'There Would Have Been Gunfire At That Point': January 6th's Scariest Moment

A new book reveals how a Capitol police officer, a QAnon believer and a HuffPost reporter each navigated one of the tensest moments of the insurrection.

This is an exclusive excerpt adapted from “Storm at the Capitol: An Oral History of January 6th” by Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick. The book draws on personal interviews by the author, testimony, court documents and other public sources to compile a definitive account of the hours leading up to, during, and just after rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

This excerpt begins just after 2 p.m., in the moments that the first rioters broke into the Capitol on the first floor of the Senate side of the building. The Senate was still in session one floor above, and Vice President Mike Pence had just been pulled out of the chamber. As the rioters made their way across the first floor and toward a stairwell that led up to the chamber, they were stopped by Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman. He was alone as he confronted the angry mob.

The voices in this excerpt are compiled from personal interviews and court documents.

In the Senate press gallery on the third floor, longtime Washington Post reporter Paul Kane was watching the proceedings when he saw Pence pulled from the chair.

Paul Kane, reporter, The Washington Post: I jumped up and ran out of the chamber into our office portion of the gallery, and I just kind of ran through — I don’t know if it was like full sprint, fast walking, whatever — and I was yelling, “They just pulled Pence out of the chair! They just pulled Pence out of the chair!”