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The video, taken from Capitol security footage and without sound, showed the Utah senator running down a hallway, which Capitol Hill police officer Eugene Goodman had told to flee.
Mr. Romney had been walking previously, but after the officer spoke to him, he was seen turning and running in the opposite direction. Moments earlier, dozens of protesters, at least one of them holding a baseball bat and wearing full tactical gear, were seen making their way into the building.
While some of the moments of violence and chaos that erupted on January 6, after hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the legislature building when it convened to ratify Joe Biden’s election victory, had been seen before, many of those that were shown on Wednesday no.
Video shows a crowd responding to Trump’s speech by chanting ‘Take the Capitol’
Other footage, also previously unseen, showed Officer Goodman pushing the rioters away from Vice President Mike Pence while yelling that they wanted to kill him. Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York was also seen fleeing for safety when hundreds of rioters stormed the building.
“Where are the votes counting?” they yelled at one point. Mr. Goodman could be heard saying, “Don’t do it. Do not do it “.
While the images were being displayed in the Senate, Mr. Romney tweeted his thanks to the officer, saying, “We appreciate your courage and service, Officer Eugene Goodman!”
As he was leaving the camera during a break, reporters asked him about what he had just seen and he said: “It tears your heart and makes you cry. That was overwhelmingly distressing.”
When asked if he knew that the officer who had saved him was Mr. Goodman, he replied that he did not. “I hope to thank you.”
Congressman Eric Swalwell, one of the Democrats acting as “prosecutors” while the Senate hears the case against the former president, played the images on camera and said the rioters were only 58 steps from where the senators were sitting.
What Trump did, the congressman said, was very different from any of the challenges to Biden’s victory thrown by members of the Senate.
“This was a deliberate and premeditated incitement to their base to attack our Capitol and stop the count inside,” he said. “And this was predictable, especially for President Trump, who warned us that it was coming.”
Several of the Democrats wiped tears from their eyes recounting the events of the day, when the Capitol was stormed “under our watch.”
Stacey Plaskett, representing the US Virgin Islands, played a video showing the sight of the rioters as they stormed the building, just hours after Trump held a “Stop the Steal” rally on the National Mall, and he repeated again his false claim that the election had been rigged.
“During the assault on the Capitol, the extremists coordinated online and discussed how they could go after the vice president. Reporters on Capitol Hill reported that they heard the rioters say that they were looking for Pence to execute, “Plaskett said.
The footage showed Mr. Pence and his family rushing down the stairs. The vice president briefly turned around in the video. During the same time frame, the rioters spread throughout the building, Plaskett added.
“When the rioters reached the top of the stairs, they were less than 30 meters from where the vice president was sheltering with his family, and they were only a few meters from one of the doors of this chamber,” he said.
In one video shown, the crowd can be heard chanting “Hang up Mike Pence” while standing at the open door of the Capitol building. One photo showed a gallows outside on the grass.
“After President Trump had prepared his supporters for months and inflamed rally attendees that morning, it is no wonder the Vice President of the United States was the target of his ire, after Pence refused to cancel. the election results, “he said. .
CNN anchor Jake Tapper tweeted to point out that almost the exact moment Pence was seen being taken to safety, Trump tweeted that his vice president “did not have the courage to do what was needed” to protect the country.
Last month, seven days before leaving office, Trump was indicted by the House of Representatives, which found that he was responsible for “inciting insurrection,” in his January 6 speech, as a joint session of Congress was programmed to affirm the electoral situation. college votes from all 50 states. It marked the last step to clear before Biden’s inauguration on January 20.
On Tuesday, Democrats outlined their extensive case against the former president, who remains the only person to have been charged twice.
On Wednesday, with great attention to detail, they sought to show a direct link between Trump’s words and the events that shocked the world. For months, they said, he had falsely told his supporters that the electoral victory belonged to them, and then, on January 6, he told them that the only way to protect his country was to “fight like hell.”
“The evidence will show you that former President Trump was not a bystander,” said Congressman Jamie Raskin, who is leading the impeachment in the Senate.
“The evidence will show that it clearly incited the insurrection of January 6.”
He added: “It will show that Donald Trump stepped down from his role as commander-in-chief and became the inciter-in-chief.”
Democrats said Trump’s language and the words he repeatedly used to falsely claim that the election was rigged were chosen to intentionally antagonize and inflame his supporters.
They also said that when Trump had the opportunity to stop the violence he is accused of inciting in January, he rather posted a video message telling his followers how much he “loved” them.
“The evidence will show him that he rallied, fired up, and incited his followers to descend upon the Capitol, to ‘stop the robbery,’ to stop Vice President Pence and Congress from finalizing his opponent’s electoral victory over him,” Raskin said.
Additional information from Associated Press
