While cowering behind upended tables and desks during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, some members of Congress removed their Congressional pins to evade detection.
Elected officials wear the ornate pins without fail, regarding them as a badge of honor.
Fear messes with the mind in myriad ways; some not always noble.
“They thought they were going to die,” recounted Rep. Jaime Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, in his presentation Tuesday, the first day of former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial.
Many members and staff called their families to say what they thought would be their last goodbyes.
Inside the House chamber, they could hear the rioters “pounding on the door like a battering ram,” Raskin said, a sound “I will never forget.”
Wednesday’s film footage of the riot showed that Jan. 6 could have been much worse if events shifted by just a few seconds or a few feet.
“You were just 58 steps away,” from the rioters, Rep. Eric Swalwell, Democrat of California, told the senators.
Protesters chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” were just around the corner from where the vice president and his family were sequestered.
The valor of some shone brightly. Nearly 140 police officers were injured during the violence; one fatally.
REPUBLICANS are not immune to the horror of the assault, of course. The party faithful, however, contend Trump was not responsible for the turn of events. Just an innocent bystander.
Sadly, the conventional thinking is that party allegiance will decide the trial’s outcome, acquitting Trump.
That’s not to say it’s a waste of time.
It’s a riveting drama upon which the facts need no embellishment.
This is a chapter in U.S. history that none of us could have fathomed. And none of us will emerge unscathed from the attempted insurrection.
Democracy, we now have learned, is all too fragile, and all too personal when threatened.
You simply cannot watch the footage of the attacks without a quickening of the senses.
