Politico | How a sparse pro-Trump protest turned into unrest in the US capital
- On Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump told a crowd of followers outside the White House ‘we’re going to walk down to the Capitol’
- Within about an hour, the seat of the legislative branch of the US government was being overrun. Here’s how it happened
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World shocked by assault on the US Capitol by radical pro-Trump supporters in Washington
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Tina Nguyen and Daniel Lippman on politico.com on January 6, 2021.
While most Trump supporters had gathered down by the lawn in front of the White House, where the president was set to speak at 11am, a smaller group had congregated by the Capitol around 9am.
They were there because maybe, just maybe, God would create a miracle that day.
“‘We The People’ need to be in that building,” said Bill Dunphy, a Christian preacher from Ohio, gesturing to the stoic Capitol police standing beyond the metal barricades. He had been leading prayers all morning through a megaphone, telling the crowd to have faith and stay in front of the Capitol and wait for the rest of the pro-Trump movement to show up. Nearby, a man meditated in a cross-legged lotus position, his eyes closed in serenity.