Rioters tore down metal barricades, clashed with uniformed officers and broke into the Capitol itself.
Police in Washington D.C. declared a lockdown Wednesday as President Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol shortly following Trump's speech in which he again falsely claimed to have won the 2020 election against President-elect Joe Biden.
Thousands of the president's supporters gathered in D.C. for the speech and to protest the certification of Biden's victory. Following Trump's speech, many of his supporters descended on the U.S. Capitol. Protests were expected to take place throughout the day as members of Congress counted electoral votes, a formality that finalizes that Biden won the election, but those protests quickly escalated into a full storming of the Capitol.
Rioters tore down metal barricades, clashed with uniformed officers and broke into the Capitol itself. The District of Columbia National Guard has activated 340 members to support the D.C. Metropolitan Police during the demonstrations in response to a request from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, CBS News reported.
Trump tweeted asking everyone "to remain peaceful," but several republican lawmakers said it was too little too late.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a republican from Illinois, told CNN Trump must declare he lost, while Wisconsin Congressman Mike Gallagher called on the president to stop what he said was behavior he had only seen when deployed in Iraq.
"We are witnessing absolute banana republic crap in the United States Capitol right now," he wrote. "@realdonaldtrump, you need to call this off."
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