Hungarian working in America talking about the chaos at the Capitol

A Hungarian man working at the Capitol was able to watch the chaotic events in Washington from up close. István, although he does not go to his workplace every day due to the epidemic, happened to go in to deal with some things on the day the building was sieged.

The man working in the visitor centre said that the peaceful protest supporting Trump unexpectedly turned into a barbaric rush, writes Blikk. 

“I arrived at the Capitol at 10 o’clock in the morning, at which point I could barely see a protester or two. Around this time, Trump gave his speech at Ellipse Park near the White House, which is twenty minutes from the Capitol. I wanted to leave the building at around 1 pm, but I couldn’t leave through the door I entered anymore as the police closed it down. Eventually, I left through a different door. There were already tens of thousands on the street, though I would not have thought in my wildest dreams that the crowd could siege the symbolic place. However, it struck me immediately that there were far fewer police officers than the size of the crowd would have required. Allegedly, the mayor asked the special police force protecting the Capitol if they needed help, but they replied that they could handle the situation. Unfortunately, the events leading to fatalities proved them wrong,” said Isvtán. 

According to him, “Trump made a big mistake firing up his followers.” The president clearly has to bear the responsibility for what happened in the Capitol, but István emphasised that, fortunately, the democratic system could not be curbed by the unexpected turmoil, and Congress resumed its work as soon as the police calmed things down.

István was called in to work the next day. The rampaged building was in the process of being tidied up. “I wouldn’t say the protesters broke and smashed things, but they left an unbelievable mess behind. Everything was photographed on the spot and, over time, some of the people who took selfies in the senators’ offices were also identified. They also caught the man who posed in the chair of Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, for example. It turned out he was a retired firefighter,” said István. He added that the next day, peace had returned to the Capital, and the streets were empty again due to epidemiological measures.