A woman is helped up by police during a rally Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
SALT LAKE CITY — Fresh off an election victory and ready to start as the new representative of Utah’s 1st congressional district, Blake Moore was in the House chamber Wednesday when he looked out a window: The mob outside was beginning to get ugly.
Republican Rep. Blake Moore joined Dave Noriega and Debbie Dujanovic to describe the intensity and chaos he experienced inside the US Capitol during Wednesday’s violent insurrection.
Before the violence erupted, President Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to march on the Capitol to protest lawmakers counting the electoral vote to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long,” Mr. Trump wrote, repeating false claims about the election in a post later deleted by Twitter.
Moore said he went to a window in the House chamber and saw the mob drawing closer and louder. The inside double doors that surround the chamber were locked by security officers.
“People started to get up and they were yelled at to stay seated,” Moore said, adding he started to get texts from his team that there had been a breach of the grounds.
“I think the most eerie time was when you started hearing banging on the House chamber doors. They were literally just right outside and you could hear them banging on it. That’s when they told us to get our gas masks because tear gas was kind of going through the hallways,” he said.
Police officers guarding the doors drew their service weapons.
“There was a point there where officers had their guns and weapons pointed at the door. They were obviously expecting a breach through the door. It was clear that there were pretty close to pulling the trigger, so they asked us all to get down in the chamber,” said Democratic Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut as he described the chaos to The Associated Press.
Moore said it was then that the decision was made to clear the House chamber.
He said after the Senate had been evacuated he began receiving images of protesters occupying Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s desk.
After police escorted the House members and others down hallways and tunnels, Moore said he made his way to his office, locked the door and waited for the chaos to subside.
Moore said due to the quick action by the Capitol Police he never felt threatened.
He said the saddest and angriest he felt Wednesday was when Mr. Trump — during a video posted 90 minutes after lawmakers were evacuated and filmed outside the White House — talked about how the election was stolen.
“I know your pain. I know your hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. We had a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side,” Mr. Trump said while calling on his supporters to “go home.”
“That troubled me probably more than anything yesterday,” Moore said. “That was really tough to hear.”
(Twitter locked President Trump’s account for 12 hours after the president shared that video; Facebook suspended his account “indefinitely.”)
“Did you feel a sense of relief after Vice President Mike Pence declared and certified President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris early [Thursday] morning?” Debbie asked.
“Yeah. Definitely. . . . We shouldn’t have to ever make that a question in our society. . . . I do, I feel some sense of relief after it became finally official. . . It’s been quite a harrowing and interesting first week on the new job.”
“That’s the worst first day, first week imaginable,” said Dave.
Dave & Dujanovic can be heard weekdays from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on KSL NewsRadio. Users can find the show on the KSL NewsRadio website and app, a.s well as Apple Podcasts and Google Play.