Speaking to a gaggle of reporters this Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was asked if he watched the House select committee’s first hearing in its investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
“Did you watch any of the hearing today?” a reporter asked.
“No, I didn’t,” McConnell replied.
“Why not?” the reporter asked. Continue reading.
Officers testifying ask for answers on which public officials were involved
After hearing hours of gripping testimony from four police officers who endured grave physical and emotional wounds during the Capitol attack, the Jan. 6 select committee members will have time to digest those accounts before the next hearing, which could happen at some point in August.
“It sets the right tone for the work of this committee,” Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said of the four officers’ stories. “But it also says that there is significant work that we have to do over the next few months.”
It’s unclear what the exact focus of the panel will be in the second hearing, but when Thompson asked the officers what they need to see from this inquiry, they relayed that they wanted to know what role elected officials had in it. Continue reading.
WASHINGTON — One officer described how rioters attempted to gouge out his eye and called him a traitor as they sought to invade the Capitol.
Another told of being smashed in a doorway and nearly crushed amid a “medieval” battle with a pro-Trump mob as he heard guttural screams of pain from fellow officers.
A third said he was beaten unconscious and stunned repeatedly with a Taser as he pleaded with his assailants, “I have kids.”
A fourth relayed how he was called a racist slur over and over again by intruders wearing “Make America Great Again” garb. Continue reading.
The House select committee’s first hearing Tuesday to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol was as personal as it was probing.
Sober verbal accounts from four police officers who came under physical and psychological attack that day were combined with raw video footage of rioters shouting epithets and using physical force against law enforcement.
The panel hearing the testimony was unusually united — especially for present-day Washington. It included seven Democrats and two Republicans all handpicked by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Continue reading.
During hearing, Justice Department announces another arrest
Officers who fought to defend the Capitol from insurrectionists on Jan. 6 recounted in vivid and disturbing detail how close they came to death, what lasting effects they live with and the pain it causes them when the very members of Congress they fought to protect dismiss what happened that day.
The first public hearing on Tuesday of the select committee to investigate the attack put on display the terrifying brutality they were subject to. Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., commended the four officers who testified. “You held the line that day. I can’t overstate what was on the line: our democracy,” Thompson said. “You held the line.”
Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, who served in the Army in Iraq, said at one point during the fighting in the lower west terrace, he could feel himself “losing oxygen” and recalled thinking, “This is how I’m going to die — defending this entrance.” Continue reading.
Officers testifying ask for answers on which public officials were involved
After hearing hours of gripping testimony from four police officers who endured grave physical and emotional wounds during the Capitol attack, the Jan. 6 select committee members will have time to digest those accounts before the next hearing, which could happen at some point in August.
“It sets the right tone for the work of this committee,” Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said of the four officers’ stories. “But it also says that there is significant work that we have to do over the next few months.”
It’s unclear what the exact focus of the panel will be in the second hearing, but when Thompson asked the officers what they need to see from this inquiry, they relayed that they wanted to know what role elected officials had in it. Continue reading.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday said the panel looking into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol “will not let” GOP “antics stand in the way” of the investigation, offering her first detailed remarks on her rejection of two Republican lawmakers for the committee.
“It’s my responsibility as Speaker of the House to make sure we get to the truth on this, and we will not let their antics stand in the way of that,” Pelosi said at a press conference on Thursday.
Drama unfolded on Wednesday after Pelosi announced that she was rejecting two of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) five nominees, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.). Continue reading.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has decided not to participate in the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot on the Capitol, yanking all of his GOP picks in protest of Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s (D-Calif.) decision to reject two top Republicans.
“Unless Speaker Pelosi reverses course and seats all five Republican nominees, Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts,” he said in a statement.
A Pelosi spokesman quickly shot down the possibility that Pelosi might reverse course. Continue reading.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday rejected two of the Republican picks — Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio) and Jim Banks (Ind.) — for the Jan. 6 select committee.
Both GOP lawmakers are staunch allies of former President Trump, and both had voted in January against certifying President Biden‘s election victory.
In a statement, Pelosi said Democrats in her caucus had raised specific objections to Jordan and Banks “and the impact their appointments may have on the integrity of the investigation.” Continue reading.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) faces a daunting task as he weighs his options for appointing Republicans to a special committee to investigate the Capitol attack of Jan. 6.
Formally, his picks need approval from Democratic leaders, who wrote the rules for the panel. Informally, McCarthy’s choices can’t upset former President Trump, who remains the party’s kingmaker. And internally, they can’t alienate one faction of McCarthy’s conference or another, which could threaten his chances of becoming Speaker if the House flips in next year’s midterm elections.
Yet there’s a fourth complication, as well: A number of lawmakers say they’re simply not interested in being on the committee. Continue reading.
