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Bay Area Trump supporters, just back from D.C., said they resisted calls to join mob inside Capitol

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateAs rioters raged inside the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, a couple from the Bay Area who went to Washington to support President Trump and his unsubstantiated claims of election fraud at a rally, said they resisted calls to join the mob that had breached barriers to force their way into the building.Instead, the Oakland couple said Thursday, they stood outside the Capitol for hours, singing patriotic songs, chanting pro-Trump slogans and trying to figure out what was going on inside by checking their phones and listening to rumors. The Chronicle interviewed the couple along with a mother and son from Danville who also attended Trump’s rally before the siege, at the San Francisco International Airport just after they returned from Washington.They were in the nation’s capital on what many have called one of the darkest days in U.S. history to attend Trump’s “Save America Rally,” which was also billed as a “Wild Rally,” and attended by tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands, according to reports. After the president made remarks that some critics have said incited the riots, the crowd marched from the Ellipse, a park near the White House, to the Capitol.“The plan all along was to go to the Capitol and let our voices be heard — outside,” said Robert Douglas, 59, of Oakland. “Nobody said “Let’s go burn the Capitol.’ ”As they neared the Capitol, Douglas said, some in the crowd urged people to storm the iconic home of Congress and a few fights broke out between those who wanted to force their way inside and those who didn’t.Then, he said, “Some people were screaming that they had breached the Capitol.”Douglas blames Antifa activists or possibly other interlopers for the assault on the Capitol, even though there’s no evidence that anyone other than Trump supporters was involved in the mob. Douglas said he did not see the initial breaching of the barriers. Only later did he see rioters walk out of the Capitol, trying to coax others to join them as they walked back inside.Similar accusations blaming the siege on Antifa have grown popular in the conservative press and social media despite a lack of evidence, and photos of rioters inside the Capitol show known Trump supporters with social media followings.As the mob raged inside the Capitol, the mood outside was festive, even celebratory, with the crowd singing and chanting, said Doreyne Douglas, 58.“It wasn’t scary,” she said. “It was a sense of community: love your country, love your neighbor. There was nothing burned, nothing looted, nothing broken outside of the people who went into the Capitol. All the MAGA people were like ‘That’s not what we came here for.’ ”The Douglases said they saw police let rioters walk out of the Capitol.“I wondered why they were letting them leave,” Robert Douglas said of the police.The Douglases remained with the crowd outside the Capitol for hours, they said.“The sad story is that (Trump opponents) want to portray everyone there as violent,” Doreyne Douglas said, “but 99.99% of the people there were just thrilled to be there and supporting the president.”Like the Douglases, Jacob Burnett, of Danville, went to Washington because he was concerned about the allegations of voter fraud and doesn’t believe they’ve been thoroughly investigated. Courts have repeatedly rejected Trump lawsuits to invalidate election results and state elections officials have looked into allegations of massive fraud and found them unfounded. A Department of Homeland Security committee called the 2020 election “the most secure in American history.”“The things we are bringing up, people just aren’t listening,” he said. “I just want transparency in the election. Everything we’ve brought up has just been dismissed by the government.”Burnett, who flew to Washington with his mother, had planned to join the march to the Capitol but they decided to grab lunch first. Once they heard what was going on inside the Capitol, he said, they decided to steer clear. They walked past the Capitol, sneaking peeks from a distance, but moved on.“From what I saw, there were not nearly as many Trump supporters at the Capitol as at the rally,” he said, noting that he supports the right to protest, even in front of the Capitol, but not to forcibly enter or engage in violence or vandalism.“If they had wanted to take the Capitol,” Burnett said of the Trump backers at the rally, “they could have. But I don’t think they were all that type.” The people who went into the Capitol, he said, were “the violent fringe.”Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts.At least one Bay Area resident joined the mob that entered the Capitol, according to posts on social media and an television interview. Ex-Oakland police officer Jurell Snyder was part of the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol, according to an he gave on KPIX Wednesday evening.Snyder defended the unrest, spouted right-wing conspiracy theories and suggested that police prodded Trump supporters at the Capitol to violence. According to his LinkedIn profile, Snyder served at the Oakland Police Department from December 2006 to August 2015.More for you“I wanted my friends and family to know what happened,” Snyder wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday, in which he confirmed that he was at the Capitol. “They call us terrorists in the media, but we know the truth. We must preserve our constitutional republic at all costs.”He did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.In a statement posted on Facebook Thursday afternoon, the Oakland Police Department said they found Snyder’s comments “reprehensible” and that he was “separated from his employment with the City of Oakland nearly six years ago.”“Our democracy is the very foundation of the rule of law and our law enforcement officers are on the front lines of defending and upholding these tenets,” the statement said. “Anyone engaged in the unlawful behavior that occurred at the Capitol and injured officers and civilians alike should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”Chronicle reporter Tatiana Sanchez contributed to this report.Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: Twitter:Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateAs rioters raged inside the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, a couple from the Bay Area who went to Washington to support President Trump and his unsubstantiated claims of election fraud at a rally, said they resisted calls to join the mob that had breached barriers to force their way into the building.Instead, the Oakland couple said Thursday, they stood outside the Capitol for hours, singing patriotic songs, chanting pro-Trump slogans and trying to figure out what was going on inside by checking their phones and listening to rumors. The...

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Michael Cabanatuan is a general assignment, breaking news reporter. He previously covered all things transportation for the San Francisco Chronicle — from BART strikes, acrobatic bridge construction and dark dirty tunnel excavations to the surging ridership on public transportation and the increasing conflict as cars, bikes and pedestrians struggle to coexist on the streets.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/author/michael-cabanatuan/

Michael Cabanatuan

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Bay Area Trump supporters, just back from D.C., said they resisted calls to join mob inside Capitol

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