BROADCASTS.com

One of the most frightening aspects of the assault on the U.S. Capitol was how, well, normal some of the participants seemed\u2014and how openly they spoke of their willingness to murder other Americans if President-elect Joe Biden\u2019s electoral victory was certified.

The Daily Beast\u2019s Will Sommer was outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 and described his conversations with the rioters to co-hosts Rick Wilson and Molly Jong-Fast on the latest episode of The New Abnormal.

\u201cI was really struck by the people I talked to who were not necessarily crazed QAnon people... but kinda just like people you might think of as your neighbors, your grandparents,\u201d Sommer said. \u201cAnd just almost to, to a person, they were all just like, \u2018Well, if Joe Biden gets his votes certified today, there\u2019s going to be violence and we\u2019re going to kill people, and there\u2019s gonna be a civil war.

Then, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) joined Wilson and Jong-Fast to talk about what happened after he was told to \u201ctake out a gas mask and get ready to duck\u201d inside the Capitol.

For a while, Swalwell said, the reality of the danger just was not sinking in. \u201cI still thought, there\u2019s no way they\u2019re coming in here\u2014until the house chaplain went up to the podium where the president usually speaks for the State of the Union,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd she started offering a prayer and I thought, OK, they\u2019re going to get in here. This is not good.\u201d

Sommer said he was struck by the \u201chuge amount of entitlement\u201d among the MAGA rioters.

\u201cI do feel like so much of the reaction, both from the rioters and the people who were there at the protest in general, was this shock that laws would apply to them,\u201d he said. \u201c...A weird thing I heard a lot at the Capitol was this idea that if you pay taxes, you could just break into whatever federal building you feel like. And because your taxes in an indirect way pay for the Capitol Police that... you\u2019re their boss.\u201d

When the conversation shifted to President Donald Trump\u2019s impeachment in the House, Wilson said more Republicans would have voted to impeach if the vote hadn\u2019t been public. \u201cOne of the guys that voted in favor of impeachment told me\u2026 if it was a secret ballot, Trump would have been impeached with 50 percent or more of the caucus voting against him.\u201d

\u201cThey\u2019re fucking petrified,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cWell, guess what? You created this monster and you kept feeding it. You kept it in the basement. You hauled it out to vote every two years, but you kept feeding it and now it\u2019s loose and it hates you more than it hates anything. I say this a lot: There\u2019s nothing a Trump voter hates more than a Republican that doesn\u2019t support Trump.\u201d

Want more? Become a Beast Inside member to enjoy a limited-run series of bonus interviews from The New Abnormal. Guests include Cory Booker, Jim Acosta, and more. Head to newabnormal.thedailybeast.com to join now.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.