January 6 was supposed to be about counting electoral votes as the final step before president-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration in two weeks.

The action by the House of Representatives and the Senate was halted when Trump supporters stormed the steps of Capitol Hill to protest.

Thousands of Trump supporters breached the inside of the Capitol. Chaos filled the building as Vice President Mike Pence was taken to safety. 

Representatives and senators raced to find safety as windows were broken and items taken from inside the Capitol. One woman was shot. She was treated on Capitol grounds and later died.

Three hours in, the National Guard was deployed. 

Rep. (R) Adam Kinzinger, tweeted at 1:24 p.m. — “This is a coup attempt.”

A coup is defined as “a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government.”

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had her heavily-protected office broken into and rioters left the message, “we will not back down.”

Rioters were filmed breaking windows with stolen police shields. A man was photographed sitting in Pelosi’s office chair raising his fist. A group of men crawled onto a Boatswain’s Chair and stabbed “TRUMP 2020” flags into the sides of Capitol hill.  

President Donald Trump was silent on the situation, only stating on Twitter at 2:30 p.m. that his supporters should “remain peaceful.”

Trump tweeted months ago during protests “when the Looting starts, the shootings start.” 

Biden addressed America at around 3 p.m. urging Trump to put a stop to this anarchy by making an announcement. 

Biden stated that “democracy is under unprecedented assault.”

At 3:23 p.m President Trump addressed America through a taped message on Twitter. He once again stated that the “election was stolen” and continued to pour gasoline into the fire of the coup.

He ended the message by telling the rioters that “it’s time to go home now.”

Trump still refused to accept the results of the 2020 election, defying the constitution.

Riot control officers arrive at Capitol Hill to prepare for the night ahead of them.

At 4:45 p.m., it was announced that the Capitol building was secured from the rioters. 

The riot officers continued moving out remaining rioters after the 6 p.m curfew and it was later announced that the electoral count would resume at 8 p.m. and would not stop until they had the official count.