EPISODE FEATURES CBS NEWS JOURNALISTS WITH FIRST-HAND ACCOUNTS OF THE CAPITOL SIEGE FROM INSIDE THE BUILDING

This week on THE DEBRIEF podcast, CBS News chief Washington correspondent and podcast host Major Garrett highlights CBS News journalists who reported on the chaotic events of Jan. 6 when thousands of President Trump’s supporters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol. The episode features harrowing accounts from these journalists – including briefly losing their eyesight due to pepper spray and being surrounded by insurrectionists who destroyed television equipment – as well as lawmakers who were trapped inside the House chamber.

The latest episode of THE DEBRIEF with MAJOR GARRETT is out now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever podcasts are available.

Excerpts from this week’s episode:

• Host Major Garrett opens the episode: “What history must record is President Trump’s indelible fingerprints on all of the sickening strife. Six dead including two capitol police officers. His rhetoric set in motion the ‘stop the steal’ lie and gave his supporters false hope – hope that metastasized and turned some of them into armed anti-constitutional felons.”

• Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia shared her experience of the assault on the Capitol with our sister podcast, CBS Audio’s INTELLIGENCE MATTERS: “And that’s when these insurrectionists had reached the Capitol floor, the chamber door. And so we are there and there are Capitol police officers on the floor barricading up the door to enter the House chamber with benches and tables and just standing as people on the other side are banging the door, breaking the glass in the door, the doors, a mix of decorative metal and glass and wood breaking through that glass.”

• David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research and a CBS News election law expert: “The responsibility for this resides a hundred percent with the current occupant of the White House, let’s be absolutely clear about this, he incited insurrection. He encouraged an attempted coup, and it was all because he could not process the idea that he lost an election. Which he lost soundly, as we’ve discussed many times, this election was not close overall, despite the fact the Republicans did very well on the rest of the ballot.”

• CBS News political reporter Grace Segers: “I was in the Senate chamber with the senators present. And it was a terrifying experience. I was in the chamber when the Capitol Police locked us in with the senators, I, I could hear the shouts from outside… I can’t believe it happened. I can’t believe I was there, and I think it’s going to take a long time for me to process what happened. The fact that there is a domestic terror attack in my place of work in a place where I should feel safe and I was there.”

• CBS News correspondent Chip Reid: “I had a flak jacket and a helmet with me. The last time I wore a flak jacket and a helmet. Well, a whole series of times it was when I spent a lot of time in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it is so disturbing to have to wear a helmet and a flak jacket on the grounds of the United States Capitol.”

CHEAT TWEET: “Capitol Hell”: @MajorCBS and the Debrief team deliver an in-depth audio documentary of last week’s attack on Capitol Hill by pro-Trump insurrectionists. Featuring reporting from @krisvancleave, @EenaRuffini, @weijia, @steve_dorsey + more. Available now. https://bit.ly/3byU8u2

Follow Major Garrett on Twitter at @MajorCBS and THE DEBRIEF at @TheDebriefCBS. Discover more CBS News podcasts at cbsaudio.com/podcasts.

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