The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

The investigation in Congress of the assault on the Capitol begins with the testimony of brutally assaulted police officers

2021-07-27T15:59:09.667Z


The agents who tried to stop supporters of former President Trump will relate how they were attacked and insulted. "We are going to tell this story from the beginning," declared a Democrat on the House panel.


By Mary Clare Jalonick - The Associated Press

The commission that investigates the assault on the federal Capitol on January 6 began its first hearing on Tuesday, hearing the testimonies of agents who were attacked and beaten by a mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

Five people died as a result of the assault.

Policemen were beaten, trampled, crushed, and sprayed with irritating chemicals.

They received racist insults and were threatened with their own weapons when Congress confirmed Joe Biden's presidential victory in the November 2020 elections.

Muggers trying to enter the Capitol.

Jose Luis Magana / AP

"We're going to tell this story from the beginning," said Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who sits on the House committee.

"The moral center of gravity are these officers who risked their lives for us," he said. 

Capitol Police officers Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell, and Metropolitan Police officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges are expected to testify.

In previous interviews, Dunn claimed that the attackers yelled racist insults at him and engaged him in what appeared to him to be hand-to-hand combat as he tried to restrain them. 

Six months after the assault on the Capitol there are 500 detainees, but the investigation is far from over

July 7, 202102: 04

Gonell, an Iraqi veteran, detailed the foot operation he had to undergo and the injuries he struggled to recover from.

Fanone, on his side, described how he was dragged down the steps of the Capitol by the mob, who shocked him with a stun gun and beat him.

Hodges was hit and crushed between two doors.

The cameras captured his bloody face and his cries of anguish.

The panel's first hearing comes at a time when partisan tensions have only worsened since the insurrection, as many Republicans downplay, or outright deny, the violence that occurred, and denounce that the investigation run by the Democrats is politically motivated.

Democrats recall the brutality of the attack, and as law enforcement officers sworn to protect the Capitol, they suffered serious injuries at the hands of rioters.

[Assault on the Capitol: a dramatic 4 hour timeline in 4 minutes]

"What we really want to communicate during the hearing is what it meant to be in the front line for these brave police officers. How vastly outmatched they were, how well militarized the crowd members were," said the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Representative, Adam Schiff, also a member of the panel. 

The goal is "to inform the public of what really happened that day, particularly in light of efforts to whitewash that part of our history," Schiff insisted.

Trump supporters storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021.John Minchillo / AP

The committee chairman, Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson, noted that this hearing will "set the tone" for the investigation: it will examine not only Trump's role in the insurrection, but that of right-wing groups involved in prior coordination of the attack. among which there are white supremacists.

On the other hand, it will also evaluate the failures that could be committed at the security level, which allowed hundreds of people to break into the Capitol and force legislators to seek refuge.

Some of the attackers called for the death of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and then Vice President Mike Pence, who was hiding a few meters from the mob.

Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the panel, delivered the keynote address after Thompson.

The Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, withdrew the participation of other members of his party last week, after Pelosi rejected two of them, alleging that his "antics" in support of Trump and his lies about his alleged electoral victory were not appropriate for a serious investigation.

[The Capitol Police had information about the armed robbery weeks before the event, according to the Senate]

McCarthy has been close to Trump since the insurrection and has threatened to withdraw committee assignments from any Republicans who participate in the Jan.6 panel. 

Before the start of the hearing, McCarthy again called the process a "sham" and said Pelosi only wants the questions "that she wants" to be asked.

McCarthy told reporters that Pelosi should be investigated for her role in the security breaches that occurred that day, but ignored questions about then-Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, who had equal authority over police and officials from Capitol security.

"This is how I'm going to die": what this Latino sergeant thought when he faced assailants from the Capitol

July 6, 202102: 13

Outside a committee preparation session for Monday's hearing, Kinzinger told reporters: "For too long, we have been pretending that January 6 did not happen."

He added that he never expected to be in this position, "but when there are these conspiracies that continue to thrive, when there are lies and misinformation that continue to thrive, it is essential for members of Congress to come up with the answers."

Shortly after the assault, nearly all Republicans denounced the acts of the violent mob - and Trump himself, who told his supporters to "fight like hell" to overturn their defeat.

But many have softened their tone in recent months and weeks.

Others have gone further: Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde compared images of the rioters to "a normal tourist visit," while Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar repeatedly said that a woman who was shot and killed by police while trying to break in in the House of Representatives she was "executed."

Some have falsely claimed that Democrats or liberal groups were responsible for the attack.

[The most disturbing images of the assault on the US Capitol by pro-Trump protesters]

On Tuesday, a group of Republicans plans to hold a press conference about the insurgents who were arrested, whom they call "prisoners."

Testifying officers have become increasingly politically active in recent months, going from office to office in May to pressure Senate Republicans to support an outside commission to investigate the insurrection.

The Senate Republican Party ultimately rejected that effort, despite the fact that that panel would have been distributed evenly among the parties.

In June, the group witnessed the House of Representatives voting to form its own investigation instead.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2021-07-27

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.