Storming the Capitol: ITV News team who filmed pictures that shocked world reveal inside story

ITV News Washington Correspondent Robert Moore, producer Sophie Alexander, and camera operator Mark Davey were the only news crew who filmed the rioters as they stormed Capitol Hill on January 6. Their report shocked America and the world.

An ITV documentary with never-before-seen pictures filmed by the team on that defining day in America airs on Tuesday night.

Just after 2pm local time on January 6, a crowd of a hundred rioters broke through the fragile police lines around Congress and stormed the complex.

It was a stunning police failure and a huge coup for this ragtag band of far right militants.

We entered with the crowd, stumbling into the marbled halls of Congress, as they breached the inner sanctum of American democracy.

We filmed them as they headed for the Senate, invaded the crypt, ransacked Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, and prayed under the giant dome of the Rotunda. 

Now in an ITV documentary, Storming the Capitol: The Inside Story, we reveal what exactly happened and what we saw.

Watch Robert Moore's report from inside the US Capitol on January 6

Much of it is unseen footage of the wild antics of these insurrectionists.  

President-elect Joe Biden has described them as “domestic terrorists.”  

At the time - as we were racing around the corridors with them - we were puzzled about their intentions.

So we stopped them in their tracks and asked them what they were doing. Their answers - a real-time insight into a mob as it was in full stride - told me a great deal about their motives and ideology.

Many didn’t regard it as an invasion at all. They see Congress as the “People’s House” and they told me they had every right to be here.

Others told me that they were law-abiding citizens radicalised by their own government. This was their attempt to be heard.

All had a visceral anger towards Democrats and a conviction that the election had been stolen. 

What defines this group is the depth and darkness of the conspiracy theories they hold. They have contempt for the media, and many see Congress as being riddled with criminals and communists.

There was a venom in their language - an anger in their stride - that revealed this to be a far more serious breach of security than first understood.

Five people have died as a result of the assault on Congress, including a woman who was trying to get through the last line of defence and into the Chamber.

She was shot dead by a security agent. 

When they reached the office of Speaker Pelosi, we saw for ourselves the fury of the protesters.

They ransacked her office and tore down the wooden nameplate and held up a splinter as a trophy. 

Now America is facing the threat of new political violence just eight days ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden.

From what I saw, it’s a real danger. When white militancy, bitterness over a lost election, and ominous conspiracy theories all collide, then democracy is in peril.

Watch Storming the Capitol: The Inside Story on ITV at 10.45pm on Tuesday 12 January, or catch up on the ITV Hub.

Listen to our US election podcast - Robert Moore on reporting on the Capitol riots