Democratic leader Hoyer recalls Jan. 6 phone call with ‘terrified’ staff as mob ransacked the Capitol
Lower the US flag to half-staff to commemorate Jan. 6 attacks
He told USA TODAY in an interview it was a terrifying moment: He’d learned through a phone call that the pro-Trump mob had breached not only the Capitol building, but they had also broken into his office by kicking down the door, where his staff had locked themselves in an interior room.
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The staff told him they heard incredibly loud noises while locking themselves in the room, telling their boss they “believed they heard shots.” They could hear protesters “walking through the office” after they’d kicked in the door.
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The Majority Leader compared the day to the September 11, 2001 attacks, saying, “One of the things that was the starkest in my mind, on 9/11, we were attacked by foreigners, by people outside the United States. In this case, the enemy was from within. The enemy was, I thought at that time and I still think, was recruited and incited by and deployed by the President of the United States.”
Later, after the Capitol had been retaken by authorities, Hoyer said there was “some suggestion that we reconvene at some other site,”to finish counting the electoral ballots due to safety concerns, as well as shattered glass littering the floors and extensive damage to the Capitol. “We all unanimously rejected that suggestion”he said, because they wanted the public to see thelawmakers push forward, “as we did on 9/11”and join together.
He expressed the significance of doing so, saying it wasn’t just “symbolic” like gathering together to sing “God Bless America” like they did on 9/11, but it was “to actually get the work done that these insurrectionists were bent on stopping. We were bent on making sure the American people knew that they had failed.”