{"id":249797,"date":"2021-01-09T09:58:49","date_gmt":"2021-01-09T09:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/when-hell-broke-loose-congresswoman-describes-moments-of-terror-during-capitol-riot.html"},"modified":"2021-01-09T09:58:49","modified_gmt":"2021-01-09T09:58:49","slug":"when-hell-broke-loose-congresswoman-describes-moments-of-terror-during-capitol-riot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/when-hell-broke-loose-congresswoman-describes-moments-of-terror-during-capitol-riot.html","title":{"rendered":"When ‘hell broke loose’: congresswoman describes moments of terror during Capitol riot"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Susan Wild doesn’t remember how she wound up on the floor in the gallery of the House of Representatives, or what was going through her mind as she listened to\u00a0the sounds of rioters trying to break through the barricaded doors.<\/p>\n

But the moment has been captured in a widely published photograph. In it, Wild \u2014\u00a0a second-term member of Congress from Pennsylvania’s 7th district \u2014\u00a0is on her back, one hand over her heart, the other gripped by fellow Democrat Jason Crow, a\u00a0former U.S. Army Ranger who served in Iraq.<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

“Jason had been behind me almost from the beginning, when we started the evacuation,” Wild recalled in an interview airing Saturday on CBC’s The House. <\/em>“I was at the very tail end. And Jason, I later learned, because of his military training, had made a point of being the last member out of the chambers.<\/p>\n

“And so he was behind me, encouraging me, as we were crawling through the gallery.”<\/p>\n

Wild had been waiting for her turn to speak Wednesday against a challenge initiated by some Republicans of the result of the presidential election in her home state when, as she puts it, “all hell broke loose.”<\/p>\n

\"\"One photo captured during the attack on the U.S. Capitol this week shows Democratic Congresswoman Susan Wild of Pennsylvania taking cover in the gallery overlooking the House of Representatives chamber. It’s an image you’ve seen everywhere: she’s lying on the floor, one hand over her heart, while the other is tightly gripped by a congressional colleague. Wild would be among the last group of lawmakers escorted from the chamber as rioters thronged on the other side of the door. Chris Hall spoke with Rep. Wild just 24 hours after the attack about living through the terrifying ordeal, returning to congressional business that same day and how “allies and adversaries” have closely watched the U.S. this week. 13:36<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

‘Panic’ in the Capitol<\/h2>\n

She said she\u00a0doesn’t remember feeling\u00a0panicked as she and the others lined up to leave. She called her children to assure them she was all right. And then she lost a shoe \u2014 a small thing, considering what was happening around her, but enough to cause\u00a0her composure to dissolve.<\/p>\n

“I knew I felt upset, but it wasn’t until Jason reached out and started holding my hand and speaking to me, and trying to calm me, that I realized that I was manifesting those signs of panic,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I frankly thought I was holding it together pretty well until that happened. And then I realized it must be clear that I was really in bad shape emotionally.”<\/p>\n

Wild and many other members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, accuse\u00a0Donald Trump of whipping up his supporters before the riot\u00a0with his baseless claims that the November presidential election had been stolen from him.<\/p>\n

It’s a view shared by many foreign leaders \u2014 including Prime Minister\u00a0Justin Trudeau, who expressed shock Friday at what happened.<\/p>\n

“What we witnessed was an assault on democracy by violent rioters, incited by the current president and other politicians,” the prime minister told reporters.<\/p>\n

WATCH: Trudeau says Trump incited an ‘assault on democracy’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Trudeau calls the U.S. Capitol attack ‘an assault on democracy by violent rioters, incited by the current president’<\/h3>\n

Politics News<\/p>\n

16 hours ago<\/span>Video<\/span>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized U.S. President Donald Trump during a media briefing on Friday with reporters. 3:15<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

Trump has always been\u00a0a difficult partner for allies \u2014\u00a0even long-standing ones like\u00a0Canada. That’s\u00a0prompted\u00a0Trudeau and others to react cautiously over the years to the president’s most intemperate remarks and to his attacks on their own leadership.<\/p>\n

Even U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose political leanings are\u00a0more closely aligned with Trump\u00a0than Trudeau, abandoned the man he once said was\u00a0worthy of a Nobel peace prize.<\/a><\/p>\n

“Insofar as he encouraged people to storm the Capitol and insofar as the president has consistently cast doubt on the free and fair election, I think that what the president has been saying on that is completely wrong,” Johnson told reporters Thursday.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"
An explosion caused by a police munition is seen while a throng of U.S. President Donald Trump’s supporters descend on the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. (Leah Millis\/Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

The mob scene, the destruction and the degradation\u00a0of an icon of American democracy didn’t stop some House Republicans from continuing with their attempt to set aside the election results in swing states like Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Wild said she was stunned hours later when her colleagues finally returned to the chamber \u2014 and the challenges resumed.<\/p>\n

“I was frankly appalled,” she said. “We were having the biggest assault on our democracy. It was happening right there in the Capitol earlier in the day, you know … interruption of what is normally a very transparent and accountable process.”<\/p>\n

Those challenges were defeated, and both houses of Congress certified the vote that elected the Democratic ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"
Members of the military stand guard outside Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, in response to supporters of President Donald Trump who stormed the U.S. Capitol. (Patrick Semansky\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

But Wild said she still worries\u00a0about the longer-term impact\u00a0of Wednesday’s events on Americans’ ability to put aside their political differences\u00a0for the good of the country, and on the willingness of members of the public to\u00a0attend sessions of Congress to “watch democracy in action.”<\/p>\n

As a member of the powerful House foreign affairs committee, Wild said one of her first priorities will be to craft a message to reassure allies \u2014\u00a0and warn off adversaries who might try to capitalize on the transition period.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s going to be very important that the next administration \u2014 which I think will be much more forward-thinking in terms of foreign policy \u2014\u00a0makes it clear that the way that we have governed in the last four years is not going to be the way the United States is governed going forward,” she said.<\/p>\n