Chad Pergram.Photo: Fox News
“What happened today at the Capitol has never happened,” Pergram told PEOPLE from inside the Washington, D.C. building’s basement on Wednesday. “You had these thugs marauding through the Capitol, scaling the walls of the Capitol, like Spider-Man …. Police officers in the chamber pointing their sidearms at protesters outside in the hallway is just extraordinary.”
Pergram said there was tension in the air when he arrived at the Capitol around 1 p.m. EST. He was told they weren’t letting people inside — not even members of Congress — so he entered through a back door. He turned on his computer in his third-floor booth, dropped off the turkey wrap his wife made, then went to the Fox News basement studio to film a live shot.
It was then, on his audio feed from the House and Senate chambers, that Pergram heard members of Congress being told there were escape hoods under their seats.
“They were going to try to evacuate them into the rotunda, but then they just barricaded everybody in the chamber,” he said.
After 2 p.m., Pergram told PEOPLE he turned off his on-air indicator light, put coats over the windows, and his cameraman barricaded the door with a chair and a television cable as the rioters entered the building and vandalized offices and the halls, even entering the House Chamber.
“There’s a couple places around here that we can go [to hide]. I’ve worked in the Capitol off and on for most of 27 years that I knew that we could go if we absolutely had to where they would never find us,” he said.
The U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6.
Still, he and other media outlets remained to report on the chaos at the scene. “This is an important day,” he said. “Democracy was at stake.”
Eventually, members of Congress returned late Wednesday evening to continue the process of ratifying the Electoral College vote, certifying Joe Biden as the next president in the early morning hours on Thursday.
As the lawmakers came back, Pergram told PEOPLE the floors were still slippery with tear gas, and there were “broken glass shards of glass all over the building.”
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Now, reflecting to PEOPLE, Pergram said, “History does play out underneath this dome. And this was another chapter, albeit a dark one.”
On Thursday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a call for help in identifying those who participated in Wednesday’sviolent riots.
“The FBI is seeking information that will assist in identifying individuals who are actively instigating violence in Washington, DC.,” the FBIwrotein a statement on its website. “If you have witnessed unlawful violent actions, we urge you to submit any information, photos, or videos that could be relevant atfbi.gov/USCapitol.”
source: people.com
