I Was There On January 6: A Ground-Level View Of The Capitol Riot

An on-the-ground view from a fair, conservative MAGA observer. Not an insurrection, but still a violent riot. Amid the Democrats’ nonstop shrieking about the January 6, 2021, Capitol Riot on its five-year anniversary, we need some clarity: on both sides.

Since that fateful day, I have compared the partisan spinning of the J6 riot to the story of the blind men describing different parts of an elephant but never seeing the big picture.

Democrats are the most vociferous and annoying in their constant spinning of the riot as an “insurrection” by rehashing select, edited J6 video showing the worst and most violent scenes of rioters — I call it the most over-hyped four-hour-long riot in history.

But some Republicans, in response to that ridiculously false narrative, act as if nothing happened.

To them, it was a “mostly peaceful protest,” to use CNN’s lie about the “fiery” 2020 BLM riots. Or a “deep state” inside job by the FBI, or other conspiracy nonsense.

But I was on the ground at the Capitol on January 6, providing security for a foreign TV news camera crew — not as any kind of participant — though I sympathized with the crowd and its frustration.

And while the riot in and around the Capitol — separate from the much larger peaceful protest outside — was in no way an “insurrection” or “coup” (I’ve seen real ones), serious violence did occur on J6.

And the violent members got ugly. Conservatives can, and should, concede that fact without conceding to the larger false Democrat narrative.

So, for a simple, fair picture and timeline of what I personally witnessed and learned from a wide variety of information, videos, and other images I have reviewed, these are the facts that really can’t be refuted.

There were tens of thousands of peaceful MAGA protesters at the Capitol there that day, beginning in the early morning hours. While boisterous, the crowd was, in fact, mostly peaceful for several hours. This video is never shown.

However, by noon, after President Trump’s hour-long speech at the Ellipse encouraging protesters to march to the Capitol, a few hundred aggressive protesters then became increasingly violent and attacked police, as a few hundred more simply joined or followed them. This is what Democrats point to.

There was also a smaller group of more serious protesters wearing body armor, ballistic helmets, and carrying backpacks and radios, even gas masks. Some were also seen employing basic military tactics, such as “stacking” in line to breach barricades. This is also noted by Democrats.

But they were clearly prepared to do more than peacefully protest, so Trump’s speech, or words, even if misinterpreted, did not “incite” them.

Other protesters entered peacefully through some Capitol entrances (there are several public and other entrances, since the Capitol is a massive structure), as some police simply decided letting them in was safer, and they weren’t violent. Democrats ignore this.

But images of these polite “door openings” by police are what many Republicans often wrongly point to as “proof” that it was an inside job. Once inside the Capitol, most of those regular folks, and a lot of clowns with them, eventually calmed down. They caused little to no harm and did little serious damage.

Most behaved like drunks or frat boys and tourists taking selfies. These are also the images and videos Republicans point to.

Meanwhile, even as more protesters marched from the Ellipse, 1.5 miles away, to the Capitol, once the violence ramped up, many of the original peaceful protesters began leaving (which no one points to), leaving the much smaller angry mob behind.

The violent mob was mostly focused on the west side of the Capitol. Some protesters admonished the rioters, screamed things like: “Don’t do it. You’re breaking the law.”

According to official timelines, it was 12:53 p.m., 18 minutes before Trump’s speech ended, when violent rioters attacked and beat, then overran, police on the west perimeter of restricted Capitol grounds.

D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) reinforcements began arriving on the west side of the Capitol a bit after 1:10 p.m.

The biggest source of violent clashes with police on J6 occurred in a tunnel on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol. Much of the Democrat footage comes from security footage showing vicious hand-to-hand combat and pepper spray being used by both sides. And yes, officers were attacked with flagpoles, batons, and other makeshift weapons.

In other places, rioters climbed scaffolding, used stolen riot shields and bike fences as weapons, and attempted to kick officers from the crowd.

By 2:13 p.m., rioters had violently forced their way into the interior of the Capitol after smashing windows on the Senate wing.

At 2:44 p.m., a Black Capitol Police officer inside the Speaker’s Lobby adjacent to the House chambers shot and killed an unarmed white female protester and Air Force security forces veteran, Ashli Babbitt, as she was pushed through the smashed window of a barricaded door by the mob.

To him, she likely seemed a serious potential threat, crashing through and heading toward lawmakers huddling inside, whom he was sworn to protect. But later, she was shown on video from the other side of the door trying to calm rioters and stop the violence before being killed.

The atmosphere among rioters changed dramatically after her shooting, and the news spread of it.

By 3:15 p.m., the Virginia National Guard began rolling into D.C. and arriving on-scene. Soon after, most rioters were expelled from the Capitol, and a leftover rabble of idiots remained taunting and confronting the Guard troops and other officers.

A smaller few stayed until the evening or were slowly swept up, and detained, or pushed far from the Capitol. I barely got our TV crew out of a police envelopment in the evening as the crew stubbornly wanted to stay.

The J6 riot (again, separate from the larger peaceful protest) was in no way an insurrection, but it was violent and ugly. It was also brief, lasting no more than four hours total.

The violent rioters did hurt 140 local and federal cops who bravely defended the Capitol, and these officers should all be commended, not condemned. They were doing their jobs honorably protecting the “People’s House,” from a violent mob.

Thankfully, very few police suffered serious injuries. 

Meanwhile, the rioters killed no one. Nor did they use firearms in any way, even if a couple of them may have been carrying, and others had stockpiled firearms in Virginia as a “contingency.”

The only death directly attributed to the J6 riot was Babbitt. The one Capitol Police officer who was attacked and sadly died later, Brian Sicknick, despite much false information, died of strokes that his family said were unrelated to any injuries at the riot.

Blaming the intense but relatively brief riot for a few police suicides much later is also baseless, as is calling the four protesters who died of natural causes, or one who overdosed on drugs, “victims” of the riot. 

All of that is fabricated by Democrats to falsely label the riot a “deadly insurrection.”

As a “Back-the-Blue” conservative, I applauded the brave cops that day, as well as the peaceful protestors, and those who encouraged rioters to back down.

I also condemned the smaller number of violent rioters as criminals no different from violent leftist BLM thugs who injured 2,000 cops nationwide in the summer of 2020.

I stand by that and stated publicly that Trump should not pardon them — though I understand his desire to make it a clean ending.

I did support the pardoning of the majority of nonviolent J6rs, many of whom were outrageously railroaded on trumped-up charges. 

To me, that’s the story from the ground. Most of the rest is partisan spin — from both sides.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

READ NEXT: Longtime California Congresswoman To Retire – Is Her Seat In Play?