Majority leader in the House, James Clyburn, said on Friday that the ease with which protesters managed to enter the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday suggests that someone inside the Capitol was “complicit” in the attack.
“I believe something was going on,” Clyburn told CBSN anchor Lana Zak. “They knew where to go. Some other congressmen told me … that their employees are saying they saw people being allowed into the building through the side doors. Whoever opened these side doors for these protesters, or I call them mobsters, to enter the building, not through the main entrance where the magnetometers are, but through the side doors. Yes, someone inside those buildings was an accomplice in that. ”
Supporters of President Trump ransacked the building, forcing the evacuation of lawmakers who met to count the votes of the Electoral College.
Clyburn suggested that his home office was the target of the mob because there was “activity outside my home office, where most people don’t know where it is.”
“The office with my name on the door was not touched. But the office where I do most of my work, they were on that floor and outside that door,” said the South Carolina Democrat.
Clyburn also said he felt something was “wrong” on Wednesday morning when he arrived at the Capitol and “the perimeter had not been established”.
“There were no security guards on the steps. They were all in a place that I thought was low security,” he said, adding, “They were not just abandoned. You could say they were accomplices.”
Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund gave his resignation after the riots, but defended the police response to the violence. He said the actions of the police were “heroic, given the situation they faced”. A policeman and four civilians were killed during the unrest.