Reporting by the Washington Post revealed that Vice President Mike Pence missed the first rioters to breach the Capitol by just a few seconds. Pence, who was not evacuated from the Capitol for 14 minutes after the initial breach came “perilously close” to meeting the terrorists face to face.
About one minute after Pence was hustled out of the chamber, a group charged up the stairs to a second-floor landing in the Senate, chasing a Capitol Police officer who drew them away from the Senate.
Pence and his family had just ducked into a hideaway less than 100 feet from that landing, according to three people familiar with his whereabouts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. If the pro-Trump mob had arrived seconds earlier, the attackers would have been in eyesight of the vice president as he was rushed across a reception hall into the office.
The new information raises questions as to why the Secret Service waited to move Pence. The Vice President presided over the joint session of Congress for more than an hour after police reported they were being overrun and needed reinforcements.
The Post adds: “Many of those in the mob had their sights on Pence — enraged that he had refused President Trump’s demand that he head off the electoral college count that formalized President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.”
Then, as the Post has found in this video from the day, rioters began chanting “hang Mike Pence.”
