Kamala Harris was inside DNC headquarters when ‘viable’ pipe bomb was found outside
The device was neutralized just over an hour after a bomb was discovered outside Republican National Committee headquarters.
On Jan. 6, 2021, as a violent insurrection raged inside the U.S. Capitol, then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters when a pipe bomb was discovered outside the building.
Politico is exclusively reported it spoke with four people who were familiar with Harris’ movements that day. Among them were a White House official and a former law enforcement official who confirmed it was Harris who was evacuated from the building at approximately 1:14 p.m. — seven minutes after the bomb was identified outside.
A timeline obtained by Politico notes that the bomb was neutralized by 4:36 p.m., just over an hour after another pipe bomb was discovered outside the Republican National Committee headquarters.
“Both devices were viable and could have been detonated, resulting in serious injury or death,” according to the FBI. “There is currently a reward offer of up to $100,000 for info. leading to the location, arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for the placement of the bombs.”
No suspects have been arrested in connection with the incidents.
As the report illustrates, the presence of the incoming vice president at the DNC clearly elevates the threat of that day. Harris reportedly often utilized the building to conduct nongovernmental business as the nominee and later, before the inauguration.
In televised remarks Thursday on the one-year anniversary of the Capitol insurrection, Harris was not forthcoming about her exact location. She compared the events of that day to Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11, 2001, and said, “On that day, I was not only Vice President-elect; I was also a United States senator. And I was here at the Capitol that morning, at a classified hearing with fellow members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Hours later, the gates of the Capitol were breached.”
Of her locale, she said, “I had left. But my thoughts immediately turned not only to my colleagues but to my staff, who had been forced to seek refuge in our office, converting filing cabinets into barricades.”
According to Politico, the Department of Justice has amended numerous indictments to clarify the previous belief that Harris was inside the Capitol.
“[T]he government incorrectly stated that Vice President-Elect Harris was present in the U.S. Capitol at the time of the attack,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing in one Jan. 6 case Tuesday. “In fact, Vice President-Elect Harris was not present at that particular time, though she was present earlier in the day and was present later that day.”
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