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Now that I’m safe (and slowly getting warm again). Some things I didn’t get a chance to share from today in DC:
I started the day riding from Harrisburg to DC with Trump supporters from PA. Most believed the election was stolen. Very few wore masks and no one I talked to followed/had any kind words for news reporters. Still, everyone was very nice to me.
I’d lost most of the group by later in the day when a mob stormed the Capitol but here are some quotes that became more prescient later (NOT that these folks were the ones storming the Capitol)...
On what happens when Biden is sworn in Jan 20: “We wait for Civil War. It will be next. You have to prepare for the worst and the worst will come because the left is pushing it.” David Stauffer, from York on the ride to the rally.
“I do wonder about secession,” said Sue Gladfelter from Quakertown. “I don’t like to say that because I’m a patriot but I just don’t know how you have peace and unity when you’re so polarized.”
There was a definite shift in tone from earlier in the day when Trump addressed a huge field of people and when marchers arrived at the Capitol (at his urging).
Marching to the Capitol.
More marching...
Crowd reaction as the first people climbed up over the wall to the Capitol was celebratory. (I was stuck in a tree.)
Oh, there was also this man...
I didn’t hear much concern about what was happening inside, though it’s unclear if people were fully aware at the time of what was going on inside.
Janis Buskirk (also of the PA crew) was an exception. Of the Capitol insurgents she said: “They should not have done that.” She called it “a historical moment” she’ll “remember forever.”
Same.
Same.
