Thread by @pdmcleod

I don't have the signal to tweet photos but the scene outside the Capitol is pretty wild. They've broken down fences to get up to the outside doors of the Capitol. To be clear, most people are standing around chanting or taking photos.

I've never seen anything like this. Protestors crawling all over the Capitol steps, massive crowds outside chanting. "This is our house, let's take it back!" A guy next to me yells.

Smoke bombs of some sort deployed on the west side of the Capitol to clear people out

Some guy on the southeast corner of the Capitol is riling up the crowd by saying police shot a protestors. I do NOT have evidence this happened. He's yelling about police shooting her and telling him "do you want to be next?" People in the crowd yelling "hell yeah!"

Some "they drew first blood" vibes percolating in a small section of the crowd.

Large amount of armed police gathering around the Capitol but not seeing any conflict yet.

"Are you kidding me?" one woman says on the phone to her husband. She turns to the people around her and says "Pence isn't going to sign for Trump!"

The cold is starting to bring the energy level down here. Still tons of people but many also heading out. "We can bring DC to its knees, we have the power!" one guy shouts.

Another man is hamming it up. "They are *not* doing guided tours of the Capitol today, sorry everyone."

All around the Capitol is totally occupied by protestors. They're on the Capitol itself, packed up to the second floor plaza.

There's some smoke coming from the west stairs of the capitol, looks like a small fire was lit.

Ok it was a police flashbang. Just heard another one. They're on the Capitol pushing back protestors

Police have former a barrier and are slowly trying to sweep protestors off the Capitol building itself.

"Don't back down guys!" One person yells. A large chant of "Trump Won, Trump Won" breaks out.

This is picking up. Large bang just now, presumably a smoke bombs. Protestors being steadily pushed back.

The "fuck Antifa" chant is quite something right about now.

Police have cleared the crowd from the Capitol terrace. People are very angry. Chants of "fuck you" and "traitors" and some rocks thrown at police. "what the fuck are you doing, we're the good guys!" one guy yells.

One guy goes right up to the police and yells "I'm a mother fucking proud boy!" The crowd seems to have decided that the police are now ANTIFA.

"You're defending the Communist Chinese Party right now I hope you know!"

Inter-MAGA argument breaking out where one guy is urging the crowd to let the process play out.

That's not going over well.

"Fuck the process!" says one person. "I'm 44 years old I've been getting fucked by the process my whole life."

A bunch of Associated Press equipment had to be abandoned and a crowd is trashing it. "We are the news now!" a man yells. Looks like they're going to try to light it on fire.

One guy walks up to the smashed news equipment. "You're all patriots! I love all of you."

"You mised it bud. We bum rushed it all. It was beautiful."

They made a noose from the camera cord and hung it from a tree.

They made a noose out of the camera wire and hung it from a tree.

Standoff from earlier.

Police have regained total control of the Capitol itself. Still lots of people surrounding it on the grounds speed all around.

The police have a perimeter set up. People are throwing stuff at the line. Tensions pretty high. People were screaming at one guy because they thought he was from the Washington Post (he was not.)

I've been to Trump rallies and never had any problem going up to people, identifying myself, and asking for an interview. A couple rude responses but mostly people were happy to talk.

This feels very, very different.

Police systematically moving protestors off the grounds now. It's working.

"I'll pay one million dollars to anyone who kills Nancy Pelosi," one old man next to us says while falling back.

This is right after one guy charged the line. Police descended in him with clubs. He was beaten to the ground then arrested.

Kudos to whoever has the stereo blasting "Why Can't We Be Friends"

Weird soundtrack for the attempted coup.

They just told the crowd that they need to leave because they're in violation of curfew. Police now advancing again. They want to shut this down.

It's thinned out a ton. I think the cold has sapped people's energy. Still a crowd of a few hundred where I am and some are jawing with police but tensions aren't as high as they were earlier.

Also one woman is here with a kid who looks about five years old.

Angry group of people holding large sticks just chased out a TV crew while threatening and cursing at them. Couldn't see who the crew was but one person said they were from Fox News.

They're bringing in empty police busses, looks like they may be about to round up the people still in front of the Capitol. I'm getting outta here. Thanks for following and stay safe everyone.