It was even more violent. He was even more treacherous. And Trump’s behavior was even more disturbing.
On Wednesday we witnessed the story through a handful of soda straws, to borrow a metaphor for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Journalists bravely covered the riot in real time and deserve enormous credit for doing so. ho. But in the fog of chaos, it was impossible to see the full picture as it was happening. The public did not learn that a U.S. Capitol police officer was seriously injured until Thursday, for example. Officer Brian D. Sicknick died Thursday night and federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into homicides.
CNN aired a horrifying video Friday night, first posted by the Status Coup investigative outlet, showing a police officer pinned between a door and the crowd. The officer cried out in agony.
There are all sorts of practical reasons why these scenes were not shown live on Wednesday. Within the Capitol, many correspondents were locked up and guarded to secure seats along with lawmakers. To learn more about the absolute terror of this ordeal, read the story of NBC journalist Haley Talbot from the House of Commons.
Outside, some journalists found it difficult to get news because the wireless towers were overflowing. In addition, some news outlets were threatened by groups of Trump supporters, making working conditions even more difficult.
Some of the live photos on television on Wednesday afternoon were taken remotely, out of necessity, and the most important live cameras of all – within the chambers of the House and Senate – were turned off by the respective legislatures. . So the world only saw snippets of the riot in real time.
Think of your own processing of Wednesday’s events: a handful of chaotic videos on social media shocked the world and immediately confirmed that police had lost control. But views were limited and delayed. The information gradually came in ways dating back to 9/11.
There was so much news that it was difficult to process: reports of explosive devices, an armed confrontation, a shooting and evacuations. Viewers were able to see it with their own eyes, but most of the information was second-hand, from tweets and phone calls and emails from Congressional journalists, many of them locked in the Capitol.
Only later did it become clear that lawmakers feared for their lives; that some of the attackers were looking for congressional leaders; that there could have been a massacre.
On Wednesday, “the images broadcast weren’t by far the most horrible of the day,” Chris Hayes of MSNBC said Friday night. “Much of what we saw (silly costumes, people taking selfies, taking the speaker’s lectern) looked like a group that could even attend a Trump ship parade. But there was something darker, more violent, more sinister and more organized events at that Capitol on Wednesday. And it’s time we see it clearly. “
On the Internet, Hayes’ segment was titled “An Essential Video That Shows the Capitol Revolt Was Much Worse Than We Thought.”
He noted that “it is entirely possible that there were people in that crowd who tried to catch, possibly harm, and possibly assassinate political class leaders that the president, and people like Mo Brooks, and even to some extent. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley have been told they betrayed them. “
It is understandable that journalists took a long time to digest what they had witnessed and to ingest their video from the Capitol. The Washington Post, for example, produced a video titled “What it was like to report from a besieged Capitol.”
The fuller videos that came out Thursday and Friday provided much more detail. The New York Times Daily podcast played riot audio clips singing “Where’s Mike Pence? Where’s Mike Pence? Where’s Mike Pence? Find Mike Pence.”
Progressive writer Mike Konczal, director of the Roosevelt Institute,
made a tweet on Friday, “That the occupation of the Capitol was much more violent and that it had capacity for much more violence, than I understood as it happened, is the most disconcerting thing I have learned about the putch in the days that followed. 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 convene senators” and pressured them to cancel the election, even though the riot was rage.
Another thing that was even worse than what 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 identification from the Times. “They threw me to the ground, trying to grab my cameras. I started screaming for help as hard as I could,” he said. “No one came. People just looked. At that moment, I thought I could kill myself and no one would stop them. They ripped one of my cameras off me, broke one lens on the other and ran away.” . He fled and found a place to hide.
Have a complete account of what happened and how it is vital. After writing about it in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter Friday night, Democratic Representative Ted Lieu of California
responded to Twitter“We have already learned and will continue to learn that what happened on January 6, the day of the insurrection, is even worse than we knew.” Lieu then called for action: “Congress’s response cannot be simply to make speeches with gravitas. Unless Trump resigns or is eliminated through the 25th Amendment, we will have to accuse.”
A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. Sign up for free here.
