I worked in the Senate, and there is no way Pence's "hideaway" could have held enough Secret Service agents to protect him from the terrorist mob

Mike Pence was rushed to a Senate "hideaway" 60 seconds before the mob breached the hallway Pence had just used. Ten minutes later, Trump attacked Pence by tweet.

During the attack on the Capitol, the Secret Service had spirited Mike Pence away to a Senator’s “hideaway” office just off the US Senate floor. (More on “hideaways” in a moment.)

Pence was moved literally one minute before the terrorist mob was in the same hallway he used to get to the hideaway — sixty seconds earlier, and the mob would have seen Pence and rushed him.

Pence’s secret location was incredibly close to the terrorist mob (only 100 feet away).

As a former Senate staffer, I’ve spent lots of time in US Capitol hideaways, and they’re not very big. It’s hard to image that Pence had enough Secret Service agents to save his life had the mob discovered him.

I worked for a US Senator back in the late 80s, early 90s. The most senior Senators are given “hideaway” offices off of the Senate floor, where they can go rest, or take meetings, during periods of especially busy legislating when they don’t have time to head back to their normal offices (a good block or two away) between votes.

My boss was pretty senior, and had a gorgeous hideaway with a view of the national mall, but it was only, maybe, 30 feet long by 15 feet wide, if that. It wasn’t that big.

Here’s a picture of then-Senator Barbara Mikulski’s hideaway. It might have been slightly bigger than my boss’, but I suspect the wide angle lens is making it look larger than it is.

And here’s a picture of then-Senator Ted Kennedy’s hideaway — Kennedy was a very senior member, and thus would have had a very nice hideaway. It’s just not that big.

Now, some have said that perhaps the reporter got it wrong, and Pence was in the Vice President’s Ceremonial Office, just off the Senate floor. Perhaps. But from a security perspective, I’m not sure I’d bring the VP to a room with his name on it. But also, that room appears to be just as small as the hideaways — see this video from C-SPAN.

The Vice President’s Ceremonial Office, via C-SPAN.

How many Secret Service agents can you fit in such a small space, and how many of them can safely have line-of-sight to the door, in order to open fire if necessary, while not at the same time hitting the other agents? I’d be very surprised if Pence had more, could fit more, than a dozen agents in there. And how could a dozen agents stop an immediate mob of several dozen, backed up by several thousand?

Here’s the exact timeline:

At 2:13pm ET, Pence was rushed from the Senate to the hideaway.

At 2:14pm ET, the rioters breached the hallway outside the Senate.

At 2:24pm ET, while Pence was still in hiding and the mob was still searching for him, Trump tweeted this attack on the vice president:

If the terrorists who had already been shouting “hang Pence” had gotten their hands on the vice president, and then saw Trump’s tweet blaming Pence for lacking the “courage” to “protect our country and our constitution,” what would they have done to the man who betrayed their country and stole Dear Leader’s presidency?