MSNBC’s Maddow, Williams Decry Lack of Arrests After Violent Pro-Trump Siege on Capitol: Not the Same Tactics Police Used With Black Lives Matter

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Brian Williams condemned the lack of arrests amid the violent riots on the United States Capitol, contrasting the absence of police response to law enforcement’s role during the Black Lives Matter protests.

“The Capitol Police and other law enforcement that we can see on hand — it’s still, it’s puzzling, sort of hard to understand why we haven’t seen more arrests and why the protesters have been allowed to persist on the steps and at the doors of the Capitol,” Maddow said on Wednesday night. “And here you see protesters apparently taunting or yelling at the protesters — or yelling at the police. These scenes are — this has been going on for three hours now. It feels like about three years.”

The anchor then commented on how hard it’s been for the network to report on events inside the Capitol due to surrounding chaos, before inviting Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) to her program.

Maddow asked the representative if any law enforcement was able to secure parts of the building, prompting Houlahan to confirm that some areas have been cleared while others are still compromised.

Williams later addressed the lack of arrests on the Capitol, pointing out how differently police treated those marching in Black Lives Matter protests.

“If it was the president’s plan to hold a Bible aloft on the grounds of the Capitol, it sure would have been cleared much earlier than now,” he said. “That is to say that while there appears to be a commander of this effort and something close to an organized effort to get people out, no one’s in any hurry. No one is showing any of the tactics near what you and I witnessed during the hot nights of this summer when the rioters were alleged to be all connected to the Black Lives Matter movement. These rioters are connected to the President of the United States and his colleagues in the House and Senate.”

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) later appeared on CNN to report that there have been “many arrests” on the Hill, without confirming how many.

Watch above, via MSNBC.

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