The Washington Post has published an explosive new account of the January 6th riot in the United States Capitol building that shows rioters came what the paper describes as "perilously close" to reaching Vice President Mike Pence.
After interviewing law enforcement officials and reviewing video footage, the Post determined that rioters could have potentially taken Pence hostage if they had arrived in the Senate chambers just 60 seconds earlier.
"About one minute after Pence was hustled out of the chamber, a group charged up the stairs to a second-floor landing in the Senate, chasing a Capitol Police officer who drew them away from the Senate," the Post reports.
Looking at the position of where the rioters were at the time of Pence's escape from the chamber, the Post finds that the vice president was in greater danger than had been previously known.
"Pence and his family had just ducked into a hideaway less than 100 feet from that landing, according to three people familiar with his whereabouts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation," the paper writes. "If the pro-Trump mob had arrived seconds earlier, the attackers would have been in eyesight of the vice president as he was rushed across a reception hall into the office."
President Donald Trump on January 6th angrily attacked Pence for not breaking the law to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and many Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol building chanted, "Hang Mike Pence!" as they searched for him.
Read the full Post account here.
