Heard on the Hill

Photos of the year so far: Turbulent times

By Tom Williams, Caroline Brehman, and Bill Clark
Posted August 6, 2021 at 1:30pm

With photos of the week taking a recess until September, this special edition gallery takes a look back at the extraordinary first seven months of 2021 on Capitol Hill as seen by CQ Roll Call photojournalists.

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., comforts Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., while taking cover as rioters disrupt the joint session of Congress to certify the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, 2021. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
From left, Doug Emhoff, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Jill Biden and President-elect Joe Biden wave from the Capitol steps as they arrive for the inauguration at the Capitol on Jan. 20, 2021. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
National Guard troops, brought in for added security following the Jan. 6 riot, tour the Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 25, 2021. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
A Capitol Police honor guard escorts the urn containing the remains of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick out of the Capitol after lying in honor in the Rotunda on Feb. 3, 2021. Sicknick died a day after suffering injuries during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Attorneys for former President Donald Trump William J. Brennan, left, and Michael van der Veen fist-bump each other on the Senate subway after Trump was acquitted during the impeachment trial in the Senate on Feb. 13, 2021. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
The security fence topped with razor wire surrounds the Capitol on Feb. 16, 2021. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., speaks to reporters as Ward 6 D.C. Councilman Charles Allen, left, listens outside the Capitol security fence about removing the barrier on March 13, 2021. Dozens of Capitol Hill and D.C. residents held a protest at the fence on East Capitol Street to voice their displeasure with it. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
Capitol Police investigate the scene after Officer William "Billy" Evans was killed when a vehicle drove into the north security barrier at the Capitol on April 2, 2021. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
An honor guard carries the casket of Capitol Police Officer William "Billy" Evans into the Capitol on April 13, 2021. Evans was killed on April 2, 2021, in a violent incident at a security checkpoint on the Capitol grounds. (Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call)
President Joe Biden fist-bumps Vice President Kamala Harris as Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., claps at the end of his address to the joint session of Congress on April 28, 2021. (Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call)
A squirrel snacks on a Snickers candy bar around lunchtime in Upper Senate Park outside the Capitol on May 12, 2021. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
Graduating U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen celebrate at the end of the academy's graduation and commissioning ceremony in Annapolis, Md., on May 28, 2021. (Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call)
J. Thomas Manger, the new chief of the Capitol Police, gestures during his swearing-in ceremony on the steps of Capitol on July 23, 2021. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., flanked from left by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., and Al Green, D-Texas, speaks to supporters on the House steps of the Capitol on Aug. 3, 2021, after the CDC announced a short-term extension of the federal eviction moratorium. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)