Government staffers walk out of the Russell Senate Office Building, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Authorities issued a shelter-in-place order and began searching Senate office buildings near the U.S. Capitol Wednesday afternoon amid reports of an active shooter. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Authorities issued a shelter-in-place order and searched Senate office buildings near the U.S. Capitol Wednesday afternoon after a 911 call warned of a possible active shooter. But a floor-by-floor search of the three buildings found nothing, and Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said the cause of the security scramble “may have been a bogus call.”
“We found nothing concerning,” he said. “We got nobody who actually heard shots and certainly no victims.”
The incident comes amid heightened security concerns created by former President Donald Trump’s indictment on charges relating to his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Trump is due in federal court Thursday just a few blocks from the Capitol.
Manger said Washington's multiple law enforcement agencies had been planning “for a couple weeks now” for a possible indictment and had “a security plan in place” in case Trump supporters attempt to disrupt the legal proceedings.
The lockdown Wednesday started when local police received a call around 2:30 Wednesday afternoon warning of a “heavyset Hispanic male wearing body armor” inside the Hart Senate Office Building, one of three structures near the Capitol housing offices for senators and their staffs.
Capitol Police began a search, going floor by floor through the massive buildings.
Inside the Russell Senate Office Building, officers evacuated the hallways and shouted at people to run outside and away from the building. Outside, tourists watched as dozens of police cars surrounded the area. Staff and journalists working in the building received an email instructing them to take shelter in a locked room, remain quiet and silence all electronics.
Manger said about 90 minutes later that all three Senate office buildings had been cleared and the call appeared to have been false.
Both the House of Representatives and the Senate are currently on recess and the office buildings are generally less crowded than usual.
Cheddar Politics takes a deeper look at the takeaways from the Georgia primary elections on Tuesday. Georgia Public Broadcasting's local and state politics reporter, Stephen Fowler, joins us to discuss the limits of Trump endorsements and break down what the outcome in each race means.
After learning that the suspect in the Uvalde school shooting posted about his intentions on Facebook, activists are urging social networks to make changes. Lena Derhally, a licensed psychotherapist and author of "The Facebook Narcissist," joined Cheddar News to discuss the role social media plays in school shootings. "They're not really invested in taking down hateful content," she said about social platforms."In regards to the shooting, it was 15 minutes before that actual threat. It would be pretty hard for a social media company to trace that threat that quickly. But what they can do better is take down threats and hateful content much faster and more than they're doing now."
Following the mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults dead, the debate over gun control has been reignited. While studies have shows most Americans agree on some additional regulations, there hasn't been much legislative traction even as gun violence worsens in the country. Brian Lemek, the executive director of Defend The Vote and the former executive director at Brady PAC for gun control, joined Cheddar to discuss reform efforts. "The lawmakers that we have aren't passing these at the federal level," he said. "That's the problem. We have the wrong people in charge."
The crypto industry is still reeling from Terra's recent crash. The company's blockchain was temporarily halted earlier this month after the collapse of its cryptocurrency Luna (LUNA) and its stablecoin TerraUSD (UST), which led to almost $45 billion being wiped from the tokens' market caps within a week. Now, many are left wondering what Terra's struggles mean for the broader crypto market. Reeve Collins, CEO of the NFT platform BLOCKv, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell from Davos 2022 to discuss.
The average city in California has a 38% higher cost of living than the average American city, according to a cost of living index. For many, the general minimum wage of $15/hour just doesn't cut it. Anti-poverty activist Joe Sanberg wants to get the minimum wage changed to $18/hour. He joins Cheddar News to discuss the Living Wage Act of 2022.
