Security footage first aired Wednesday during the impeachment process of former President Donald Trump shows just how close Capitol rioters got to officials January 6 – with a single police officer holding them at bay long enough to be then vice president. Mike Pence to evacuate.
Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman is shown in the new footage warning wandering Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) to turn and hide while rioters smash windows one floor below.
Video of the first break-in from an outside point of view was previously shown by news organizations, but the new footage shows a first trickle of protesters breaking and jumping through windows before opening closed doors to fellow countrymen.
Goodman can be seen in the security footage slowing the horde one floor before the Senate. He eventually withdrew upstairs, but then led the activists away from the Senate Chamber, where Pence was still being rushed down a back stairwell by the Secret Service.
Virgin Islands Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) narrated the footage as a House impeachment manager.
While Pence was being evacuated, rioters began to disperse throughout the Capitol. Those inside helped other rioters break through doors in various locations throughout this building, and the crowd was looking for Vice President Pence because of his patriotism, because the Vice President had refused to do what the President demanded and the election results would be reversed to make. Plaskett said.
Images previously published by The Post showed Goodman leading the group away from the reportedly unlocked room door.
The new footage also shows assistants of home speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Rushing to hide in a boardroom with an interior door. A few minutes later, a horde of Trump supporters burst into the hall they just crossed and gather right outside the door. A Trump supporter throws his body against the door multiple times.
Another video from the security camera shows some of the ferocious crowds that let other rioters enter the doors to the Rotunda. The windows of the stately doors had been smashed.
Plaskett handed the presentation to fellow impeachment manager Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), Who focused on injuries from police officers along battle lines. He said his father was a cop and his two brothers currently are.
A clip from a security camera played by Swalwell showed that Senate Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was “just yards away from rioters.” The video showed Schumer climbing a slope towards the intruders, but he quickly ran back down the hallway after realizing trouble was ahead.
Fighting between Trump supporters and police was described as similar to a medieval siege by a police officer in a video interview played in front of senators. The camera images of that officer were played, showing him being dragged down the west steps of the Capitol and beaten. He was given a bag and had a heart attack.
Four supporters of Trump and Brian Sicknick of Capitol Police died of injuries directly related to the riot. Two police officers and at least one rioter died of suicide after the event.
Members of Democratic impeachment efforts sought to revive the emotions of the day for senators. A new security video showed senators and their staff running through lavishly painted Senate corridors to safety as police rushed on rioters.
“You know how close you got to the crowd. I understand some of you could hear them. But most people don’t know how close these rioters got to you. As you walked down that hallway – I paced it down – you were only 58 paces from where the crowd gathered and where the police rushed to stop them, ”Swalwell said.
Swalwell also showed senators photos of at least two activists breaking into the Senate with plastic handcuffs. “If the doors to this room had been broken a few minutes earlier, just imagine what they could have done with those shackles,” he said.
Before the new footage aired, impeachment managers argued that Trump’s pre-riot speech coupled with allegations of post-election fraud triggered the violence.
Trump was impeached by the House last month for inciting the Mafia, but it is thought unlikely that enough Senate Republicans would vote to condemn him. Democrats must win 17 Republicans to conviction, but only got six GOP votes on Tuesday in an initial vote on whether the process is constitutional because Trump has already left office.