A reporter’s reflection on January 6th, then and now

On the afternoon of January 6, 2021, a loudspeaker in the Senate press gallery crackled with a dire warning and a voice announced a lockdown as I sat at my desk in the Capitol.

“External security threat,” I scribbled in my notepad, noting what I heard. “Stay away from exterior windows and doors.” And then: “Seek cover.”

So four years ago, I knew that something had gone wrong – very wrong – at a normally perfunctory event on Capitol Hill, the certification of the presidential election results.

This year, January 6 was back to what it always was: a constitutionally mandated, statutory, and routine step in the peaceful transfer of power, in which Congress formalizes what has already been decided in a democratic election.

After the riot, some Republicans tried to recast the day as a peaceful protest or even a routine tour. Mr. Trump, who has vowed to pardon those charged with taking part, called it a “day of love.”

In many ways, the country and Congress have evolved. There are fewer mentions of the violence four years ago. Democrats who once said they could not work with so-called election deniers now find themselves forced to work with Republicans, who will control all levers of government after Mr. Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20.

Mr. Trump, who sought to rewrite the history of that dark day, has returned to the presidency — and rightly so. The American people, still condemning the attack in polls, concluded that they still preferred him to Democrats on issues like the border and the economy.

But it’s worth remembering what it was like on January 6, 2021, when the Capitol suffered the largest attack since the War of 1812, and thinking about how different things were on Monday.

After the speaker announced the lockdown four years ago, I jumped from my chair in the Senate press gallery on the third floor of the Capitol and watched as a horde of Trump supporters stormed the building, knocking over bike racks as they trampled on immaculately manicured grounds . I’d covered large protests before, but this one had clearly taken a darker, more violent turn.

This year, the Capitol grounds were a mostly silent and empty space, covered in snow from a severe winter storm, paved and mostly cordoned off to the public by huge black fences to keep them away from protesters or signs of disruption.

That’s when I burst into the Senate gallery overlooking the floor, where senators, including a number of octogenarians, were gathered and guarded by Capitol Police officers. Helpers locked the doors against the onrushing mob, and I felt panic rising in the chamber. Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, looked at her phone and shouted: “Shots fired!” alerting other lawmakers to the escalating threat.

We later learned that a Capitol Police officer had shot and killed a rioter outside the House chamber.

On Monday, Ms. Klobuchar was among lawmakers who took part in a recitation of each state’s electoral votes to certify Mr. Trump’s election. She calmly explained that every single book she read was “proper and authentic” before the count continued without interruption.

In 2021, Vice President Mike Pence was presiding over the Senate floor when security officers hastily pushed him out of the chamber while police officers began urging senators to evacuate as the mob approached. “We have to move, Senator,” an official said, said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the top Democrat, pulling him by the collar. Police helped senior senators get up from their desks and walk out a side door.

From the balcony, some reporters shouted to the room below, asking where we should go. “What about us?!”

We were directed to the Capitol’s labyrinthine basement tunnel system.

As lawmakers and staffers stormed out, some Senate staffers managed to grab the boxes containing the Electoral College certificates to ensure that the vandals couldn’t literally steal the election results.

Outside the Senate chamber, more than an hour after the riots began, I was finally reunited with my phone, which I had hastily left at my desk. There was a flood of text messages from my colleagues, editors, and friends, some asking me to simply respond and let them know I was OK.

Only later did I find out that we had left the chamber just a few steps ahead of the crowd.

On Monday the scene was very different. Ms. Harris stoically and smoothly presided over the formalization of her own defeat without interruption while Mr. Schumer looked on and declared, “Our loyalty is to the Constitution and the rule of law.” The mahogany boxes containing the electoral votes stood where they belonged on the House dais.

The reporters sat from the House gallery upstairs, typing away on their laptops, without a hint of danger in the air.

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the former GOP leader, wasn’t even at the Capitol to attend Monday’s proceedings. Four years ago, he gave a scathing speech on the Senate floor warning that democracy would enter a “death spiral” if Republicans followed Trump’s lies about a stolen election. That was just moments before a security guard practically lifted him off his feet and led him away from the rioters who had invaded the Senate.

Soon after, I finally reached a safe area and sat on the ground, feeling more anger than fear.

Thousands of people had come to one of the most important places in American democracy, breaking windows, destroying offices and injuring people for what they believed to be a just cause – but one based on a foundation of lies.

As a journalist, it was clear what my role was: I opened my laptop.

In this safe space, I and the other members of the media fulfilled our own constitutional duty under the First Amendment. We weren’t heroes; That title goes to the Capitol and Metropolitan Police officers who repelled the attackers and ultimately ensured the transfer of power between presidential administrations that day. I got to know several of them in the following months.

But we did our job as well as possible. The room filled with tactical law enforcement team members carrying long guns.

In a secure room next to ours, senators had begun talking in hushed tones about whether and how to proceed with the voter count. We heard applause erupt when we later learned that they had decided to return to the Senate chamber that same evening to complete the counting of votes.

“We’re not going to let that stop us from getting the job done,” Ms. Klobuchar told me at the time.

It would take hours for lawmakers to approve Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory. Some Republicans continued to protest the former vice president’s victory.

It was finally over at 3:41 a.m. on Jan. 7 — about 14 hours after the session began.

On Monday the same task took 30 minutes.