WASHINGTON – They slept on the marble floor, lined up for coffee at the cafeteria 24 hours a day and marveled at the marble images of the nation’s founders at Rotunda and Statuary Hall. They took pictures with their phones, ate pizza and sometimes played cards, with M4 carbines on the sides.
Crowds of armed and camouflaged members of the National Guard surrounded the Capitol and lined its corridors on Wednesday, weapons, helmets and backpacks apparently stacked in every corner of the complex. The heavily militarized presence provided a shocking and moderate backdrop for the House when most lawmakers moved the impeachment process for an American president for inciting an insurrection in the nation’s Capitol.
This evoked reminders of the hooligans who just a week earlier had invaded the compound while their terrified occupants took shelter inside the House chamber with barricades and safe locations across the Capitol – and the recriminations that remained ahead of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr inauguration.
“It doesn’t belong here,” said Congresswoman Elaine Luria, a Democrat from Virginia and a veteran who served 20 years in the Navy, about the military presence in the building. “It is something that is out of place.”
“I hate the idea that we are going to change in a way, be more difficult, more difficult or more uncomfortable for people to come and enjoy the historic monument because of what happened last week,” he added.
Much like lawmakers, advisers and reporters who were still exchanging accounts from where they were during the siege of pro-Trump supporters, Capitol Hill on Wednesday seemed torn between caring for the open wounds left by deadly riots and the need to lay the groundwork. for healing under a new administration.
Capitol workers have worked feverishly in the past few days to complete preparations for the January 20 inauguration – hanging blue curtains at the entrance to the Rotunda and dusting the statues – amid reminders of the violence. The window panels remained chipped and cracked in parts of the Capitol and two holes were left over the entrance to California’s Mayor Nancy Pelosi’s office after protesters stole the speaker’s embossed wooden plaque.
Freshman lawmakers made their inaugural speeches on the merits of accusing President Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors for inciting an insurrection. After the majority of the House voted for Trump’s impeachment, Ms. Pelosi spoke from the same pulpit that a pro-Trump supporter was photographed happily transporting around the Capitol.
“I don’t have enough adjectives to describe how disgusted I am at what happened and where we are – it’s sad, it’s disgusting, it’s sad,” said Rep. Brian Mast, Florida Republican. An Army veteran who lost his legs while serving in Afghanistan, he took tours of the Rotunda for members of the guard as a way of showing gratitude for the service he provided. (Mast also voted to override the results in Arizona and Pennsylvania, and did not express regret about those votes. He was not among the 10 Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment.)
Some lawmakers deplored the threat that made the military’s presence necessary, with many Democrats angry at the role they said their own Republican colleagues had played in spurring the fury of the crowd that attacked the Capitol, putting the lives of lawmakers in danger.
“It should not and will not be tolerated,” New York Democrat Rep. Hakeem Jeffries told reporters. “And that is why extraordinary security measures have been taken.”
In response in part to concerns about Republicans bringing weapons to the House floor, new magnetometers were installed outside the doors of the chamber, a new security measure that was challenging for several lawmakers. Normally allowed to bypass magnetometers at the building’s entrances, several Republicans complained about the additional layer of security and some insisted on pushing the police, despite setting off the alarm.
“You are taking valuable resources from where you need to be, without any consultation, and you have done so without any consultation from the minority,” Representative Rodney Davis of Illinois, the House Republican’s top Republican Administration Representative, told Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the majority leader, on Tuesday. With several people testing positive for the coronavirus after taking shelter in a room with unguarded Republicans, Democrats have also imposed a good system for refusing to wear a mask on the floor of the chamber.
Magnetometers and enhanced security were a small comfort during the vote for Trump’s impeachment, as several lawmakers were still shaken and questioning their ability to attend the inauguration safely. On Wednesday, Ms. Pelosi said that the House would vote this month for a rule change that would apply a system of fines for refusing to adhere to the new security protocols, deducting $ 5,000 and $ 10,000 from members’ payment for first and second offenses.
“We are now dealing with fighting an insurrection, so I feel that everything is upside down,” said Rep. Colin Allred, a Texas Democrat, who recalled that he took off his jacket in the House floor and prepared to defend his colleagues from rebels. “To see National Guards sleeping in the halls, to have the necessary protection from having metal detectors placed on the floor of the Chamber – I know that the word ‘unprecedented’ is used a lot, but that is unprecedented. It is also so sad, so sad. “
“It is intended to be open,” added Allred of Capitol. “It is a museum, a place where ordinary Americans should feel that they can come and see the government’s work.”
But while it houses artifacts from American history and holders of the highest positions in American democracy, the Capitol complex is in normal times an accessible fortress. But with tourists banned as a way to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the presence of hundreds of armed soldiers was even more disconcerting after months of almost empty corridors.
Several of the soldiers craning their necks to look at the paintings and sculptures engraved on the roof of the Rotunda said that they had never been to the Capitol, even as tourists. His colleagues in another room could be seen napping next to a plaque commemorating the troops that were stationed at the Capitol in 1861, at Statuary Hall, and a small group of soldiers posed for a photo with the statue of Rosa Parks.
John Ismay and Luke Broadwater contributed reports.