Secret Service witness reveals agents feared Pence compromise and were told to "say goodbye to family members"

During the Jan. 6 House select committee hearing on Thursday, a Secret Service witness said as rioters breached Capitol, Secret Service agents at the Capitol "didn't sound good right now" and had discussions of reinforcement. The Secret Service radio log also revealed that agents were told to "say goodbye" to family members.

Video Transcript

- The president's National Security Council staff was listening to these developments and tracking them in real time. On the screen, you can see excerpts from the chat logs among the National-- among the presidents National Council, National Security Council staff. At 2:13, the staff learned that the rioters were kicking in the windows at the Capitol.

Three minutes later, the staff said the Vise President was being pulled, which meant agents evacuated him from the Senate floor. At 2:24, the staff noted that the Secret Service agents at the Capitol did not, quote, "sound good right now." Earlier, you heard from a security professional who had been working in the White House complex on January 6 with access to relevant information and a responsibility to report to national security officials.

We asked this person what was meant by the comment that the Secret Service agents did not, quote, "sound good right now?" In the following clip of that testimony, which has been modified to protect the individual's identity, the professional discusses what they heard from listening to the incoming radio traffic that day.

- OK, that last entry on this page is service at the Capitol does not sound good right now.

- Correct.

- What does that mean?

- The members of the VP detail at this time were starting to fear for their own lives. There were a lot of-- there was a lot of yelling, a lot of very personal calls over the radio. So it was disturbing. I don't like talking about it.

But there were calls to say goodbye to family members, so on and so forth. It was getting-- for whatever the reason was on the ground, the VP detail thought that this was about to get very ugly.

- And did you hear that over the radio?

- Correct.

- What was the response by the agents, the Secret Service agents, who were there?

- Everybody kept saying-- at that point, it was just reassurances. Or, I think there were discussions of reinforcements coming. But again, it was just chaos. It was just yelling.

- Obviously you've conveyed that's disturbing. But what prompted you to put it into an entry as it states there, Service at the Capitol--

- If they're running out of options, and they're getting nervous, it sounds like we came very close to either service having to use lethal options or worse. At that point, I don't know. Is the VP compromised?