Who Were the US Capitol Rioters sandiegosun.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sandiegosun.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
And a few hundred miles away in Georgia, votes were being counted in runoff elections.
Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff both won their races, giving Democrats control of the Senate for the opening of Joe Biden’s presidency in a unmistakable renunciation of Trump and Trumpism in the deep south.
The crowds in Washington, however, had been told by their leader that the votes against him had been rigged, and told to march on the Capitol to “stand strong for the integrity of our elections” and to “save our democracy”.
Trump told them to converge on Congress “peacefully and patriotically” but order broke down just minutes after he spoke.