Fox News Capitol Hill reporter Chad Pergram reflected on the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Trump in a column published days before the anniversary of the siege.
“I recall those solemn scenes now when I pass through the Capitol Rotunda,” Pergram wrote on Monday after describing watching former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former General Secretary of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev travel through the Capitol “en route to pay their respects to President Ronald Reagan” and covering the late Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) as he lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda.
“Now I recall the sheer size of the mob marauding through the Capitol Rotunda. Amid the statues of George Washington and Martin Luther King. Between the paintings depicting Pocahontas and James Madison. I will remember the testimony at a Senate hearing of U.S. Capitol Police Officer Carneysha Mendoza, her skin seared by chemical agents after fighting the hooligans,” Pergram continued, sharing a personal anecdote from the Capitol police officer.
“Mendoza says her Fitbit revealed the struggle was so intense last Jan. 6 that it showed her ‘in the exercise zone for four hours and nine minutes’ as they attempted to physically blockade the doors,” he added.
Pergram compared his memories being in the Capitol on Jan. 6 to those he has from covering Congress over a career spanning years in the media.
“I have entered the Speaker’s Lobby thousands of times over the years,” he wrote. “Grabbing a quick comment from Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., as he emerged up the stairs. A remark from former Rep. Steve Driehaus, D-Ohio, shortly before the ObamaCare vote. Now I remember this is where Capitol Police Officer Michael Byrd gunned down Ashli Babbitt as she attempted to vault a transom. This unfolded as a horde battered the doors of the Speaker’s Lobby with flagpoles and broke windows in an effort to swarm the House chamber.”
The Jan. 6 riot, Pergram wrote, is now part of the history of the Capitol.
“I’m confident I will give tours again at some point. And when I do, I’ll have a lot of other things in my repertoire to show people,” he concluded. “Things on the East Front. In Statuary Hall. On the edge of the Speaker’s Lobby. Dark memories. Grim memories. It’s all part of the story now. I remember these things because I was here on January 6. And I hope you remember them, too.”