Panic buttons ripped out of ‘Squad’ member’s office before Capitol riot, aide says

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Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s chief of staff, Sarah Groh, said in the midst of last week’s Capitol riots, she came to find that the panic buttons had been torn out of the Massachusetts Democrat’s office. 

As pro-Trump protesters barreled their way through security and into the Capitol, Pressley’s staffers barricaded the entrance to the office with furniture and water jugs, she said. Groh added she pulled out gas masks and looked for the panic buttons she knew were located in the office.

"Every panic button in my office had been torn out — the whole unit," she told The Boston Globe. Groh said she couldn’t figure out why, as she’d used them before in that office. 

Fox News has reached out to Groh to see if the office is investigating the matter. 

Groh said that, due to their bosses’ frequently-targeted "Squad" status, it had become routine for staffers to run safety drills in the office. 

"I had gas masks in my hand, barricaded the doors to our office with furniture & tried to throw our panic buttons within a few minutes of sending this," Groh had tweeted in the early morning after the attack. "We are ok but this is not ok. White supremacist terrorism. That’s what this is."

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After locking down in their offices, lawmakers and their staff were moved to a safe, undisclosed location. 

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Both Groh and Pressley confirmed that they left the "safe room" for a less secure location because some of their Republican colleagues were not wearing masks. 

"The second I realized our ‘safe room’ from the violent white supremacist mob included treasonous, white supremacist, anti masker Members of Congress who incited the mob in the first place, I exited. Furious that more of my colleagues by the day are testing positive," Pressley wrote on Twitter. 

Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., Brad Schnieder, D-Ill., and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-Wash., all tested positive for COVID-19 after locking down with lawmakers amid the riots. 

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Congress called a recess on its joint session to certify the electoral college results last Wednesday as riotous Trump supporters breached the Capitol in a charge that left five dead and offices, including that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, ransacked.