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Memories of the Capitol riot linger at the site where Trump will take the oath of office

WASHINGTON — Whatever path President-elect Donald Trump takes to the Capitol rotunda before taking his oath of office Monday, he is guaranteed to pass scenes of chaos, violence and destruction caused by supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

If Trump makes it through the Senate carriage entrance, as he did on his way to the inauguration stage when he took his first oath of office eight years ago, he could choose from two routes. The first left, up the stairs to the Senate chamber, would follow the path where a mob chased a Capitol Police officer to the Senate floor on Jan. 6.

Staying level and instead taking the second street on the left, he passed the very first breaking point, where the windows were smashed, the alarm went off and hundreds of rioters poured into the building. Later, many rioters there got into an argument with police who tried to force the crowd outside.

Another possible entry point — the one President Joe Biden took four years ago before his inauguration — would take Trump through the rotunda doors on the east side of the Capitol, the scene of violent entries and violent clashes — and the place where some of the oath members of the Keepers militia convicted of seditious conspiracy entered the building.

If Trump were to enter from the House side of the Capitol, he would cross the path of Jeffrey Smith, a D.C. police officer who was repeatedly attacked — including when he was hit in the head with a flying metal object on the West Front. from the U.S. Capitol — and subsequently died by suicide. (Smith was found to have died in the line of duty after a medical board determined that the wound he suffered on January 6 was “the sole and proximate cause of his death.”)

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Should Trump enter through the north doors on the Senate side, he would walk through the site of a major clash, where police and rioters fought with chemical agents.

And should he enter through the south doors on the House side, he would enter through the exit where first responders took Ashli ​​Babbitt as they tried to save the life of the Trump supporter, a participant in the crowd who was shot when she tried to jump through a window into the House Speaker’s lobby.

Donald Trump front doors of the US capital Rioters January 6, 2021 (Getty Images; US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia)

Trump was originally scheduled to speak from the inauguration platform, a massive scaffolding where workers spent months building the west side of the Capitol. That was the scene of the most brutal violence on January 6, 2021.

To reach the area, the usual site of presidential inaugurations before it was moved indoors due to winter weather, Trump is said to have exited through the lower west patio doors, where officers battled a crowd for hours — and where a Trump supporter named Rosanne Boyland was before she died. That is the main entrance to the inauguration platform; the place where all dignitaries enter; the location that a federal judge called “Lady Gaga’s gateway” for her performance at Joe Biden’s inauguration.

With frigid temperatures forcing a change in plans, Trump will be sworn in for his second term in the Capitol rotunda itself, beneath the dome where more attacks took place and where men in gas masks used poles with American flags as weapons against police.

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The scenes of violence four years ago are inescapably intertwined with where Trump will formally regain office, though the president-elect has sought to downplay the brutality and anticipate pardons for many of those involved.

“It played out on the national news in front of everyone, and there were people like me who stepped up, who told our stories, mine was well documented with video and audio, and people didn’t care,” said the former DC Metropolitan Police. Department Officer Michael Fanone. “It didn’t resonate.”

Fanone does not plan to watch the inauguration festivities on Monday, preferring to train his focus on his beloved Baltimore Ravens’ playoff game this weekend before tuning in on January 20. But he had some business to do the week before: driving Friday to Washington to appear for the sixth time at a sentencing hearing for a Jan. 6 riot participant, pleading with the judge to punish another of his attackers.

As Fanone spoke to NBC News outside the courthouse, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan passed by with two bodyguards, one on each side — a persistent reminder of the security threats facing people involved in investigating, prosecuting or handling cases involving related to the Capitol riot. Before it was dismissed after Trump’s 2024 election, Chutkan was set to handle the federal case against the former president over allegations of election interference.

Chutkan, like Fanone’s mother, was “beaten” last year, with someone filing a false report to provoke a police response to their homes.

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“It’s a shame that it has come to this,” said Fanone, who voted for Trump in 2016. “But I think the silver lining is that she is in a position to get security. Not me. Many Americans are not.”

To reach the site where presidential oaths and inaugural addresses traditionally take place when cold weather doesn’t force them indoors, incoming presidents walk across the spot in the lower western tunnel where members of a pro-Trump mob snatched Fanone from the police line. and attacked him. The double gold doors nearby mark where officers were attacked with implements including fire extinguishers, baseball bats, hockey sticks, pepper and bear spray and flagpoles. An explosive even went off in the tunnel.

Anyone can see some of the worst moments unfold in footage from Fanone’s body-worn camera, which, unlike Fanone’s police radio and badge, was not ripped off during the riot.

This time, outdoor preparations for the inauguration have been halted and signage began disappearing Friday afternoon as workers in the Capitol rotunda prepared a backup plan for an indoor swearing-in.

There are no official permanent markers of the riot at the Capitol. The windows were repaired. The walls were repainted. The Capitol doors, including those in the lower west tunnel, have received some security improvements.

Congress did pass a law providing for a plaque honoring officers who responded to the attack, but the deadline for installation has long passed with no action. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters ahead of the inauguration that it was not on his mind.

“You know, I haven’t even looked at that yet. I have to check,” Johnson said.

But other traces and memories of the day remain – for those who want to see them.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

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