Vice President Kamala Harris, who was the vice president-elect on January 6, 2021, was evacuated from the Democratic National Committee headquarters that day when a pipe bomb was discovered, a White House official confirmed to CBS News.
According to a U.S. Capitol Police timeline obtained by CBS News, the U.S. Secret Service and Capitol Police evacuated a “protectee” at DNC headquarters at 1:14 p.m., just minutes after the pipe bomb was discovered at 1:07 p.m.
Harris said Thursday that she was at the Capitol one year ago for a meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee, but left before the perimeter was breached.
“On that day, I was not only vice president-elect, I was also a United States senator,” Harris said Thursday morning. “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. 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.”
Harris returned to the Capitol that night for the election certification.
A pipe bomb was also discovered at the Republican National Committee headquarters nearby. The FBI has released images of the pipe bombs being planted the night before. The suspect is still at large. The FBI has said the pipe bombs were viable, but the timers didn’t go off.
Harris’ evacuation was first reported by Politico.
Michael Kaplan and Nicole Sganga contributed to this report.
