‘It Was Disturbing’: Pence Security Detail Called Their Families to Say Goodbye During Jan. 6 Riot

Secret Service agents were so terrified during the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol that they called their families to say goodbye, a White House security official told the House select committee investigating the riot.

Audio of this was played during Thursday night’s committee hearing.

The White House security official, whose name, face and voice were concealed, said that Vice President Mike Pence’s security detail feared for their lives.

“The members of the VP detail at this time were starting to fear for their lives. There was a lot of yelling. A lot of very personal calls over the radio, so it was disturbing,” said the official. “I don’t like talking about it, but there were calls to say goodbye to family members, so on and so forth. It was getting — for whatever reason was on the ground the VP detail thought that this was going to get very ugly.”

The committee also aired footage and audio of Pence’s security detail panicking as they sought to find a way out of the Capitol as the rioters closed in. One member of the detail expressed alarm when rioters reached the second floor of the building and called for consideration to evacuate the vice president. The footage showed six police officers stopping the rioters. Another member of the detail described “smoke downstairs.” One member said there was a path that the vice president could be taken on. A decision was made to evacuate Pence, who was overseeing the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory as president.

Watch above, via MSNBC.