NORFOLK, Va. — Experts are taking a closer look at what Wednesday’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building means for the nation's security.
There are growing calls for an investigation into what happened, and a lot of questions remain. On the day after the attempted coup, political and security analysts are taking a close look at what could happen next.
One of them is Dr. Benjamin Melusky, a political science professor at Old Dominion University.
“The events that occurred yesterday really were unprecedented,” said Melusky. “The overall scale and scope of it overwhelmed the capacity of our public officials to respond in the moment.”
A violent mob stormed the Capitol and got by Capitol Police, tearing away barricades. They shattered windows to get into the building and even entered the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
It was an effort to disrupt the counting of electoral votes.
Photos: Trump supporters storm US capitol during Electoral College affirmation
During a press conference Thursday, President-elect Joe Biden said President Trump incited the insurrection.
During a rally Wednesday, Trump spoke before a crowd of supporters.
“We’re gonna march down to the Capitol, because we'll never take back our country with weakness," said Trump.
Biden said those words encouraged the violent mob.
"What we witnessed yesterday, it was not dissent, disorder, or protest. It was chaos,” said Biden. “I wish we could say we couldn’t see it coming, but that isn’t true. We could see it coming."
On Thursday, Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released a statement saying in part: “A painstaking investigation and thorough review must now take place and significant changes must follow.”
Melusky said Wednesday’s insurrection has an impact on perception.
“Public buildings being viewed as soft targets, they are open access,” said Melusky. “But they’re the people’s building and from a general public perception, they should not be feared.”
Melusky said moving forward, law enforcement officials will likely make policy changes to prevent it from happening again.
“The public can look at this as this happened, and our government will learn from it. Put it in the context of post 9/11... something very terrible happened to our country. It took us some time to analyze and put in the means to consider a proportional response and how to plan and predict for the future,” said Melusky.
At the end of the night, democracy prevailed. Congress reconvened and worked overnight until they certified the election.
“Mere hours after this happened congress, the joint session resumed. They carried out their duty to certify the votes on January 6th. We maintained that temporal aspect to do what we needed to do. We’re looking ahead to inauguration day,” said Melusky.