[Note: This lengthy article has been reproduced in full from The American Thinker. It has been broken down into seven parts, with sub-headings added by myself, and paragraphs reformatted. The author is a community college professor and a 24-year Navy veteran].
PART I
January 13, 2021
Here’s what really happened before the incursion into the Capitol
By Thomas P. Smith
[Editor’s note: This may be the longest piece ever published at American Thinker in over a decade. We’re publishing it because it is the most detailed eyewitness report we’ve received primarily about the peaceful part of the rally, including the walk to the Capitol. The media has almost aggressively ignored these facts. Also, the level of detail matters because multiple people are trying to piece together events to determine how the entirety of January 6 played out. Stick with it. It’s fascinating and important.]
SAVE AMERICA RALLY WAS NOT CONNECTED TO CAPITOL EVENTS
The Save America Rally, sponsored by Women For America First, was a totally separate happening from what took place inside the Capitol building. We’re still waiting for the media to figure that out. Yawn. Even so, they’re too biased to be honest and truthful enough to report the distinction so others around the world can know the difference, too. Trump was right when he exclaimed in his rally address that the biggest enemy of the country is the media. Our so-called “eyes” and “ears” are neither.
TWO BROTHERS’ EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT
My brother and I arrived in D.C. at 8:30 a.m. and parked a few blocks north of the Capitol in a garage by the Hyatt Hotel. We walked toward the end of Pennsylvania Avenue and the Capitol came into view through the trees to our left. As we started walking down Pennsylvania Avenue, we looked back at the Capitol a few times. I’d never seen it and was impressed by its size and dominance in the landscape.
ALMOST EVERYONE WAS GOING TO TRUMP’S RALLY
The air was mostly quiet except for the people talking along the way. There were some people standing around the park just west of the building. Mostly everyone in our view up the Mall was going in our direction to the rally. My brother asked, “Do you want to go see the Capitol?” I responded, “Not yet. We’ll have time later on. We should just head for the rally.” When we reached 4th Street, we turned left to walk along the edge of the Mall onto Madison Drive. We again looked back toward the Capitol and then, through the bare trees, ahead to the Washington Monument. By then, the number of people walking with us to the rally started to increase quite a bit. Over to the south side of the Mall, so many people were carrying banners and Flags, they looked like a parade by themselves!
BROTHERS WERE MISTAKEN FOR ANTIFA BECAUSE OF CLOTHES
We didn’t bring any flags or signs. We had our dark winter coats, dark hats, and dark gloves. We joked that people might think we’re Antifa! Soon after, two women did assume we looked like Antifa infiltrators at the rally.
THOUSANDS OF VOICES WERE HEARD FROM A DISTANCE
Halfway down the Mall, a sound that seemed from far away made us stop to listen more closely. To me, it sounded like thousands of voices yelling all at once almost as if it were a stadium crowd shouting at a cheerleader’s directions. My brother said it sounded like a jet engine off in the distance, but it wasn’t a continuous sound that a jet would produce. We heard it again. “That could be the crowd up at the rally!” we exclaimed.
A VOICE WAS HEARD BETWEEN SHOUTS FROM CROWDS
Then, we could hear a voice between the crowd’s shouts. Must have been someone speaking at the rally and the sound was making its way to the Mall. We were still more than a half-mile from the rally! Our level of anticipation increased a lot at that point. Then and there, we believed we were going to see and be part of something that was much bigger than we could have imagined. We paused across from the Smithsonian American History Museum to take pictures. The Washington Monument was in clearer view above the trees and it looked like a good background for pictures.
PART I
January 13, 2021
Here’s what really happened before the incursion into the Capitol
By Thomas P. Smith
[Editor’s note: This may be the longest piece ever published at American Thinker in over a decade. We’re publishing it because it is the most detailed eyewitness report we’ve received primarily about the peaceful part of the rally, including the walk to the Capitol. The media has almost aggressively ignored these facts. Also, the level of detail matters because multiple people are trying to piece together events to determine how the entirety of January 6 played out. Stick with it. It’s fascinating and important.]
SAVE AMERICA RALLY WAS NOT CONNECTED TO CAPITOL EVENTS
The Save America Rally, sponsored by Women For America First, was a totally separate happening from what took place inside the Capitol building. We’re still waiting for the media to figure that out. Yawn. Even so, they’re too biased to be honest and truthful enough to report the distinction so others around the world can know the difference, too. Trump was right when he exclaimed in his rally address that the biggest enemy of the country is the media. Our so-called “eyes” and “ears” are neither.
TWO BROTHERS’ EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT
My brother and I arrived in D.C. at 8:30 a.m. and parked a few blocks north of the Capitol in a garage by the Hyatt Hotel. We walked toward the end of Pennsylvania Avenue and the Capitol came into view through the trees to our left. As we started walking down Pennsylvania Avenue, we looked back at the Capitol a few times. I’d never seen it and was impressed by its size and dominance in the landscape.
ALMOST EVERYONE WAS GOING TO TRUMP’S RALLY
The air was mostly quiet except for the people talking along the way. There were some people standing around the park just west of the building. Mostly everyone in our view up the Mall was going in our direction to the rally. My brother asked, “Do you want to go see the Capitol?” I responded, “Not yet. We’ll have time later on. We should just head for the rally.” When we reached 4th Street, we turned left to walk along the edge of the Mall onto Madison Drive. We again looked back toward the Capitol and then, through the bare trees, ahead to the Washington Monument. By then, the number of people walking with us to the rally started to increase quite a bit. Over to the south side of the Mall, so many people were carrying banners and Flags, they looked like a parade by themselves!
BROTHERS WERE MISTAKEN FOR ANTIFA BECAUSE OF CLOTHES
We didn’t bring any flags or signs. We had our dark winter coats, dark hats, and dark gloves. We joked that people might think we’re Antifa! Soon after, two women did assume we looked like Antifa infiltrators at the rally.
THOUSANDS OF VOICES WERE HEARD FROM A DISTANCE
Halfway down the Mall, a sound that seemed from far away made us stop to listen more closely. To me, it sounded like thousands of voices yelling all at once almost as if it were a stadium crowd shouting at a cheerleader’s directions. My brother said it sounded like a jet engine off in the distance, but it wasn’t a continuous sound that a jet would produce. We heard it again. “That could be the crowd up at the rally!” we exclaimed.
A VOICE WAS HEARD BETWEEN SHOUTS FROM CROWDS
Then, we could hear a voice between the crowd’s shouts. Must have been someone speaking at the rally and the sound was making its way to the Mall. We were still more than a half-mile from the rally! Our level of anticipation increased a lot at that point. Then and there, we believed we were going to see and be part of something that was much bigger than we could have imagined. We paused across from the Smithsonian American History Museum to take pictures. The Washington Monument was in clearer view above the trees and it looked like a good background for pictures.