
Later that afternoon, in a Twitter video, he reasserted that the election was "fraudulent" but told his supporters to "go home in peace". Trump resisted sending the National Guard to quell the mob. Pipe bombs were found at each of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters, and Molotov cocktails were discovered in a vehicle near the Capitol. Rioters occupied the empty Senate chamber while federal law enforcement officers defended the evacuated House floor. With building security breached, Capitol Police evacuated and locked down both chambers of Congress and several buildings in the Capitol Complex. Some vandalized and looted the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ( D‑ CA) and other members of Congress.

A gallows was erected west of the Capitol, and some rioters chanted "Hang Mike Pence" after he rejected false claims by Trump and others that the vice president could overturn the election results. More than 2,000 rioters entered the building, many of whom occupied, vandalized, and looted it, assaulted Capitol Police officers and reporters, and attempted to locate lawmakers to capture and harm them. During and after his speech, thousands of attendees, including many that Trump knew to be armed, walked to the Capitol and hundreds breached police perimeters as Congress was beginning the electoral vote count. Starting at noon on January 6, at a "Save America" rally on the Ellipse, Trump repeated false claims of election irregularities and said, "If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore." In his hour-long speech Trump included 22 grammatical variations of the word "fight". Ĭalled to action by Trump, thousands of his supporters gathered in Washington, D.C., on January 5 and 6 to support his false claim that the 2020 election had been "stolen by emboldened radical-left Democrats" and to demand that Vice President Mike Pence and Congress reject Biden's victory. As of July 7, 2022, monetary damages caused by attackers exceed $2.7 million. Four officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months. Many people were injured, including 138 police officers. Five people died either shortly before, during, or following the event: one was shot by Capitol Police, another died of a drug overdose, and three died of natural causes.

According to the House select committee investigating the incident, the attack was the culmination of a seven-part plan by Trump to overturn the election. They sought to keep Trump in power by preventing a joint session of Congress from counting the electoral college votes to formalize the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. President Donald Trump's defeat in the 2020 presidential election, a mob of his supporters attacked the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
