I just spoke with our reporter on the ground at the Capitol in Madison. The plan was to clear out the Capitol building at 4 PM local time this afternoon — about 40 minutes from now. But at the moment it seems obvious they’re not going to meet that schedule. There are just too many people remaining in the building. Our reporter is now at a press conference with protestors who plan to non-violently refuse to leave the building, thus presumably forcing police to arrest them.
We’ll have more reports coming shortly.
Late Update: We’re less than 15 minutes before the capitol building is supposed to be cleared. The top two floors are almost totally cleared. But our reporter in the building says the bottom two floors are packed and loud with protestors chanting, “Hell no, we won’t go!”
Late Update: New chant “Stand our ground, stand our ground!” Looks like we’re heading toward some very peaceful protest theater, in the best sense of the word, in about 5 minutes.
Later Update: And it’s 4 PM in Madison and a ton of people are still in the building. Official announcement: The Capitol is now closed.
