Ready to Run?
As we told you this morning, Capitol Hill was abuzz Wednesday night with the presence of Tom Hanks, Paul Giamatti and author David McCullough – all on hand to promote their new HBO miniseries, “John Adams.”
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What the VIPs didn’t realize is that they nearly got a big scare while they were in the Capitol.
As the bigwigs were making their way toward a reception in Statuary Hall with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a few partygoers noticed security agents rather forcefully and rudely pushing Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third-raking House Democrat, through the crowd and down the hall.
Turns out a plane had entered restricted airspace, and an alert went out – the first time that’s happened since the summer of 2005.
By the time Pelosi and her entourage entered the party, some staff were already making their way outside.
But according to U.S. Capitol Police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider, law enforcement was able to establish communication with the plane and “they were able to be redirected and landed safely.”
She also insisted that the police “didn’t order any evacuation,” but merely “restricted access” to the building.
But Majority Leader Harry Reid announced the alert from the Senate floor, and several people in the Capitol at the time said they were indeed evacuated. Clyburn spokeswoman Kristie Greco said, “We were alerted by the Capitol Police that we were at ‘Air-Con Orange’ [one level below a red-alert emergency] and we had to evacuate.”
Which they did, as did some of Speaker Pelosi’s staff and some reporters in the periodical gallery.
Tom Hanks was unharmed.
