House Leader Promises Review of Ticket Holder Lock Out

WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) -- The Congressional Inaugural Committee is still trying to explain how thousands of people with tickets got locked out of President Obama's swearing in.

Most of them couldn't even hear or see from wear they stood stuck in a freeway tunnel or staring through shuttered security gates.

Some were elderly, some were children, some had traveled thousands of miles. Most are still mad.

YouTube fans who'd hope to put up awesome images of President Obama's inauguration instead were left to post video of frustration. "That line wasn't moving," one says with a rueful smile.

Thousands were routed into the 3rd Street tunnel before dawn. And thousands were still stuck there when Mr Obama recited the Oath of Office. "It looks like we were just in a colossal waste of time."

"We were supposed to be in here," says Karl Johnson of Arlington, pointing at his blue ticket. Johnson snagged tickets after volunteering for the Obama Campaign for two years. "We ended up in a massive block of about 5,000 people. And then they just shut the gates in front of us and wouldn't let anyone else in, even though we all had tickets."

The Senate Sergeant at Arms says he feels very bad for the thousands of people who were locked out. Authorities blame a whole bunch of problems. A generator to a magnetometer that went out. And a rowdy crowd that tried to rush the silver area. But many of the people who were shut out suspect the Congressional Committee printed too many tickets.

For Karl Johnson, the night got even worse. "This is a ticket for the Youth Ball," he says, waving another unused scrap of paper.

He bought tickets for one of the official inaugural balls -- and got locked out there too. "Ended up in line not moving at all to find out it had been oversold by several thousand tickets and the fire marshall had shut it down."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland says he's disappointed, but has few words to ease people's frustration.
He's a member of the Inaugural Committee, and he promises that the committee will try and figure out what went wrong.