Live updates: Day after pro-Trump mob storms Capitol, curfew ends as FBI seeks help identifying rioters
12:53 p.m.
In a stark contrast, a quiet Thursday morning scene at the Capitol
By Rachel Siegel, Hannah Natanson and Meagan Flynn
As dawn cracked over the Capitol, the quiet scene stood in stark contrast to the mob storming the steps the day before. A handful of joggers and dog walkers passed by the west side of the Capitol as groups of National Guard troops and local police milled about.
Even in the quiet, the garbage left behind on the Capitol grounds looked more like what would remain of a tailgate or house party the next morning. A crushed Bud Light can. A red and white Igloo cooler. Coke bottles and a Chick-fil-A wrapper. Cigarette butts.
Bikers and joggers stopped in front of the Capitol to snap photos and stand in silence, the warped plastic barricades and ripped inauguration scaffolding before them. One runner offered a “thank you” to a national guardsman as he passed by.
A single man hoisting a Trump flag crossed Constitution Avenue and shuffled slowly toward the Capitol. A pair of police officers stopped him, telling him to turn back.
“Stop the steal. Fight for Trump,” he said, monotonously.
“Get lost, loser!” a jogger yelled as he glided past him.
“Stop the steal. Fight for Trump,” the man continued, shuffling away.
The scene outside the White House was similarly empty early Thursday, although police maintained a heavy, watchful presence. Officers sat in cars parked at intersections for blocks surrounding Black Lives Matter plaza.
Officials barred access to the plaza itself, including the famed section of Lafayette Square fencing that has become a shrine to the Black Lives Matter movement. As of 7:30 a.m., the plaza was blocked off with metal fencing, caution tape and large pickup trucks. A handful of officers patrolled the boundaries of the square, informing early-morning joggers and bikers who stopped to gawk that they could not enter.
