RNC Says Bomb Found at HQ

The Republican National Committee says a pipe bomb was found at its headquarters Wednesday as rioters stormed the Capitol blocks away. The RNC said a package found next to a trash can outside the building was an "explosive device that was successfully detonated," the Washington Post reports. The nearby headquarters of the Democratic National Committee also was evacuated after a suspicious package was found, sources tell the New York Times. The FBI said in a statement that explosives experts went to the scenes and the devices were "rendered safe by the FBI and our law enforcement partners."

The RNC also issued a statement strongly condemning the violence at the Capitol. "These violent scenes we have witnessed do not represent acts of patriotism, but an attack on our country and its founding principles," the statement said. "Our Founding Fathers established a nation of laws, not a nation of anarchy." Michael Ahrens, the RNC's communications director, says what happened Wednesday "was domestic terrorism," per the AP. He says seeing the American flag used "in the name of unfounded conspiracy theories is a disgrace to the nation, and every decent American should be disgusted by it."

(More Republican National Committee stories.)