House Democrats hold first Jan. 6 committee hearing
House Democrats kicked off their first hearing Tuesday as part of their probe into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — with four law enforcement officers, including two Capitol Police officers, testifying about their experiences.
House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who is also chairing the select committee investigating the riot, delivered an opening statement decrying former President Donald Trump — making clear his efforts to tie him to the riot.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), one of two Republicans serving on the select committee, followed Thompson to deliver opening remarks of her own.
The four witnesses for Tuesday’s proceedings — Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell of the Capitol Police, and Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges of the DC Metro Police — are then expected to deliver their own statements.
However, the select committee and its probe have already been marred by partisan politics, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) last week rejecting two key Republicans appointed by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
An hour before the hearing began, Republican House leaders accused Pelosi of creating a partisan committee to push her narrative of events that day and to hide her role in the Capitol Police being unprepared for the mob despite earlier warnings from the FBI.
“Two questions for this entire committee should be: Why were we so ill prepared for that day? And how can we make sure this never happens again?” McCarthy said at the presser.
“And that’s what should drive the committee. If there may be buildup before that day that you’re going to have to investigate, Speaker Pelosi worked six months trying to make sure that would never happen,” he said, adding that the panel will not investigate the killing of a Capitol Police officer in April when he was rammed by a car.
“Why wouldn’t we then ask the tough questions and make sure the Capitol Police have the resources, the training and the equipment, that is what’s being withheld and that’s what we complain about,” said McCarthy.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Pelosi rejected McCarthy’s selection of GOP Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana because they were asking “tough questions” about what led up to and what happened on Jan. 6.
“But what we’re here to talk about today is Speaker Pelosi’s constant attempt to cover up facts that she doesn’t want out there. For weeks now, Jim Jordan and Jim Banks have been raising some very tough questions, questions that need to be answered about why Speaker Pelosi didn’t make sure that Capitol Police had all the tools they needed to be prepared for that day,” Scalise said at the presser.
Thompson during his opening remarks showed a new video of the Capitol siege.
It showed the crowd running down the hallways of the Capitol, some yelling, “Hang [Vice President] Mike Pence. Where is Nancy?”
Another said: “Brother, boots on the ground here. We’re moving on to Capitol now. Give you a boots-on-the-ground update here.”
The video showed the crowd pounding on doors, smashing windows and crawling through them to gain access to the Capitol.
“Apparently, this tip of the spear has entered the Capitol building,” one of the rioters called out.
Thompson said the committee will “follow the facts where they lead us.”
“We know that the insurrection on January 6th was a violent attack that involved vicious assault on law enforcement. We know there is evidence in a coordinated, planned attack. We know that men and women who stormed the Capitol wanted to derail the peaceful transfer of power in this country,” Thompson said.
Cheney, in her opening statement, said she believes the gravity of the attack on the Capitol warrants a thorough investigation and for those who participated to be held accountable.
“We cannot leave the violence of January 6th — and its causes — uninvestigated. The American people deserve the full and open testimony of every person with knowledge of the planning and preparation for January 6th. We must know what happened here at the Capitol. We must also know what happened every minute of that day in the White House — every phone call, every conversation, every meeting leading up to, during and after the attack,” she told the panel.
“Honorable men and women have an obligation to step forward. If those responsible are not held accountable, and if Congress does not act responsibly, this will remain a cancer on our constitutional republic, undermining the peaceful transfer of power at the heart of our democratic system.”
The officers testifying before the panel described a chaotic scene in which the mob, some of whom were wearing tactical gear, pummeled them and called out racial epithets, mocked them as “traitors” and tried to pry weapons away from them.
Fanone said the scene was “unlike anything I had ever seen” in his 20 years with the department.
He said protesters in the crowd chanted, “Kill him with his own gun” and tased him during the attack.
“I can still hear those words in my head today,” Fanone said.
Fanone, who visited with lawmakers after the riot to win support for the select committee, had harsh words for those who downplay the events of Jan. 6.
“I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them and the people in this room, but too many are now telling me that hell doesn’t exist, or that hell actually wasn’t that bad. The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful,” Fanone said.
Gonell recounted how he was punched and cursed at as protesters tried to knock him to the ground.
“I can remember losing oxygen and thinking to myself, ‘This is how I’m going to die, defending this entrance,'” he said.
“I fell on top of some police shields on the ground that were slippery because the pepper spray and bear spray. Rioters immediately began to pull me by my leg, by my shield, by my gear strap on my left shoulder. My survival instincts kicked in and I started kicking and punching as I tried to get the officer’s attention behind me. They could not help me because they also were being attacked,” Gonell said, adding that the attack was “like something from a medieval battle.”
In emotional opening remarks, Hodges, a DC cop, described being physically assaulted during the attack while he and other officers were unable to hold the line.
“Several attempted to knock me over and steal my baton. One latched on to my face and got his thumb in my right eye, attempting to gouge it out. I cried out in pain and managed to shake him off. I managed to shake him off before any permanent damage was done,” he said.
“I couldn’t fully engage anyone, for the moment I did when another 20 terrorists moved in to attack while my hands were full. It was all we could do to keep ourselves on our feet and continue to fall back. I was sprayed with a fire extinguisher, and a red smoke grenade burns at our feet,” he continued.
“In the fight, a terrorist is knocked to the ground and his jacket rides up, exposing a large hunting knife on his belt. I along with several other officers piled on him while another removed the knife from his person. He regained himself unarmed and shouts, ‘What are you doing? What are you guys doing?'”
Dunn described how he and other black officers were pelted with racial comments.
He said protesters told him they were there to “stop the steal” and said nobody voted for Joe Biden.
But Dunn said he did and asked if his vote counted: “Am I nobody?” he said he asked them.
“That prompted a torrent of racial epithets. One woman in a pink MAGA shirt yelled, ‘You hear that, guys, this n—-r voted for Joe Biden,'” Dunn said.
At that point, the crowd began chanting, “Boo, f—ing n—-r.”
“No one had ever called a n—-r while wearing the uniform of a Capitol Police officer,” he said.
During questioning by Cheney, Gonell was asked about Trump’s comments that the crowd was “loving,” and it turned into an awkward response for which he later apologized.
“It’s a pathetic excuse for his behavior for something that he himself helped to create, this monstrosity,” Gonell replied. “I’m still recovering from those ‘hugs and kisses’ that day.
“If that was hugs and kisses, we should all go to his house and do the same thing to him,” he continued, referring to Trump. “To me, it’s insulting, it’s demoralizing because everything that we did was to prevent everyone in the Capitol from getting hurt.”
He later apologized for the veiled threat of a call to action against the ex-president before another line of questioning.
“Before I start, by no means am I suggesting that we will go to his house. I apologize for my outburst,” Gonell said.
Kinzinger got emotional and choked back tears when he addressed the officers, whom he said he has gotten to know.
“I think it’s important to tell you right now, though, you guys may individually feel a little broken. You guys all talked about the effects you have to deal with and you talked about the impact of that day. But you guys won. You guys held,” he said, swallowing tears.
“Democracies are not defined by our bad days. They’re defined by how we can back from bad days, how we take accountability for all that,” Kinzinger continued.
Originally, Thompson struck a deal with House Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member John Katko (R-NY) on a bipartisan commission to investigate the attack in mid-May.
But McCarthy and Scalise came out against the compromise commission after Trump lashed out at the idea in a statement.
Democrats led by Pelosi then pursued creating their own select committee — minus many of the previous requirements ensuring fairness.
The new select committee also gave Pelosi the power to reject McCarthy’s GOP appointments to the panel, which she did with Jordan and Banks.
Pelosi said she was concerned about the “integrity” of the probe in light of comments and actions the two Republicans made about Jan. 6.
Jordan, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Banks, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, have remained two of Trump’s top defenders in Congress.
McCarthy ultimately opted to pull all five of his selections from serving on the panel, vowing Republicans would launch their own investigation of the deadly riot.
Republicans have accused Pelosi of politicizing the investigation, but she claimed last week that her commission is “not even bipartisan, it’s nonpartisan,” adding that it is about “seeking the truth.”
“We’re there to seek the truth, we’re there to get the truth, not to get Trump,” she said. “Trump seems to be what the other side is obsessed with.”
Members of Congress were forced to evacuate in gas masks after a mob of Trump supporters overpowered Capitol Police and breached the building.
Pence was presiding over proceedings to certify then-President-elect Biden’s electoral win at the time.
The House on Jan. 13 voted to impeach Trump over his role in the Jan. 6 siege, though he was acquitted in a Senate trial.
