Thread by @capitolhunters

Good morning America. Two years ago at this time, crowds in DC were streaming in towards the Ellipse, though gates were not open yet for Trump's rally. Ali Alexander was up since 4 AM. Courtney Holland, Scott Presler, & Rose Tennent of Stop the Steal laughed as they walked in. 1/

By 8:39 AM the National Mall was starting to fill up. The atmosphere was cheerful, almost a party. Most of the non-VIP crowd saw no point in going through security to sit in the seats; they gathered on the Mall instead and watched the overflow screens. 2/

After last-minute drama, the first speaker hits the stage 9:06 AM: "I'm Congressman Mo Brooks..and I've got a message that I need you to take to the Capitol." "Today is the day American patriots start taking names and kicking ass." You can watch. 3/
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In the White House, Trump was making a last round of calls to "his" folks in Congress, before the certification of the electoral vote that afternoon: Rep. Jim Jordan (OH), then Sen. Josh Hawley (MO) at 9:39 AM, who later raised his fist to support the crowds at the Capitol. 4/

At 10 AM, the Proud Boys gathered at the Washington Monument as planned. They chanted "Uhuru", gave instructions, then marched on the Capitol. The front line is the "big 4" leaders currently on trial; Joe Biggs in plaid is a former InfoWars 'reporter'. Video by @sandibachom. 5/

The Oath Keepers, unlike the Proud Boys, were mostly at rallies in the morning. At 10:43 AM Stewart Rhodes spoke at a small rally near the Capitol. "This is a farce!" Trump should be like Lincoln & "arrest Congressmen" "because he faced an insurrection...this far worse". 6/

At 10:59 a USCP alert went out "~200 Proud Boys gather near the Garfield Circle..." The crowds cheered as they arrived at the Capitol: "We love the Proud Boys!" This is a first, ceremonial visit. 2 hours later they will be back for the attack. 7/

At 11:20 AM Donald Trump is in the Oval Office, though the Ellipse crowd is waiting for him. He has an angry phone call with VP Mike Pence, calls him a 'p--y', then confers with speechwriter Stephen Miller. Keith Kellogg, Pence's security advisor, stuck with Trump all day. 8/

The Oval Office folks were in no hurry at the Ellipse, though the crowd was waiting with an empty stage. Trump watched the monitors, then finally took to the stage at noon, a full hour late. Some of the crowd had left: they'd been told for weeks to "occupy the Capitol" at 1 PM 9/

Many in the crowd at the Ellipse knew the schedule. Here's TX State Rep. Kyle Biedermann & his crew squeezing out at 12:19 PM to head to the Capitol. He got there in time to rush in with the Proud Boys. 10/

At 12:48 PM the Proud Boys, who'd been marching in circles, hit the Peace Circe right on time. Almost simultaneously, the first wave of people coming from the Ellipse arrived. The crowd swelled to hundreds within minutes. Joe Biggs riled them up on his bullhorn. 11/

At 12:53 PM the crowd rushes the Penn Walkway. Capitol Police guarding it had no riot gear - they fought, but were overwhelmed within minutes. Everything goes very fast now, so @StevieG54099097 has sync'd multiple videos to show it. 12/

The Maryland Walkway falls at 12:58 PM, & attackers flood the Lower W. Plaza. By 1:05 PM, a man on the tower reads a prepared speech to the mob: "My fellow Americans.." Below him, armored USCP troops are arriving - including @SergeantAqGo, who will fight for the next 3 hours. 13/

At this EXACT moment, 1:05 PM, Vice President Pence gavels open the Joint Session to certify the electoral votes. The ballots themselves, in leather cases, had been brought in moments earlier. No one seems to acknowledge the battle raging outside. 14/
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At 1:11 PM Trump ends his speech on a martial note: "If you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore" "We're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue and we're going to the Capitol..and give our Republicans..the kind of pride & boldness that they need.." 15/

On the W. Plaza, officers struggle to hold back waves of attackers; it looks like all is lost. Then at 1:12 PM, a miracle: a group of MPD cops have biked to the Capitol in response to USCP Chief Sund's call for help. Within minutes, momentum has shifted. The Plaza will hold. 16/

In the next 1/2 hour, officers & attackers call for reinforcements. The Proud Boys pull back from the front line to wait. Over in Freedom Plaza, Alex Jones gets a call at 1:19 PM and starts marching to the Capitol with Ali Alexander, who texts: "Get your ass to the Capitol". 17/

By 1:39 PM, the crowds are thick enough to try again. The Proud Boys gather at the base of the NW Scaffolds, upwind from officers' tear gas. At 1:50 PM, the mob breaks the police line in a sudden rush. For the next hour, the fight for the Capitol will be intense. 18/

As soon as the NW Scaffolds fall, Alex Jones & others with bullhorns start leading crowds to the East side to prep for attacks there. Alex tells the crowd that Trump will be there, but he knows that's a lie - he's already been told Trump wouldn't come. 19/

The action is so furious during this hour that maps can help. Here's that first movement around the Capitol. The goal was to breach on all sides, so as soon as the NW Scaffolds were taken, the E side had to go too. 20/

Just 7 minutes after the NW Scaffolds breach, the mob breaks through barriers on the E. Plaza and surges toward the Capitol steps. It's now 1:57 PM. Two candidates for governor had staged there to join in: Joey Gilbert of NV and Doug Mastriano of PA. 21/

At 1:59 PM people at the center barricades make their own rush and the two mobs converge on the E Capitol steps. (All sync video is by @StevieG54099097; you can watch the whole day at youtube.com/@HuntingInsurr…). 22/

After a brief pause, an organized push line breaks the police line on the E. Capitol steps at 2:06 PM. A few Oath Keepers have arrived by now and help out. 23/

As soon as the steps are taken, a signal is hung: a yellow flag from the NE balcony (2:08 PM). (The same man will hang a flag on the opposite balcony when the doors are breached.) Chanel Rion of OANN, watching from the Russell Office Building, posts a ominous Tweet 2:09 PM. 24/

On the West side, commands are given and the NW steps are taken at 2:10 PM. The crowd bifurcates and surges. One part rushes up to to the building, while those ground level swarm around the Capitol, driving police before them. Proud Boys walk in a "stack" and celebrate. 25/

Several in the mob surging up the stairs make a bee-line for the NW Courtyard with its unreinforced windows. By 2:13 PM Proud Boy Pezzola has broken in. By 2:14 PM the door is opened from the inside, and PB leader Joe Biggs strolls into the US Capitol. 26/

Here's that first breach from the inside, at 4x speed. 27/

The next half hour is the most coordinated of the whole day. 10 police lines are broken and 5 doors breached, on both sides of the Capitol. Some have to be breached twice to keep the attack in sync. Proud Boys are at nearly all. When it's over, there's a burst of signaling. 28/

The invasion is terrifying since Congressmen are still in their chambers, debating Paul Gosar's objection to AZ votes (Ted Cruz 2nded). If not for that delay they'd be done. Officer Goodman leads the mob away from the Senate, buying time. Others try to cross to the House. 29/

At 2:17 PM On the W side, a giant flag is swung from the tower. On the E side, Alex Jones, who had been waiting on the Plaza, is called up the E steps to incite the crowd. The attack on the Columbus Doors will start as soon as he's done. 30/

The Columbus Doors are breached just 3 minutes after Alex Jones departs. George Tenney, a former Marine, opens them from the inside. His partner Darrell Youngers, a former Marine, helps. Christopher Warnagiris, an active duty Marine major, is the first to enter from outside. 31/

The plan now seems to go awry. An attempt on the House doors fails. On the W. side, officers stubbornly held the W. Plaza. The mob lets the Columbus Doors close and waits... then finally, at 2:28 PM, the W. Plaza is broken. Officers had held it for 1.5 hours. 32/

Regrouping is fairly fast. By 2:35 PM the Oath Keepers are finally herded up the stairs into position. Someone starts the Star Spangled Banner - as it ends a whistle blows & the attack is on. Megan Paradise chants the countdown on a bullhorn. At 2:38 PM the doors swing open. 33/

As the Columubus Doors swing open on the East side, officers on the West side are forced into a strategic retreat. By some miracle they choose the one location that attackers had targeted - the opening to the basement tunnels. They back in even as invaders swarm up. 34/

USCP Sergeant Gonell is the last man into the tunnels, waiting til all the others are inside before he backs in himself. The first invaders are only steps behind him. 35/

Just inside the tunnel entrance, MPD commanders rally the exhausted officers: "They are not getting into this building" "We are not losing the US Capitol today!" They held the tunnel for over 2 more hours of hand-to-hand fighting. 36/

It's now nearly the end of the "multi-prong attack" - marked by two smoke signals & a flare visible from all sides of the Capitol (2:43-2:46 PM). Even Stop the Steal leader Michael Coudrey comments, retreating w/ Alex Jones: "red flare just went up; I advise you to leave now" 37/

Inside the Capitol, Senators are evacuating, but invaders have pushed through police to basement level: Majority Leader Schumer nearly runs into a Proud Boy. 2 floors above, mobs try to smash into the House where Reps are only just leaving. Ashli Babbitt is shot 2:44 PM. 37/

The last major breach happens 2:48 PM - a crew re-opens the Senate Wing Door in a violent push. That's it: the #BigMediaTowerFlag is immediately taken down, & at 2:49 PM Proud Boy leader Zach Rehl texts "They just broke all the doors and windows open, people are pouring in.” 38/

Success still seems likely at 2:48 PM, and the Capitol grounds are full of MAGA influencers. On the E side, Brandon Straka of WalkAway, Keith and Kenny Lee of MAGA DTI. On the W lawn there's Scott Presler, Jack Posobiec, many from STS, ex-Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Chaya Raichik..39/

The Capitol was saved by the fast response of those who defended it. By 2:52 PM, the big guns had arrived - FBI SWAT. It's still not clear how that decision was made, but it was consequential. Instead of attackers flooding the building, they're now pushed out. 40/

Inside the Capitol, officers from MPD and USCP, backed by FBI SWAT, herded invaders into the Rotunda from all sides ca. 3 PM, then squeezed them out the Columbus Doors. Note the bike helmets here - law enforcement responded in whatever gear they had. 41/

At the tunnel, though, the fighting was still fierce. Officer Fanone had self-deployed to the Capitol and raced to the front lines. Within minutes of arriving, at 3:19 PM, he was dragged out into the mob and tased. 42/

The fighting pauses after Fanone's dragging. Nancy Pelosi, hidden safely, works the phones. By 3:22 PM she reaches VA Gov. Ralph Northam and persuades him to announce publicly he is sending the National Guard, setting off a WH Tweet and mass confusion. 43/

By 3:37 PM, though, some decision seems made, and fighting resumes. At 3:46 PM Congressional leaders call Acting SecDef Chris Miller (strangely installed only in Nov.) to demand the National Guard. Pelosi, pointedly: "just pretend..it were the Pentagon, or the White House." 43/

MG Walker, DC National Guard Commander, says he was ready to send troops to the Capitol an hour before, but DoD leaders dithered. Meanwhile, across the Potomac, a suspicious group of men with earpieces stood waiting, line-of-sight to the Capitol. 44/
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The late-stage fighting at the tunnel is violent, desperate, and strange. The crowd organizes 'heave-hos'. They crowdsurf to strike officers, choke them with bearspray, and attack them with a flagpole and a ladder. By 4:14 PM they break a window, but to no effect. 45/

By 4:03 PM, Trump's advisors finally persuade him to shoot a video telling the crowd to "Go home". He needs several takes; Tweets it at 4:17 PM. The mob at the tunnel barely notice - they're too busy worrying whether officers will "go lethal". Watch the hand gestures. 46/

As officers in the tunnel make a final push, many in the crowd slip. Others are trapped inside. At 4:27 PM, a burst of last, hideous, violence begins, maybe aimed at pulling out those stuck behind police lines. Roseanne Boyland is trampled. No one helps her til it's too late. 47/

Officer Miller, dragged at 4:27 PM, gets surrounded by 'helpers' - but these aren't nice people. Many are leaders; they've been at the tunnel for hours; they 'helped' Officer Fanone too. The key to a hybrid attack is tempering violence just enough that it seems like a riot. 48/

By 4:30 PM the game was up; the organized attack was over. Ugly violence continued at the tunnel, but without purpose or direction. State police had arrived en masse to help out, and officers swept the North Terrace, driving the crowds before them. 49/

By 5 PM police move out of the tunnel and start to secure the West Capitol. No National Guard - the DCNG say they're not approved to come til 5:08 PM. (DoD disputes this, but only by 50 mins). On Jan 6, police & FBI got the job done - barely. Next time might not be so lucky. 50/

The DC National Guard arrive but have more delay with swearing in. They finally hit the front lines as darkness falls, 5 hours after the attack began. Mayor Bowser's 6 PM curfew kicks in and the mob disperses, some angry, some elated. What the organizers think, we don't know. 51/

As the curfew hits, Trump Tweets another "go home" message, full of love for his mob: "These are the things...that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is..stripped away..Remember this day forever". Pelosi, Schumer and Pence are busy figuring out how to reconvene. 52/

Rudy Giuliani, possibly delusional, has not accepted defeat. He's still phoning Congressmen, closeted with his legal team at the Willard Hotel. Stop the Steal representatives stop by. At 7:33 PM he phones Rep. Jim Jordan (OH). 53/

The House and Senate re-open around 8 PM - but they STILL have to finish debating Gosar's objection to AZ's votes. John Eastman tries to be clever and declares the delay makes it illegal. At 11:39 PM, Pence finally gavels the Joint Session open again. 54/
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At 12:14 AM on January 7, the night gets longer - Rep. Scott Perry rises to object to the votes from PA. Sen. Josh Hawley seconds, and the certification is halted. (Fun fact: the two Senators who delayed the electoral count, Cruz and Hawley, are both Peter Thiel protegees). 55/