How lawmakers trapped in the House stood their ground

Source: Politico | January 21, 2021 | Olivia Beavers

A handful of House members who were in the chamber recount how they fought off rioters during the deadly Jan. 6 attacks.

It was shortly after rioters had breached the Capitol on Jan. 6 and the scene inside the building was chaotic.

Authorities deployed tear gas in Statuary Hall, rioters were heading to the House chamber, members were being told to put on gas masks, and the Capitol Police were clearly outnumbered.

Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), one of the dozens of lawmakers inside the House chamber, first leapt into action, helping an officer barricade the door on the House floor that leads to Statuary Hall. Texas freshman Reps. Troy Nehls, Tony Gonzales, Pat Fallon and Ronny Jackson, a Navy veteran, also soon joined Mullins in preparing to defend the chamber.

With their ties and jackets off, they were bracing for battle.

“It was really a fight or flight moment,” recalled Gonzales, a former Navy officer who helped support combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. “On day three of being elected, it is not how you plan things, but it is also kind of who you are. It’s either you either run to the fire, or you run away from it. I’ve always ran to the fire.”

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As the rioters began pounding on the back door of the chamber that opened towards Statuary Hall, Mullin, a former professional mixed martial arts fighter, helped a sergeant-at-arms block the entrance with a desk.

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Nehls (R-Texas), a former sheriff and military officer with five decades of military and law enforcement experience, ran over to Mullin, asking if he needed help.

“We have a choice. I’m with you, brother,” replied Mullin.

Mullin then broke two wooden upright hand sanitizer stations and handed a block of the wood to Nehls, giving both of them makeshift weapons.

Fallon, who followed their lead by arming himself with a makeshift weapon, said they had no idea how many people were on the other side of the door.

“We didn’t know if it’s three people 30 people or 200 people. You just don’t have any way of knowing, and not knowing was unsettling,” said Fallon, who previously served in the U.S. Air Force.

“I thought, ‘We’re going to get in a street fight on my third day in Congress because we’re going to defend this place,” Fallon added, noting that they began shoring each other up.

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Mullin then confronted the insurrectionists on the other side of the door through the tiny holes broken in the glass: “I said, ‘Is it worth it?”

When one rioter expressed confusion, he yelled again: “You almost got shot. You almost died. Is it worth it?’”

While some of the rioters paused temporarily after hearing Mullin’s warning, it wasn’t long until an agitator in the group began shaking the door again, yelling obscenities and shouting: “This is our House. This is our House. And we’re taking our House back.’”

Mullin shot back: “This is our House, too. That is not going to happen.”

Nehls then stepped in to attempt to deescalate the tense situation.

“I told the individuals on the other side of the door that they shouldn’t be doing this. ‘This is not the way we should be handling business. This is un-American, unnecessary and dangerous.’ And there’s no reason they should be doing this,” Nehls recalled. “I said, ‘You should be embarrassed of yourselves.’”

One of the rioters remarked that Nehls was wearing a Texas face mask and yelled at him: “You should be with us! You should be with us!”

To which Nehls replied: “No, sir, I cannot support what you’re doing right now.”

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But Mullins also says it was then he realized members and staffers were still stuck inside the House gallery, one floor above them, as the fight to keep the rioters off the floor ensued. The evacuation of the gallery had been stalled after the glass of the door was blown out, and people a floor above were told to “take cover.”

Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), a former Army Ranger who served three tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, had been watching the election certification debate from the House gallery along with other House members, staffers and a host of reporters.

Mullin said he called on Crow, a friend of his, to help evacuate the rest of the people out of the gallery.

Crow had initially assisted members around him in putting on protective hoods as the lockdown of the House floor got underway; and, when he saw Capitol Police securing the doors around the House floor, he said he realized the enormity of the danger.

“I made the decision to call my wife and tell her I loved her and tell the kids that I love them,” Crow said.

After he finished speaking with his wife, Crow says he went into “Ranger mode,” going down a checklist in his head of what needed to be done: Lock doors. Move people away from entry points. Tell people to leave behind their bags and belongings so they can flee quickly. He even remembered to comfort his colleagues.

The Colorado Democrat, who recognized that lawmakers were “high value targets,” pulled a pen from his pocket and also told his colleagues to be prepared to use theirs as weapons.

Crow, who worried about run-ins with rioters with a bunch of lawmakers, said he waited until police officers communicated over radio where the rioters were in the Capitol before the evacuation of the gallery restarted.

And when everyone else had been cleared out, Crow shouted down to Mullin and the others still on the floor that they needed to get out now so that the officers “had the chance to get out too.”

When Crow finally escaped the House chamber, he was reportedly the last lawmaker to do so before rioters stormed onto the House floor.

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