He said that he feared violence could occur during the Congress session and as a precaution, 'I told my staff to stay home.' I couldn’t imagine that entire mob could gain access to the Capitol,' he added. I just assumed that the noise we were hearing outside the chamber was just a handful of people.
He was one of the last roughly 50 members to leave the House chamber and by that time rioters had already shattered windows in the adjacent lobby and were banging on the doors. Jim McGovern also shared details of the havoc he saw unfold during the Capitol riot. Ocasio-Cortez blasted the Sergeant at Arms for not ensuring all Congress members were safeįellow Massachusetts lawmaker Rep. 'Even if one assumes this as some totally innocent oversight, how does the department responsible remove ALL the panic buttons from a highly visible member’s office and NOT inform that member or their staff?' she tweeted Wednesday. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasted the Sergeant at Arms for not ensuring all Congress members were safe. 'The safety of the Congresswoman, her family and our staff remain our top priority and at the direction of the Congresswoman, the Sergeant at Arms oversaw the installation of new duress buttons throughout the office following the attack,' the statement added. 'Our staff had used these devices before and they are regularly tested and maintained,' a statement shared with The Hill said. In the violent protest Trump supporters clashed with police as lawmakers were forced to shelter inside the Capitol buildingĪ spokesperson for Pressley said on the missing panic buttons 'the matter has been raised with the relevant agencies and is currently under investigation' and the 'duress buttons' had been previously installed throughout her office suite. 'Every panic button in my office had been torn out – the whole unit,' she recalled. Groh pulled out gas masks and scanned the room for special panic buttons, only to find them missing. When protesters raided the building, Pressley's staffers barricaded the entrance to her office with furniture and water jugs. It felt like the heat was being turned up in terms of the rhetoric and Trump’s aims to incite violence,' Groh said to the Boston Globe. Groh said the Congresswoman and her staffers were encouraged to come to the Capitol early for the joint session to certify the election results before the crowds outside got too large.
Pressley's Chief of Staff Sarah Groh has shared new disturbing details of the riot on January 6, revealing how safety protocols meant to keep lawmakers safe didn't function properly. Ayanna Pressley's office were inexplicably 'torn out' before last week's Capitol Riot, sending staff into a panic as they tried to barricade themselves inside amid the protest. Pressley’s interview below.The panic buttons in Rep. “And so of course I’m fearful, but that fear is not new,” she added. “The experiences of Wednesday were harrowing and unfortunately very familiar in the deepest and most ancestral way, and that includes for, you know, all Black Americans, all Black members and certainly for our United States Capitol Police officers - who did have racial epithets thrown at them… doing everything that they could putting their lives on the line to protect us.” “Feeling unsafe is not new, and being a Black woman and feeling unsafe is not new,” she said on the show. 11), Pressley described the fear she felt during the Capitol riot, but said it was “not new.” Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, ordered the buttons and other security measures for Pressley and members of the “Squad” - a self-dubbed group of progressive House Democrats - after Trump made cruel marks about them on Twitter.Īppearing on MSNBC on Monday (Jan.
The panic buttons in Pressley’s office were initially installed because the Massachusetts Congresswoman had been receiving racist threats from Trump supporters. “It felt like the heat was being turned up in terms of the rhetoric and Trump’s aims to incite violence.”ĭuring the riot, Groh said that she, Pressley and her husband had been escorted to several secure locations and had been unsure about which Capitol Police officers they could trust. Groh added that she felt uneasy even prior to the riot - when security was escorting her into the Capitol Wednesday morning (Jan. Pressley hadn’t changed offices since the drills, either. The Boston Globe reports that Groh had used the buttons before during safety drills in Pressley’s office and there was no reason for them to be removed. “Every panic button in my office had been torn out - the whole unit,” she recalled. Sarah Groh - Pressley’s chief of staff - told the outlet that when rioters stormed the building, she pulled out gas masks and looked for the office’s special panic buttons. Ayanna Pressley’s office had been “torn out” before Trump supporters’ violent attack on the Capitol, a Capitol staff member told The Boston Globe.