

that were fully outfitted in camouflage with the insignia of extremist groups, such as the Proud Boys and other groups as well. At some point around noon, you saw this massive shift where thousands of the Trump supporters started to make their way down the National Mall. Again, there was no real control of the movement at that point. As I was walking down, I even saw that there were many Trump loyalists that were, you know, talking to police officers that were there stationed. At that point, before you got to the Capitol, there was this jovial atmosphere. But then once you got to the Capitol, that was where you saw something that was rather shocking.

And that's thousands of Trump supporters, as well as these really extremists that were surrounding the Capitol. And being there, I mean, I was just right there in the crowd on the West Side of the Capitol. And being there, I mean, I was just right there in the crowd on the west side of the Capitol. You could see already how the Capitol police officers that were stationed there were already overpowered. Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!

My first reaction when I got there was, what in the world are they going to do? They being the police that were standing on the steps right there. You saw almost immediately some Trump supporters scale this elevated platform that was directly across from this thin line of police. And you saw some start to actually give orders to the thousands that continue to come and pile against the Capitol. And then you heard the flashbang grenades. It was the first real sign of a deterrent strategy that was used by the police on hand. But it did not work. The crowd only got more excited by it and continued to push ahead.

And then I noticed the first breach. the first breach. And Michael, what you saw was one of the people that were engaged in the riot had actually evaded and gone around the line of police and scaled the steps of the Capitol and began to wave their hands in the air to excite the crowd. to excite the crowd. That person was on the steps for more than a minute. I mean, really pumping up this crowd and they continued to push ahead while he was on those steps. And then you maybe saw two police officers,

fewer than five, run up the steps to chase him down. At that point, I went around to the other side of the Capitol. My colleague told me that it was even worse over there and it was even more shocking. Because the rioters there had already scaled the steps on the east side of the Capitol. And I walked up the steps through the crowd. And what you saw were individuals there taking poles and clubbing the entry. You started to see them then also hit windows as well. And I looked around and you could not see any of the National Guard troops that we had been told were on standby.

You could not see any of the Capitol Police anywhere to be found. The door's cracked. Yes! Within minutes, that entrance was actually opened and you saw a flood of those rioters go inside of the Capitol. They're in, they're in, they're in. And you did see that there were some Capitol Police officers that were making a line and trying their best to push some of these rioters away.

But they were no match. They were outnumbered. The breach was made. So, Zolan, once there is this breach, once these rioters have gotten past the first line of barriers and now they have gotten past the first line of barriers, and now they have gotten inside the Capitol, that was the moment that I think everyone watching thought to themselves, OK, it's now just a matter of seconds before reinforcements arrive. I mean, soldiers, is certainly what I expected, would come to the rescue. And that didn't seem to happen.

And why was that? — Well, look, calls were made. You had both the Capitol Police requesting help. You had members of Congress requesting help. But this is where the difference was. We did not see the same sense of urgency in responding that we've seen for previous demonstrations. We did not see the blunt force that we have seen with previous demonstrations. And, you know, you talk to different law enforcement officials and people that are in the administration, and they do point to the fact that when you go back to this summer, the president made it very clear. He, with his rhetoric, did target those protesters. He, you know, did say we are going to pursue those Black Lives Matter protesters with criminal charges.

You did not see that with his supporters here. And many would say, look, just go back to his remarks a couple hours before the breach happened. He was supporting them. In fact, he was encouraging them to go. So are you suggesting that that message, that this was a presidentially sanctioned rally, that these are the president's supports, that that influenced this entire response and even the timing of the arrival of backup and reinforcement? Look, there's no question that the president incited the riot. And my colleagues have already reported that he was even delayed in sending backup in the form of National Guard to the Capitol.

But it's a little bit more complicated than that, because what was also apparent on Wednesday was the lack of coordination between different police departments that were supposed to have a heavy presence at something like the Capitol on Wednesday. And for that lack of coordination, when you talk to different current and former law enforcement officials, they would point to the fractured trust that was really broken this past summer. And for that, you can go back to some of the decisions made by the president to deploy federal law enforcement, to deploy federal agents against the wishes of American mayors, to have the heavy-handed approach that we saw in Washington, D.C. Now you have a situation where even if there are online postings and warnings that there's going to be something like we saw on Wednesday, you don't have a situation where the police

departments in Washington, D.C. have the trust to request the assistance that may be necessary from the federal government. What's interesting about that is that it suggests that the heavy-handed responses of the summer that came at the direction of the president, like you just said, created a reluctance to sufficiently respond on federal reinforcements to protect against the president's own incitement of violence. Yes, that's right. I want to talk for just a moment, Zolan, about the policing that occurred inside the Capitol once these breaches had occurred. This clearly insufficient number of Capitol police and Washington police who were trying to hold back these rioters, their approach in the building seemed, according to all the videos and reporting we have seen, extremely deferential. It was very non-confrontational, despite the fact that people were lawlessly rampaging through the United States Capitol building. And I wonder why you think that was.

No, it's a great question. And that's what we're looking into right now. How is it that the police tactics failed to the point where that mob got so deep in the Capitol to the point where they were vandalizing members of Congress's offices, where they were stealing objects from those offices. You had one individual sitting in Nancy Pelosi's office. Some of our colleagues in the Capitol witnessed police officers giving directions to folks. What you had here was one of the more severe intrusions, a takeover of the Capitol. It forced a lockdown and forced members of Congress to evacuate and then almost halted the democratic process. Many would point to the fact that this was a mob that was incited, encouraged by the president. Many would also point to the fact that it was an overwhelmingly

white riot that had stormed the Capitol and would question if the same gentle tactics would have been used against Black Lives Matter protesters. Now, there were confrontations, including a woman who was shot by a Capitol police officer. But overall, there was a complacency and lack of aggressive police response to this riot that continued throughout the Capitol. So, Zolan, who in law enforcement is shouldering the blame for what happened on Wednesday? And are we expecting them to be held accountable? Well, you're already starting to see some of the ramifications from Wednesday start to unroll here. Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have asked for both the House and Senate sergeants at arms to resign at this time. Those are the top security officials on Capitol Hill.

Also, the Capitol Police chief, Stephen Sun, has also been asked to leave his position and is expected to later on this month. So you are starting to see some resignations take place at this time. But with that being said, the issue is not going away. There are still many members of Congress, as well as officials really throughout the country at this time, that have questions and are calling for investigations. The leaders of our government knew that this mob was coming for weeks. So there will be investigations into how this happened and how the government can ensure that it doesn't happen again.

— Thank you, Zolan. — Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Zolan. Thank you, Michael. On Thursday night, a United States Capitol Police officer died from injuries sustained during Wednesday's rioting. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has announced plans for heightened security in Washington. 6,200 National Guard troops from six different states will arrive in the city by late Sunday and will remain there through the inauguration on January 20th. We'll be right back.

We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. Good afternoon. I don't know if the word good is a way to describe it, but... Because yesterday, the president of the United States incited an armed insurrection against America. On Thursday, the top two Democrats in Congress called for President Trump's immediate removal from office for his role in encouraging his supporters to storm the Capitol building.

He must be removed from office. While it's only 13 days left, any day can be a horror show for America. So... The Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which allows Pence to wrest power from the president.

If the vice president and cabinet do not act, the Congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment. That is the overwhelming sentiment of my caucus. And the American people, by the way. And at least eight members of the Trump administration have resigned in protest of the president's incitement of violence. Among those who have stepped down are the Secretary of Transportation, Elaine Chao, Deputy National Security Advisor, Matt Pottinger,

a Deputy Press Secretary Secretary Sarah Matthews, and the Special Envoy to Northern Ireland, Mick Mulvaney, the president's former chief of staff. Finally, The demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy. In a video released on Thursday night, President Trump tried to distance himself from the assault on the Capitol,

denouncing those who participated, but failing to acknowledge his own role in the attack. To those who engaged in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country. And to those who broke the law, you will pay. Today's episode was produced by Eric Krupke, Alexandra Lee Young, Rochelle Bonja, and Sydney Harper. It was edited by Larissa Anderson,

M.J. Davis-Lynn, and Paige Cowett, and engineered by Chris Wood. Special thanks to John Ismay. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you on Monday.