Thread by @dsamuelsohn

NEW this AM my DC crew published its January 6 oral history. We collected first-hand accounts from Trump's rally, the mob on the Mall, and inside the US Capitol. @thisisinsider #longreads ($) businessinsider.com/january-6-oral…

In recent weeks we've done interviews with 34 lawmakers, journalists, photojournalists, law-enforcement officers, Capitol Hill staff, and many others. They shared the details of that day, where split-second decisions may have saved their lives.

It's an admittedly long-read. 10,000 words, so you may want to print it out and then pass it on. Here's where we start:

Shout outs to authors @WARojas @KaylaEpstein @adamwren @cryanbarber @ngaudiano @cdechalus & @elvina_nawaguna

"We have the building!" Those words sent "a wave of terror" through congressional staffer Jay Rupert as he barricaded himself in his House office on January 6 while an angry pro-Trump mob breached security and ransacked the building.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth hid alone with a staffer, fearing to use escape routes ill-designed to accommodate wheelchair users: "Had I gone on, I would have been in my hideaway right when they were trying to come in. They tried to initially get in via my hideaway windows."

MPD officer: "I see this stream of white liquid, almost like a Super Soaker, come out of the dark and hit me right in the face. I knew I was done at that point. Because it was just pain. It was bear spray."

There's a bear spray motif -> here's @AdamKinzinger "I see one of the people working the doors, and she's just listening, wide-eyed, to her radio. And I'm like, "Is it happening?" She's like, "Yeah. They're hitting us with bear spray." So I'm like, "Hitting you with bear spray?"

This interview @WARojas did w/ a DC MPD officer is something. An excerpt, with more to come later this week:

We've got @DrJohnEastman sharing some details from his morning at the Trump rally w/ @RudyGiuliani - somehow my version has a perfectly placed @007 ad

Hill interviews w/ @JakeAuch @robportman @GerryConnolly @ChrisCoonsforDE @SenDuckworth @RepRubenGallego @AdamKinzinger @RepMaloney @marcorubio @RepMeijer @RepRaulGrijalva @RepPeteAguilar @SenatorLankford @SenTuberville @SenAngusKing @RepAndyKimNJ

@cryanbarber talked with the Capitol Hill resident who found a pipe bomb in an alley.

Photographer Alan Chin on freelance assignment on January 6 for @BusinessInsider told us: "In all these years of covering protests and demonstrations, I have never seen an American police force break and retreat back like that." Here's one of his pics:

This was an epic project designed by the @PoliticsInsider DC bureau to document a day unlike anything we'd seen in our lives. It prints out at like 65 pages. Apologies trees. Please consider subscribing for a $1 trial to check it & us out. Sign up here: businessinsider.com/january-6-oral…