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A Utah senator who helped run the show on inauguration day wants to know why thousands of people couldn't get to see the big moment.
Sen. Bob Bennett says many people with tickets were stranded outside of the security gates. Videos on YouTube show crowds that were stuck in the 3rd Street tunnel or behind gates as the ceremony began.
Bennett explained on Utah's Morning News today, "We had a number of my constituents from Utah, along with thousands of other people, who were stuck in a tunnel for something like six hours, unable to get out, unable to get anybody from the police department to come down."
"It's just incomprehensible to me how that happened. We're going to try to the very best we can to find out why," he said.
Sen. Bennett is on the inaugural committee and says he's sorry people were not able to get their seats. The committee is seeking comments from people who were affected at feedback@jccic.senate.gov.
The senator also spoke about his experience at the inauguration. Play the audio to listen to that.
Meanwhile, there were no problems seeing the inauguration back in Utah. It was a big event on TV.
On any given weekday morning at 10:00, about 20 percent of the nearly 920,000 Utah households with TVs are tuned in. On Tuesday, it was 46 percent.
Also, nearly 29 percent of the TVs that were on Tuesday morning were watching the inauguration on NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC and PBS. That doesn't include the cable news channels.
E-mail: mrichards@ksl.com
E-mail: athomas@ksl.com
