Reality Check
Capitol riots: Who broke into the building?
By Reality
Check team and BBC Monitoring
BBC News
Published13
hours ago
Who were the protesters that broke into buildings on
Capitol Hill after attending a rally in support of Donald Trump?
Some were carrying symbols and flags strongly
associated with particular ideas and factions, but in practice many of the
members and their causes overlap.
QAnon among the protesters
Images show
individuals associated with a range of extreme and far-right groups and
supporters of fringe online conspiracy theories, many of whom have long been
active online and at pro-Trump rallies.
One of the
most startling images, quickly shared across social media, shows a man dressed
with a painted face, fur hat and horns, holding an American flag.
He's been
identified as Jake Angeli, a well-known supporter of the baseless conspiracy
theory QAnon. He calls himself the QAnon Shaman.
His social
media presence shows him attending multiple QAnon events and posting YouTube
videos about deep state conspiracies.
He was
pictured in November making a speech in Phoenix, Arizona, about unproven claims
the election was fraudulent.
His
personal Facebook page is filled with images and memes relating to all sorts of
extreme ideas and conspiracy theories.
Another
group spotted at the storming of the Capitol were members of the far-right
group Proud Boys.
The
organisation was founded in 2016 and is anti-immigrant and all male. In the
first US presidential debate President Trump in response to a question about
white supremacists and militias said: "Proud Boys - stand back and stand
by."
The
individual on the right is Nick Ochs, who describes himself as a "Proud
Boy Elder".
One of
their members, Nick Ochs, tweeted a selfie inside the building saying
"Hello from the Capital lol". He also filmed a live stream inside.
We haven't
identified the individual standing on the left in the above image.
Mr Ochs'
profile on the messaging app Telegram describes himself as a "Proud Boy
Elder from Hawaii."
Online influencers
Individuals with large followings online were
also spotted at the protests.
Among them
was the social media personality Tim Gionet, who goes under the pseudonym
"Baked Alaska".
Online
personality known as "Baked Alaska" filmed inside the Capitol
His
livestream from inside the Capitol posted on a niche streaming service was
watched by thousands of people and showed him talking to other protesters.
A Trump
supporter, Mr Gionet has made a name for himself as an internet troll.
He's been
described by the Southern Poverty Law Centre, a US nonprofit legal advocacy
group, as a "white nationalist", a label he disputed in a comment to
The Insider.
YouTube
banned his channel in October after he posted videos of himself harassing shop
workers and refusing to wear a face-mask during the coronavirus pandemic.
Other
platforms that have previously shut down his accounts include Twitter and
PayPal.
Who wrote Nancy Pelosi a note?
A photo
that went viral of a man who'd entered the office of senior Democrat politician
Nancy Pelosi has been named as Richard Barnett from Arkansas.
Outside
Capitol Hill buildings, he told the New York Times that he took an envelope
from the speaker's office and says left a note calling her an expletive.
Reacting to
the New York Times interview, Republican congressman Steve Womack said on
Twitter: "I'm sickened to learn that the below actions were perpetrated by
a constituent."
Local media
reports say Mr Barnett is involved in a group that supports gun rights, and
that he was interviewed at a 'Stop the Steal' rally following the presidential
election - a movement that refused to accept Joe Biden's victory and supports
the president's unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud.
In the
interview at the rally organised by 'Engaged Patriots' he said: "If you
don't like it, send somebody out to get me 'cause I ain't going down
easy."
The group
associated with Mr Barnett held a fundraiser in October with proceeds going
towards body cameras for the local police department, according to the Westside
Eagle Observer local paper.
No evidence of antifa supporters
As the
events were unfolding, many social media users, especially those associated
with QAnon and supporters of President Trump, were claiming that agitators from
the loose-knit left-wing group antifa were involved.
The
implication was that these activists were disguised as Trump supporters to
create disruption.
A number of
prominent Republican politicians, such as US Representative Matt Gaetz, claimed
it was antifa masquerading as Trump supporters.
False
social media post claiming Antifa involved in storming the Capitol
One
widely-shared post claimed one protester had a "communist hammer"
tattoo, as evidence that he wasn't a Trump supporter.
On closer
inspection, the symbol is from the video game series Dishonored.
There have
also been suggestions that Mr Angeli, the man wearing fur and horns, was a
Black Lives Matter supporter, with users sharing an image of him at a BLM event
in Arizona.
Mr Angeli
was indeed at that event, but he was there as a counter-protester. In images
taken there, he's seen holding a QAnon sign.
Flags and symbols
At least
one of the rioters was holding a Confederate flag, which represented US states
that supported the continuation of slavery during the American civil war. For
this reason, it is considered by many to be a symbol of racism and there have
been calls to ban it across the US. Others see it as an important part of
southern US history.
In July it
was announced that the flag could no longer be flown on American military
properties because of a new policy to reject "divisive symbols".
President
Trump has defended the use of the Confederate flag in the past, saying: "I
know people that like the Confederate flag and they're not thinking about
slavery...I just think it's freedom of speech."
There were
also protesters holding aloft flags featuring a coiled rattlesnake on a yellow
background, often accompanied by the phrase "don't tread on me". This
is known as the Gadsden flag, harking back to the American revolution and the
war to expel British colonialists.
It was
adopted by libertarians in the 1970s, according to an article in the New
Yorker, and more recently became a favourite symbol of conservative Tea Party
activists.
The flag
has been adopted by the right over the past couple of decades, says Prof
Margaret Weir, a political science expert at Brown University.
It is also
used by anti-government, white supremacist groups who embrace violence, she
says.
Reporting
by Jack Goodman, Christopher Giles, Olga Robinson and Shayan Sardarizadeh.
These Are the Rioters Who Stormed the Nation’s
Capitol
The mob that rampaged the halls of Congress included
infamous white supremacists and conspiracy theorists.
By Sabrina
Tavernise and Matthew Rosenberg
Published
Jan. 7, 2021
Updated
Jan. 8, 2021, 9:43 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON
— There were infamous white nationalists and noted conspiracy theorists who
have spread dark visions of pedophile Satanists running the country. Others
were more anonymous, people who had journeyed from Indiana and South Carolina
to heed President Trump’s call to show their support. One person, a West
Virginia lawmaker, had only been elected to office in November.
All of them
converged on Wednesday on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, where hundreds of
rioters crashed through barricades, climbed through windows and walked through
doors, wandering around the hallways with a sense of gleeful desecration,
because, for a few breathtaking hours, they believed that they had displaced
the very elites they said they hated.
“We wanted
to show these politicians that it’s us who’s in charge, not them,” said a
construction worker from Indianapolis, who is 40 and identified himself only as
Aaron. He declined to give his last name, saying, “I’m not that dumb.”
He added:
“We’ve got the strength.”
As the
country sifts through the shards of what happened in Washington on Wednesday,
what comes into focus in the storming of the Capitol is a jumbled constellation
of hard-core Trump supporters: a largely white crowd, many of them armed with
bats, shields and chemical spray; some carried Confederate flags and wore
costumes of fur and horns inspired by QAnon; they were mostly men but there
were women, too.
Those who
stormed the Capitol were just one slice of the thousands of Trump supporters
who had descended on Washington to protest the certification of Joseph R.
Biden’s victory in November over President Trump. Their breach came with a
confused and frenzied energy, fueled by the words of Mr. Trump just minutes
before and the fervor of the mob standing behind them.
Washington’s
Metropolitan Police Department said it had made no additional arrests on
Thursday connected to the rioting, during which one woman was fatally shot by
the Capitol Police and a Capitol Police officer suffered injuries from which he
later died. A day earlier they detained 68 people, plus the 14 picked up by the
Capitol Police during the unrest. Dozens more people were still being sought by
federal authorities. Their number included a 60-year-old gun rights activist
from Arkansas who was pictured sitting in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, men in
tactical gear taking selfies in the Rotunda and a woman carrying a
QAnon-inspired sign about children in the House chamber.
Some of
those who had also surged forward in the crowd seemed to show a bewildered
wonder at what they were seeing in front of them. A few remarked on the
opulence of the Capitol building and offices, a quality that seemed to confirm
their suspicions about the corruption of Washington.
“Yeah look
at all this fancy furniture they have,” said a man in a winter parka and red
hat, standing on the west side of the Capitol and peering through the glass at
empty desks, computer screens and ergonomic chairs. Several people banged on
the windows with their fists, including one man who shouted, “Put the coffee
on!” One man hit his head, not seeing the outer layer of glass was there, it
was so clean.
As people
rushed inside, there was a strange mix of confusion and excitement, and the
almost complete lack of police presence in the beginning amplified the feeling
of lawlessness. They gawked at a place of wealth and beauty, adorned with art
and marble, a domain of the powerful, and for a short while on Wednesday afternoon,
the rioters were in control. For once, they felt, they could not be ignored.
Aaron, the
construction worker from Indianapolis, and his two friends had heard people
talking about going to Ms. Pelosi’s office. So once inside they decided to
instead find Senator Chuck Schumer’s office. Both are Democrats.
“We wanted
to have a few words” with Mr. Schumer, he said. “He’s probably the most corrupt
guy up here. You don’t hear too much about him. But he’s slimy. You can just
see it.”
But they
could not find Mr. Schumer’s office. He said they asked a Capitol Police
officer, who tried to direct them. But they appeared to have gotten nowhere
near the minority’s leader’s office. They ended up smoking a few cigarettes
inside the building — “We can smoke in our house,” Aaron said — and one of his
friends, who would not give his name, joked that he had gone to the bathroom
and not flushed.
A woman in
a coat sat on the couch in a small room with a blue carpet and watched as a man
ripped a scroll with Chinese lettering hanging on the wall.
Nearby, six
men sat at a large wooden desk. A lamp with a white shade was knocked over and
broken. Someone was smoking pot. “This is the pot room!” a young man said.
In the
Crypt, people walked around taking photographs of the statues and themselves
with their phones. One man had a selfie stick, like a tourist in a foreign
land. A woman in baggy jeans, a blue puffer jacket, was shouting chants into a
megaphone, while a man in a black T-shirt that read “Not Today Liberal” ran
around the central columns in what looked like a frenetic victory lap.
Representative
Bennie G. Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and chairman of the House Homeland
Security Committee, said on Thursday that the F.B.I. and the Transportation
Security Administration should add the names of anyone who had entered the
Capitol building during the mob attack to the federal no-fly list.
“We already
saw reports of ‘unruly mobs’ in air on the way to Washington, D.C.,” Mr.
Thompson said in a statement. “It does not take much imagination to envision
how they might act out on their way out of D.C. if allowed to fly unfettered.”
As the
authorities try to identify those in the mob, some will be less hard to pin
down than others. The group included some well-known figures from the
conspiratorial right, including Jake Angeli, who has pushed the false QAnon
claims that Mr. Trump was elected to save America from deep-state bureaucrats
and prominent Democrats who worship Satan and abuse children. He was pictured
sitting in Congress in a viking helmet and furs. Mr. Angeli, who is known as
the “Q Shaman,” has been a fixture in the pro-Trump protests in Arizona since
the election, and there are indications that he and other right-wing activists
had planned to spark a confrontation with authorities ahead of Wednesday’s
rally.
There were
also leaders from the Proud Boys, a far-right group whose participants have
espoused misogynistic and anti-immigrant views, such as Nick Ochs, a failed
Hawaii state legislature candidate and member of a collective called “Murder
the Media.” Chris Hood and members of his National Socialist Club, a neo-Nazi
group, posted photos on Telegram from outside the Capitol on Wednesday. And the
Three Percenters, a far-right armed group, were seen gathered in Washington’s
Freedom Plaza on Tuesday night, most wearing helmets and Kevlar vest adorned
with the group’s symbol, a Roman numeral three.
The mob
came from the broader crowd, tens of thousands of Mr. Trump’s most loyal
supporters, many of whom had driven through the night, or taken buses with
friends and neighbors, to watch him speak and be part of a day that many hoped
would finally hold some answers to what had been months of false claims that
the election had been stolen. A number of people interviewed said they had
never been to Washington before.
In
interviews on Wednesday, protesters in the broader crowd expressed a sense that
something would happen — something that was bigger than they were. What exactly
it would be no one could say. Before the Capitol was stormed, some hinted
darkly about violence and the looming threat of civil war. But when pressed for
what that might mean, they tended to demur, saying simply that, if called, they
would serve their side in a conflict.
“There’s
been lots of people talking about this day coming for a long time,” said Brian
Sachtleben, 40, an asphalt truck driver from a small town near Sheboygan, Wis.,
who was looking at the sea of people spreading from the Washington Monument to
the Ellipse, marveling at the numbers, shortly before Mr. Trump began to speak.
When asked
what he thought might happen, he said: “I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
He referred
cryptically to the Thomas Jefferson quote: “The tree of liberty must be
refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Then he
added: “I don’t think anything is going to be back to normal ever again.”
He left
town before the violence began.
When those
who entered the Capitol later re-emerged after their rampage, many were
welcomed like returning heroes.
“Yeah, we
stopped the vote!” screamed a man in a navy-blue zippered jacket, as he
emerged, hands held high, from a tall yellow wooden door, as people outside whooped
and cheered. “Murder the media” was scrawled in black marker across the other
part of the double door.
Many said
they would not have tried to go in, but they sympathized with those who had.
“I’m not
going in there, but, yeah, I’m kind of OK with it,” said Lisa Todd, 56, a high
school teacher from Raleigh, N.C. She was standing with three friends, all
fellow teachers.
Others
expressed some regret.
Storming
the Capitol was “probably not the best thing to do,” said Eric Dark, 43, a
truck driver from Braman, Okla., who was tear-gassed when he got to the top of
the steps to the building but never made it inside.
He had been
standing with Brian Hobbs, the mayor of Newkirk, Okla., near the top of the
steps on the western side of the building around 4:30 p.m. when officers in
riot gear started moving to clear out the thousands of people who had gathered.
It could
have been a lot worse, Mr. Hobbs said.
“We had
enough people, we could have tore that building down brick by brick,” he said.
Sabrina
Tavernise is a national correspondent covering demographics and is the lead
writer for The Times on the Census. She started at The Times in 2000, spending
her first 10 years as a foreign correspondent.
Matthew
Rosenberg, a Washington-based correspondent, was part of a team that won a
Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for reporting on Donald Trump and Russia. He previously
spent 15 years as a foreign correspondent in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. @AllMattNYT
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