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In this most political and partisan of cities, pubs rang out to the sound of ex-FBI director James Comey's testimony and the cheers of thousands of Washingtonians who had dodged work to hang on every word.
At Duffy's Pub in inner DC, Angela stood out in her 'Comey is my Homey' t-shirt — she didn't want to give her last name because her husband is an FBI special agent.
"He purchased the shirt online after Comey's firing and after the rumours were being spread by the administration that the FBI rank and file hated Comey, which was not true," she said.
Angela drank a covfefe cocktail, referencing an infamously garbled Donald Trump tweet, and along with almost all the crowd — remember more than 90 per cent of the city voted for Hillary Clinton — were cheering for the former FBI director.
"The FBI in general was very supportive of director Comey and was very upset by the way it was handled," Angela said.
"So he purchased the shirt online and asked me if I wouldn't mind wearing it today.
"He's at work so he knew I was coming down here today to wear it."
Dana Browne brought her five-month-old son, Beau, along.
The pub was so crowded she and others spilled out on to the footpath, shielding their eyes against the sun to follow the action on the outdoor television.
This was arguably the most anticipated congressional hearing in decades and Ms Browne wanted photos to show her son when he grows up.
"I'm here today to partially be involved in the community, but also so that Beau knows he was here when Comey came forward," she said.
"I think that this is going to be a pretty historic moment in our history and when he looks at maybe some photos or something he knows that he has the power to be involved."
As Ms Browne and the hundreds of patrons watched on they react to the accusations Mr Trump interfered with the independence of the FBI — most notably in appearing to ask for an investigation into his sacked national security adviser Mike Flynn to be dropped.
"Unfortunately I'm not surprised that that happened," she said.
"I'm glad that he took meticulous notes and I'm hoping that this is a step in the right direction."
'You know we have an aspiring dictator'
This was clearly a partisan crowd. Republicans are already diminishing the testimony, but Jose Molinas was shocked.
"I don't know, man, it's really dark," he said.
"You know we have an aspiring dictator, the only thing we can do now is hope that we have sufficient legal safeguards that are going to get rid of him."
On Capitol Hill, staffers and interns began arriving at dawn to secure a spot for the testimony.
Democratic intern Samantha Sharkoff said she came to see history made.
"I woke up at three o'clock in the morning, finally got here, we all got here close to 4:15, finally got in line in the senate at five o'clock in the morning. We were the first people in line," she said.
With the warm spring weather and drink specials, Benjamin Higgs hoped the significance of the recently fired director of the FBI testifying against the President would not be lost.
"This is a huge media circus," he said,
"Everyone's interested, but frankly what we're talking about is a foreign power trying to interfere in the democratic processes of our nation."
Topics: world-politics, donald-trump, united-states
First posted