Only Congress can find out if anyone in power had a role in attack, Hodges says
Officer Hodges urged the panel to continue investigating to figure out if anyone in power played a role in the attack.
“I need you guys to address if anyone in power had a role in this, if anyone in power coordinated, or aided or abetted, or tried to downplay, tried to prevent the investigation of this terrorist attack, because we can’t do it,” said Hodges, in response to a question as to what the officers would expect the committee to accomplish in their investigation.
Separately, Officer Fanone asked for an investigation into the activities leading up to Jan. 6 which may have resulted in the attack. And also whether or not there was collaboration between members and “these terrorists,” he said.
Hearing adjourns
Right at about 1 p.m., Chairman Thompson adjourned Tuesday’s hearing, after roughly three and a half hours of testimony from four police officers at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Dunn says Cheney, Kinzinger are lauded as heroes: ”Why? Because they told the truth?’
Officer Dunn responded to the idea that people are trying to make Jan. 6 political, saying that “it’s not a secret that it was political.”
“They literally were there to stop the steal,” Dunn said about Trump’s supporters. “So when people say it shouldn’t be political, it was and it is. There’s no getting around that.”
Dunn said that telling the truth shouldn’t be hard.
“Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are being lauded as courageous heroes. And while I agree with that notion, why? Because they told the truth? Why is telling the truth hard? I guess in this America, it is.”
He said it was hard fighting on Jan. 6, showing up to work the day after and when the fence outside the Capitol came down. He said that they lost their “layer of protection.”
“The fence came down and still nothing has changed. Everything is different but nothing has changed,” he said.
Former Trump officials can testify about efforts to overturn election, DOJ says
The Justice Department has told several former Trump administration officials that they can answer questions from Congress about efforts by President Donald Trump or department officials to challenge, stop the counting or overturn the results of the presidential election.
The letters are being sent to former officials who were asked to testify to or answer further questions from the House Oversight and Senate Judiciary committees, according to Justice Department and congressional officials Tuesday.
The news came as officers who defended the Capitol from the mob testified during the first hearing of the Jan. 6 select committee. Read more on the story here.
Officer Hodges says rioters were ‘terrorists’ then reads from U.S. code to back him up
Officer Hodges came prepared.
He understood why some people might take issue with his description of the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters as domestic terrorists. He then read directly from U.S. code defining such actors.
“I can see why someone would take issue with the title of terrorist. It’s gained a lot of notoriety in our vocabulary in the past few decades, and we like to believe, ‘No, that can’t happen here, no domestic terrorism, no homegrown threats,'” Hodges said.
He then read from U.S. Code Title 18 Part 1 Chapter 113B, section 2331, which defines terrorism.
It defines domestic terrorism as “acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.”
Rep. Murphy says she was hiding near where Officer Hodges was crushed holding back rioters
Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., began her questioning by thanking Officer Hodges and showing a video of him defending the Capitol entrance, revealing she was hiding in a location close to where he was holding back rioters.
Murphy said she was stationed about 40 feet away from the tunnel battle Hodges was engaged in and was with Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y.
“The reason I was able to hug [my family] again is because of the courage you and your fellow officers showed that day,” she said.
July 27, 202102:50
Dunn reflects on racial slurs he faced on Jan. 6 as representative of America
Rep. Schiff asked Officer Dunn about the racial epithets he faced and if he felt this was representative of America at large.
“I guess, it sounds silly but I guess it is American,” Dunn said. “But it’s not the side of America that I like. It’s not the side that any of us here represent. We represent the good side of America, people that actually believe in decency, human decency, and we appeal to, just the good in people. That’s what we want to see.”
Dunn added that he is glad Republicans are also part of the committee.
“That’s encouraging. It’s encouraging, so that’s the side of America that I say, ‘Yes, this is America,'” Dunn said. “This is the side that I like and the side that I acknowledge.”
Schiff also tears up: ‘It must be an Adam thing today’
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., choked up near the conclusions of his questioning of the select committee’s witnesses, commending the officers for risking their lives.
“It must be an Adam thing today,” said Schiff, referring to Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the panel, who had previously gotten emotional during his allotted questioning time.
“I believe in this country and I believe in it because of people like you who understand what the flag means and what our constitution means and risk their lives to defend it,” Schiff said.
Hodges explains why he and many other officers didn’t shoot at rioters
Hodges said that he and likely many other officers didn’t shoot at the rioters because they feared it would escalate the situation.
“I was wondering how many more bombs are there? What’s the trigger? Is it going to be a cellphone? Is it on a timer? How many guns are there…if we start firing, is that the signal to set off the explosives?” Hodges said in his testimony.
“That’s the reason why I didn’t shoot anyone,” he said.
Hodges said there were about 9,000 “terrorists” at the Capitol that day and only a couple hundred officers.
“If that turned into a firefight, we would have lost and this was a fight we couldn’t afford to lose,” he said.
Gonell calls attack ‘an attempted coup,’ says U.S. would have sent help to another country
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., showed Jan, 6. body camera footage from Sgt. Gonell, who called the attack on the Capitol an “attempted coup.”
“If it had been another country, the U.S. would have sent help,” Gonell said.
“They were calling us traitors,” Gonell said about Trump’s supporters, “Even though they were the one doing, committing the treasonous acts that day.”
Referring to why he wanted to return to his job at the Capitol despite concerns from his family, Gonell said Tuesday, “My sense of duty for the country, for the Constitution, at that time was bigger than even my love for my wife and my, my son. I put that ahead.”
July 27, 202103:24
‘I was up s— creek without a paddle’: Officer Fanone describes mob attacking him
Fanone, an officer with the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, recalled being violently assaulted from every direction and eventually pulling himself away.
“I knew I was up s— creek without a paddle,” he said, breaking his emotional testimony to chuckle softly at the cliché. His tone then turned serious as he walked the panel through a video clip of his body camera footage from the attack that had just been been shown.
“I was trying to push guys off of me, create some space.” Fanone said.
Individuals were trying to grab Fanone’s gun and he specifically remembers one of them lunging at him, time and time again. “I heard people in the crowd yelling, ‘Get his gun. Kill him with his own gun.'”
Fanone said he thought about using his weapon and believed there were individuals who wanted to kill him.
July 27, 202111:16
While the mood in the room has been somber as the officers testify, there’s a noticeable shift when video footage plays. As the clip from Fanone’s body camera aired, the officers watched, with Fanone looking away very briefly at one point.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., kept glancing between the video and the officers. All committee members were listening intently as Fanone described the scene.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
