'It Was No Accident' Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal on surviving the siege. [View all]

[elleng]

*We all were aware of the danger. Ten days ago, Maxine Waters had raised the issue of our security on a caucus call to the Speaker and asked what the plans would be. And 48 hours before, we had gotten instructions from Capitol police about all the threats: that we had to be on high alert, that we had to get to the Capitol by 9 a.m. before the protesters, that we couldn’t plan on going out, that we should have overnight bags. It was very clear, and everyone understood what the threats were.

As we sat there, my husband texted me, “There’s a big mob of protesters. Are you sure you’re safe there, do you want to come back to the office?” And I said “No, this is the U.S. Capitol Building; the Speaker’s here; this is probably the most secure place to be.”

Then we started getting alerts on our phone that security had been breached. And we began hearing the noises, perhaps even before people on the floor could hear them. We could hear the insurrectionists coming in. Then we saw the Speaker and the leadership being taken off the floor; there was a brief suspension of proceedings, but by then we were seeing all the social-media posts of what was happening outside. And the noise was getting louder and louder.

Before we knew it, everyone on the floor below us had been removed, and … we were still there. And it didn’t look like anyone was coming to get us.

The Capitol police with us seemed very confused about who had the key to the doors. They were closed, but we weren’t sure if they were locked, and we were yelling, “Lock the doors! Lock the doors!” We heard shots being fired, presumably into the chamber.

They told us to take off our masks to put on the gas masks that were under our seats. I just got a knee replaced five weeks ago, and I had a cane. My concern was would I be able to get up and down quickly enough if we needed to get out. Capitol police had barricades up against the doors, and the police were in a half-circle around those barricades with their guns drawn. We were kind of waving and saying, “Hey, how about us? How do we get out of here?”'>>>

https://www.thecut.com/2021/01/pramila-jayapal-surviving-capitol-riots.html?