By Maya Liquigan and Addison Annis

Produced by Sydney Richardson

While on a 17-hour-long train ride back to Chicago, the Chronicle’s Maya Liquigan and Addison Annis reflect on their trip to Washington D.C. to report on Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president of the United States.

0:09: New York Penn Station

 0:11: You will be taking train 196 at gate letter D, as in “dog.”  

 0:19: Once again at 13. 

 0:23: Welcome to Chronicle Reports, the podcast that takes you behind headlines and inside the story. 

 0:33: I’m your host and Chronicle staff reporter, Maya Liquigan. 

 0:37: Deputy editor and photojournalist Addison Annis and I are on a 17-hour train ride back to Chicago after covering the inauguration of Donald Trump in Washington DC. 

 0:50: Listen as we recap our time in DC. 

 0:56: Dude, this is crazy. 

 0:58: Can you take a… there? 

 1:01: Our train has been delayed in a total of 6 hours. 

 1:08: Which has been very interesting to say the least. 

 1:11: It’s been a long ride. 

 1:13: It’s been a tiring one. 

 1:16: We’ve been on our feet for the past 48-hours almost and we’re, we’re excited to come back to Chicago, as I think everyone else on this train is too. 

 1:28: Yeah, I agree, I think. 

 1:31: We actually had a lot of delays during our entire trip. 

 1:36: I don’t know what I was expecting, but at least we are on our way home. 

 1:42: I think not having a plan is a big part of being a journalist because, at the end of the day, we’re here to report on what’s happening and what, and breaking news is never, like, consistent. 

 2:02: It’s always fluctuating, it’s always changing and so, I think this was, if anything, really good training for, you know, what, what being a journalist is really like. 

 2:13: For as much as we can prepare ourselves for anything that could happen, we kind of have to just go into it expecting nothing and let it all play out. 

 2:23: But I think that’s what kind of made it fun is that we were really out there being real reporters on Inauguration Day. 

 2:30: We started the day at 7 a.m., got downtown about 8-8:30. 

 2:37: And It was interesting because we got to Capital One Arena, which is where the largest- by far largest- watch party was happening for the inauguration. 

 2:52: And there was a huge mass of people waiting in line to get in, but you would walk the next street over and it, to me, almost felt like a ghost town. 

 3:02: Like, there was really no one else in Downtown DC on that day besides people waiting in line to get into the watch party, which I thought was really interesting. 

 3:10: It’s not what I was expecting. 

 3:11: I was expecting a lot more commotion. 

 3:13: I was expecting count, a lot more counter protests and that, we just didn’t see a whole lot of that at all and so it’s interesting to me that it seemed like people were almost just avoiding the city because of this event going on, and the only people really having a presence there were people just waiting in line to see the ceremony. 

 3:38: And it was the fact that there were so many people there already, at like 8 a.m. when we arrived, which was 4 hours before the swearing-in ceremony. 

 3:48: But in one of my interviews, they said that people were actually camping out there, which I thought was really interesting, especially since there seem to be a lot of people coming from around the country. 

 4:03: Yeah, when we got up to the front of the line before entering the security screening gates at Capital One Arena, there were masses of purses and bags like we talked about, but then we also saw, you know, blankets and tents kind of strewn off to the side. 

 4:21: I think it’s really hard as students who go to a very liberal art school in Chicago to not get sucked into a bubble and kind of sort of like an echo chamber and this goes for everyone

 4:36: No matter what you believe in. This experience has been really eye-opening because, while yes, I know that these ideologies and these people with these beliefs exist. 

 4:50: I don’t always experience that in my personal life firsthand. 

 4:54: Yeah, I will say one of the best interviews, or just one of my favorites that we did was really impromptu. 

 5:02: It was when Addi and I actually stepped into a coffee shop to, like, pull out our laptops and start working, and we ran into this mother-daughter duo who came all the way from Ireland. 

 5:20: And I think being able to capture their experience and hear how they felt being citizens of another country, but still supporting him so hard, was really interesting to me. 

 5:31: And I was just glad to have that opportunity, and also thank you Addi for pushing me to talk to them. 

 5:39: Yeah, yeah, I think that was a really interesting interview because it just, it goes to show that Trump has supporters far and wide. 

 5:46: One of my last interviews that I was doing, that one was really interesting. 

 5:53: At first, she didn’t talk much about being at the actual inauguration because, well, because she didn’t get to see it. 

 6:01: She said that she was in line for the Capital One Watch Party, but was cut the 100th person. 

 6:10: Like behind the entrance, so she didn’t get in. 

 6:13: And she was also at Trump’s last inauguration, so she had a lot to say about the crowd, and also being at the January 6th, yeah

6:27: January 6th Insurrection, yeah. 

 6:30: And I think that was really interesting 

 6:34: Only because I haven’t met someone firsthand who was there, and she was talking about her experience being there and how she really didn’t know how to feel, and she didn’t quite make it to the Capitol doors, but she was in the crowd with everybody. 

 6:52: That was one of the moments where I really had to just take in someone else’s perspective. 

 6:58: I will say that it was freezing for most of the day. 

 7:02: And I mean, even us from going to school in Chicago, we’re used to the cold and we’re used to being out in the cold for long periods of time. 

 7:12: But at some point, I really could not feel my face. 

 7:17: It was just numb. 

 7:19: And I think that goes to show how far we would go for a story, but at the end of the day, I think we did a really good job. 

 7:31: Mhm. 

 7:32: Yeah, I mean, news, news doesn’t stop for bad weather. 

 7:36: So, you know, we had a lot of mentors throughout the whole way.

 7:42: Shout out to Jackie Spinner who basically made this whole thing happen for us 

 7:49: And the journalists that we stayed with and crashed, crashed in their houses, whether it was overnight or just for a dinner. 

 7:58: I think what really helped me stay calm throughout the day was also knowing that we had a whole team back in Chicago who was helping me write and report the rest of the story. 

 8:11: Extremely also grateful for everyone who is involved on the back side of things because it definitely would have not came out.

 8:20: Ladies and gentlemen, this stop is Toledo, Ohio. 

 8:22: Toledo is your stop. 

 8:23: Please take this time to gather your belongings. 

 8:26: ….

 8:27: Now all doors are open. 

 8:29: Toledo will be your last chance, last chance for a cigarette or fresh air break. 

 8:34: You like to step up, smoke a cigarette, stretch your legs, and where you see a uniform. 

 8:40: Yeah, we have to go smoke a cigarette now, so.

 9:01 Thanks for listening to Chronicle Reports. 

 9:04: This has been your host, Maya Liquigan. 

 9:08: This episode was produced by Sydney Richardson and edited by Matt Brady. 

 9:14: Artwork by Lilly Sundsbak. 

 9:17: Our trip to D.C. was funded by alumni and our supporters through the Chronicle Gift Fund. 

 9:24: Thank you for your support. 

 9:27: Be sure to check out the Columbia Chronicle online for the latest stories, and stay tuned for more behind the scenes looks at our journalism.