Harris traveled within several yards of pipe bomb outside DNC headquarters: report

by Mychael Schnell - 01/31/22 8:42 AM ET

Vice President Harris reportedly traveled within several yards of a pipe bomb placed outside Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters on Jan. 6, 2021.

CNN on Monday reported, citing multiple law enforcement officials familiar with the situation, that Harris, then the vice president-elect, arrived at DNC headquarters at around 11:30 a.m. EST, hours before a mob of Trump supporters descended on the Capitol building in an attempt to thwart the counting of the Electoral College vote for the 2020 presidential election.

Sources told the network that Harris’s motorcade traveled through the garage into a parking deck, which was in close proximity to where authorities found a pipe bomb. She reportedly remained in the building for almost two hours before being evacuated.

The then-vice president-elect was removed from the DNC building at around 1:14 p.m., according to CNN, which was seven minutes after Capitol Police started looking into the bomb. An internal U.S. Capitol Police timeline said an unnamed “protectee,” later identified by multiple outlets as Harris, was taken from the headquarters at that time.

A White House official told The Hill earlier this month that Harris was at the DNC headquarters on Jan. 6, 2021, until she was evacuated from the premises following the pipe bomb discovery. Politico first reported on Harris being evacuated from the building.

Reached for comment on the new details from CNN, the vice president’s office referred The Hill to the U.S. Secret Service.

A Secret Service spokesperson told The Hill in a statement that the law enforcement agency “does not discuss protective means and methods” in an effort to “maintain operational security.”

Secret Service searched the inside of the DNC headquarters, the driveway, parking deck, entrances and exits before Harris had arrived at the building on Jan. 6, 2021, according to CNN, citing a law enforcement source familiar with the event. The then-vice president-elect was reportedly removed from the building through a different route away from the bomb.

Harris sometimes utilized the DNC headquarters as a space to complete nongovernment work when she was the Democratic nominee for vice president and later vice president-elect, which is customary for elected officials of both political parties, according to Politico.

A pipe bomb was also discovered near the Republican National Committee (RNC) headquarters on Jan. 6, 2021. The FBI’s Washington Field Office earlier this month said the devices discovered near the two buildings “were viable and could have been detonated, resulting in serious injury or death.”

Authorities are still looking for the person responsible for the pipe bombs.

Harris first briefly touched on her Jan. 6, 2021, whereabouts during remarks delivered from Statutory Hall on the one-year anniversary of the deadly attack. She said she spent part of the day at the Capitol for a classified committee hearing.

“On that day, I was not only vice president-elect, I was also a United States senator. 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,” Harris 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,” she added.

Updated at 4:40 p.m.

Tags Capitol riot Democratic National Committee DNC jan. 6 pipe bomb vice president