THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2021 A13
CHAOS
AT THE
CAPITOL
Photos by The Associated Press
and The Washington Post
A
ngry supporters of President Donald
Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on
Wednesday, marching through the build-
ing, shouting and waving Trump, American
and Confederate flags and forcing a halt to
congressional deliberations over challenges
to Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
Lawmakers were evacuated. Demonstra-
tors fought with Capitol Police and then
forced their way into the building, not long
after a huge rally near the White House
during which Trump egged them on to
march to Capitol Hill. Later, the president
urged them by video to “go home,” but many
did not heed his message.
More photos » A1, A14, bendbulletin.com
Amanda Voisard/The Washington Post
People stand outside the Capitol on Wednesday. The Washington Monument can be seen in the distance. Supporters were gathering at President Donald Trump’s urging.
President
Trump speaks
during a rally
protesting
the Electoral
College cer-
tification of
Joe Biden
outside the
White House
on Wednes-
day. “We will
never give up,
we will never
concede,” he
said. Some
supporters
left the rally
early, heading
to the Capitol
building.
Julio Cortez/AP
Police hold off Trump supporters who tried to break through a police barrier at the Capitol.
Evan Vucci/AP
Andrew Harnik/AP
People shelter in the House gallery as Trump supporters try to break into the House chamber at the Capitol.
Delegation
Continued from A1
In the House, one door was
barricaded as well as locked.
Protesters later were able to
break in, trashing the cham-
bers as well as briefly occupy-
ing offices, before officers with
tear gas drove them out.
When he was finally in a
shelter-in-place position with
security, Wyden said the vi-
olence that led to at least one
death was the fault of the res-
ident of the White House at
the other end of Pennsylvania
Avenue.
“What’s happening today
in our nation’s Capitol is a di-
rect assault on democracy, a
riot by insurrectionists that
caps off four years of Donald
Trump fanning the flames of
fanaticism,” Wyden said in a
statement. “Every Republican
lawmaker who supported his
efforts to overturn a legitimate
election shares responsibility
for the violence at the heart of
our democracy.”
Wyden said later that Trump
had to be held responsible for
the rioting. He had encouraged
protesters to come to the Elec-
toral College count, promising
a “wild” time.
Trump also addressed the
protesters prior to the conven-
ing of the vote in the Capitol,
repeating his claims that the
election he lost had been stolen
by Democrats.
The United States Constitu-
tion calls for Congress to ver-
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Trump supporters confront U.S. Capitol Police in the hallway outside of the Senate chamber.
ify the Electoral College vote
count in the presidential elec-
tion that Biden won by over 7
million votes in the popular
vote.
The electors cast their offi-
cial vote on Dec. 14 with Biden
defeating Trump by 306-232
Electoral College votes.
How Wednesday started
Wednesday’s usually formal
and sedate joint event of Con-
gress was expected to be differ-
ent, but not violent.
Vice President Mike Pence
opened the proceedings with
mahogany boxes of Electoral
College votes from each state.
When Arizona’s 11 votes
were opened, some Republi-
cans mounted objections to
votes from Arizona, the first
of several states they said they
would contest.
A daylong debate was ex-
pected, with no chance that the
objections would succeed in
attracting a majority in either
chamber.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.,
had started live-tweeting the
events in Congress, writing
“Stop the Coup!”
“GOP Senators just officially
objected to counting the votes
in a state Trump lost with one
goal: keeping Trump in power
despite his election loss,” Merk-
ley wrote. “This is a direct as-
sault on our We the People
Constitution.’”
The tweet string went silent
as protesters made their way
up the stairs and into the Cap-
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talk before
a joint session of the House and Senate had convened earlier Wednes-
day to count the Electoral College votes cast in November’s election.
But they were forced out of the Capitol before the pro-Trump mob
broke through. Later Wednesday night, after returning, Pence told the
Senate: “Let’s get back to work.”
itol shortly after the beginning
of the debates in the House and
Senate.
Merkley later held a press
conference on the phone from
a “secure” room he and others
had been moved to at an un-
disclosed location.
He said Trump and his sup-
porters pushing the objections
in Congress were responsible
for inciting a riot that put all
the lawmakers, staff and law
enforcement in danger.
“That’s what we heard on
the floor today — (that) we
should listen to the mob. And
that’s why we should stop the
election of Joe Biden,” Merk-
ley said. “It should never have
come to this,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-On-
tario, who was sworn in as the
new representative of Oregon’s
2nd Congressional District
just days earlier, had joined last
month with fellow Republican
representative-elects in a state-
ment to House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi, D-Calif., calling for an
investigation into the 2020
presidential election.
“I have joined many of my
colleagues in asking for a con-
gressional investigation and
review into what has happened
in states where election irreg-
ularities have been observed,”
the statement said.
A commission or some
other investigation into the
election that would delay the
Electoral College vote had
been put forward by Sen. Ted
Cruz, R-Texas, and other lead-
ers of the move to object to the
official count.
Bentz has repeatedly de-
clined to give a yes or no
answer to the question of
whether he would join in the
objections.
Bentz was not on the floor
when protesters broke into the
House chamber. House mem-
bers rotated to the floor be-
cause of COVID-19 distancing
protocols.
Bentz said the objections
to the Electoral College votes
were going on “according to
the rules” and that those back-
ing the effort should have let it
proceed.
“There’s no reason to be
breaking in and putting people
in fear,” Bentz said.
‘Like a Third World country’
Oregon’s four other House
members are Democrats who
supported the Electoral Col-
lege result in Biden’s favor.
U.S. Rep. Suzanne
Bonamici, D-Beaverton, said
after being evacuated from
the House side of the Capitol
that she didn’t think what was
happening was possible in the
United States.
“It’s like a Third World
country,” Bonamici told The
Oregonian in a phone call.
“Someone has been shot in the
Capitol. The Capitol windows
“There’s no reason to
be breaking in and
putting people in fear.”
— Cliff Bentz, the new Republican
representative for Oregon’s
2nd Congressional District
have been shot out. It’s unbe-
lievable.”
Rep. Earl Blumenauer,
D-Portland also used Twitter
to link Trump’s unwillingness
to accept the Biden win as the
genesis for the attack on the
heart of constitutional democ-
racy in the nation.
“The people storming the
U.S. Capitol building right now
are domestic terrorists em-
boldened by Trump and every
Republican who has spread lies
about the results of the pres-
idential election. This has to
stop.”
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio,
D-Springfield, told The Ore-
gonian the attack on Congress
was a “attempt to invalidate the
election.”
Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Sa-
lem, told the newspaper “it’s
pretty horrific” and said the
“self-described patriots” were
“terrorists.”
But Schrader said Congress
would get back to work as
soon as it was safe and finish
the vote to finalize the process
leading to the Jan. 20 inaugura-
tion of Biden and Vice Presi-
dent-elect Kamala Harris.
e e
gwarner@eomediagroup.com