It was even more violent. It was even more insidious. And Trump’s behavior was even more troubling.
On Wednesday, we witnessed history through a handful of soda straws, to derive a metaphor from the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Journalists bravely reported on the riot in real time and deserve immense credit for it. But in the fog of chaos, it was impossible to see the full picture as it happened. For example, the public only found out on Thursday that a Capitol police officer had been seriously injured. Officer Brian D. Sicknick died Thursday night, and federal prosecutors have now opened a murder investigation.
CNN aired a gruesome video on Friday night, first published by the Status Coup investigative service, in which a police officer is held between a door and the crowd. The officer screamed in pain.
There are all kinds of practical reasons why these scenes were not shown live on Wednesday. Many correspondents were locked up in the Capitol and guarded with lawmakers to secure locations. To learn more about the absolute terror of this ordeal, read NBC reporter Haley Talbot’s account from the room of the House.
On the outside, some reporters struggled to get news out because wireless towers were overwhelmed. In addition, some news crews were threatened by groups of Trump supporters, making working conditions even more difficult.
Some of the TV live footage on Wednesday afternoon was necessarily from a distance, and the main live cameras of all – in the House and Senate chambers – were shut down by the respective legislative bodies. So the world only saw fragments of the riot in real time.
Think back to your own handling of Wednesday’s events: A handful of chaotic videos on social media stunned the world and immediately confirmed that the police had lost control. But opinions were limited and delayed. The information came in little by little in ways dating back to 9/11.
There was so much news that it was difficult to process: reports of explosives, an armed stalemate, a shooting and evacuations. Viewers could see some of it with their own eyes, but most of the information was second-hand, from tweets and phone calls and email messages from convention reporters, many of them locked up in the Capitol.
Only later did it become clear that lawmakers feared for their lives; that some attackers were hunting congressional leaders; that there could have been a massacre.
On Wednesday, “the images broadcast were largely not the most gruesome of the day,” said MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Friday night. “Much of what we saw – crazy costumes, people taking selfies, grabbing the speaker’s desk – looked like some sort of group that might even be attending a Trump boat parade. But there was something much darker, more violent, sinister, and more organized. events in that Capitol on Wednesday. And it’s time we started to see it clearly. “
On the Internet, Hayes’ segment was called “Must-See New Video Shows Capitol Riot Was Much Worse Than We Thought.”
He pointed out that “ it is quite possible that there were people in that crowd who wanted to arrest, possibly harm, and possibly kill the leaders of the political class, like the president, and people like Mo Brooks, and even to some extent. informed Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, have said they betrayed them. ‘
It understandably took some time for journalists to digest what they saw and record their video of the Capitol. For example, the Washington Post produced a video entitled “What It Was Like Reporting From a Beleaguered Capitol.”
The fuller videos that came out Thursday and Friday gave a lot more detail. The New York Times Daily podcast played audio clips of rioters singing, “Where’s Mike Pence? Where’s Mike Pence? Where’s Mike Pence? Find Mike Pence.”
Progressive writer Mike Konczal, a director at the Roosevelt Institute,
tweeted on Friday“That the occupation of the Capitol was much more violent and had the capacity for much more violence than I understood when it happened is the most shocking thing I’ve learned about the putsch in recent days. It’s terrifying.”
As for the president and his behavior, CNN’s Sunlen Serfaty, Devan Cole and Alex Rogers revealed on Friday that Trump “tried to call senators” and pressured them to reverse the election as the riot raged.
Another thing that was worse than we knew at the time: the attacks on members of the media. Erin Schaff of The New York Times later described what happened when the crowd saw her Times ID. They threw me on the ground and tried to get my cameras. I started screaming for help as loud as I could, ”she said. Nobody came. The people just watched. At the time, I thought I could be killed and no one would stop them. They ripped off one of my cameras, broke one lens on the other and ran away. ” She fled and found shelter.
A full record of what happened and how is essential. After I wrote about this topic in Friday night’s “Reliable Sources” newsletter, Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu from California
responded on Twitter“We have already learned and will continue to learn that what happened on January 6, Uprising Day, is worse than we knew.” Lieu then called for action, “The response from Congress cannot simply be to deliver speeches with gravitas. Unless Trump resigns or is removed by the 25th Amendment, we must impeach.”
A version of this article first appeared in the newsletter “Reliable sources”. Sign up for free here.
