Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley's chief of staff said the panic buttons in her Congressional House office had been ripped out ahead of the pro-Trump insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.
From a Boston Globe story on the Massachusetts delegation's response to the attacks: “As people rushed out of other buildings on the Capitol grounds, staffers in Pressley's office barricaded the entrance with furniture and water jugs that had piled up during the pandemic. [Sarah] Groh pulled out gas masks and looked for the special panic buttons in the office. ‘Every panic button in my office had been torn out — the whole unit,' she said, though they could come up with no rationale as to why. She had used them before and hadn't switched offices since then. As they were escorted to several different secure locations, Groh and Pressley and her husband tried to remain calm and vigilant — not only of rioters but of officers they did not know or trust, she said.”
“Groh, Pressley, and her husband had planned to wait in Pressley's D.C. apartment until later in the afternoon,” the Boston Globe added, earlier in the story, but “the House sergeant-at-arms pressured lawmakers to come sooner, warning the crowds could get too thick to safely escort them inthe House sergeant-at-arms pressured lawmakers to come sooner, warning the crowds could get too thick to safely escort them in.”
