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Newly released Jan 6 video from Capitol attack shows GOP lawmakers scolding rioters

Alarming cellphone video shows tense confrontation at door to House chamber on January 6

Oliver O'Connell
New York
Saturday 06 January 2024 18:21 GMT
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The stand-off at the door to the House of Representatives chamber on 6 January 2021
The stand-off at the door to the House of Representatives chamber on 6 January 2021 (Getty Images)

Dramatic new footage, introduced as evidence ahead of the sentencing of a Capitol rioter, shows the tense standoff that took place at the entrance to the chamber of the House of Representatives on 6 January 2021.

As rioters hurled insults and angry, false claims of election fraud, two Republican members of Congress confronted them through the broken glass in the cellphone footage shot by rioter Damon Beckley.

Law enforcement officers are also shown pointing their firearms at the mob trying to breach the main door to the chamber.

The footage was released to the media following a request by NBC News.

Reps Troy Nehls of Texas and Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma spoke with the rioters. Both lawmakers voted against certifying the 2020 election, won by Joe Biden.

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself!” Mr Nehls says in the video.

“We’re coming in one way or another!” a rioter responds.

"I’ve been in law enforcement in Texas for 30 years, and I’ve never had people act this way," the congressman says. “I’m ashamed!”

A rioter responds that he is “ashamed of my congresspeople”.

At another point in the video, a rioter shouts at the officers and congressman through the broken glass that “there’s going to be a bigger Civil War and a lot of bloodshed” if the election isn’t overturned in favour of then-president Donald Trump.

The stand-off at the door to the House of Representatives chamber on 6 January 2021 (Getty Images)

“I drove fourteen hours to get here and stood in the cold for three and a half hours to find out that Mike Pence is a f***ing traitor, man. And I voted for that f***ing dude,” Beckley says in the video.

“He could’ve done the right thing and certified those legislators, electors, and we wouldn’t be standing here with a nine-millimetre pointed at me right now!”

“They can only kill so many of us," says one rioter.

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