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Thompson was followed by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Appointed to the panel alongside Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) After the top Republicans in the House avoided the committee.
Cheney said the panel should examine all facets of the facts regarding Jan.6, but also dig “every minute of this day in the White House,” a subtle but undeniable shot at the former president that she lost her place. GOP leader for criticizing.
“I have been a conservative Republican since 1984,” Cheney said, and I “strongly disagree on politics and politics” with all of the Democratic members of the chosen panel, but “at the end of the day we are a nation under God”.
“All of us on the platform voted for and would have preferred that these cases be investigated” by an independent and bipartite commission, she added. While 35 House Republicans backed legislation to create such a riot inquiry, Senate Republicans have blocked its passage.
Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, who immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic, said he was “more scared” on January 6 than he had been during his entire deployment to Iraq. He “didn’t recognize” the rioters on January 6 and was “shocked” to see rioters use the American flag they “claimed to want to protect,” he said, wiping tears from his face.
What the officers were subjected to looked like “a medieval battle,” Gonell said. “I felt myself losing oxygen” and “telling myself this is how I’m going to die” as he was run over by rioters, he added.
Hearing the former president call Jan.6 a “love party,” Gonell later told lawmakers is “upsetting, it’s a pathetic excuse for his behavior for something he himself helped to create, this monstrosity “.
“It was an attempted coup,” Gonell said. “If it had been another country, the United States would have sent aid”
DC Police Officer Michael Fanone, who suffered a mild heart attack and was electrocuted with a taser during the riot, “thought he had seen it all” during his previous job, but what he saw the 1/6 was “unlike anything I had ever seen,” describing in vivid detail his fear of rioters killing him. His voice rose briefly to a scream and he slammed a fist on the face. table in front of him as he described the “shameful” attempt by GOP lawmakers to downplay the siege.
“I remain grateful that no member of Congress has suffered the violent assault” he suffered on January 6, Fanone said, describing the heroism of his fellow officers as “the most inspiring moment” of his life.
Fanone said he had thought of using his gun on attackers, “but I knew if I did I would be overwhelmed quickly. And that in their mind would provide them with a justification for killing me, so I did. rather decided to appeal to whatever humanity they might have. “
DC police officer Daniel Hodges, who was run over in a door of the Capitol by rioters he was trying to repel, told lawmakers he feared he would be “lynched” at some point.
“To my perpetual confusion, I saw the flag with a thin blue line – a symbol of support for law enforcement – carried more than once by the terrorists as they ignored our orders and continued to attack us” , Hodges said.
The last law enforcement witness, Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, began his testimony by asking for a minute’s silence for the late Brian Sicknick, a fellow officer who died after responding to the insurgency. Lawmakers have all bowed their heads in response.
Dunn, who shared the racial slurs the rioters hurled at him as a black man, asked the small panel to look at the resources available to the officers and “consider whether they are sufficient” as they stand. hand over from January 6. Hodges, who is white, recalled rioters trying to recruit him and asking if he was their brother.
During his interrogation, Kinzinger’s voice frayed with tears as he told the officers that “you won” in their battle against the rioters.
“We are defined by how we come back from bad days,” said Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran. “How we take responsibility for it.”
Most Republicans in the House, having avoided committee participation, tried to counter-schedule the hearing instead.
Standing outside Capitol Hill, Minority Whip Steve Scalise said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had “canceled” Republicans she rejected from the committee. House Republicans try to bother to criticize Democrats rather than the officers who responded that day. But other Republicans could derail their efforts.
A group of more House Republicans, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Were scheduled to hold a press conference outside the Justice Department later Tuesday to protest the treatment of insurgency suspects.
Meanwhile, Arizona Representative Andy Biggs, chairman of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, told his GOP colleagues at a conference meeting on Tuesday that he introduced two resolutions that target Pelosi as well as Cheney and Kinzinger.
Biggs’ first proposal would institute a rule change that would kick any GOP conference member if a House Republican accepted a committee assignment from the Democrats. This language is addressed to Cheney and Kinzinger, who agreed to be part of the restricted panel at Pelosi’s request.
Biggs’ other proposal would oust Pelosi from the presidency, a move the Freedom Caucus telegraphed last week. Under conference rules, resolutions will be sent to the committee unless they are proposed by the GOP leader of someone designated by the leader – and both are expected to fail without the support of the Republican leadership.
Back in the restricted panel courtroom, a few House Democrats not on the list were seen in attendance. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) watched the opening statements, and Reps Ann Kuster (DN.H.) and Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) Took their seats at the end.
Panel members are still thinking about their next investigative action. The House leaves for its August recess after this week, so it might be difficult for the panel to maintain momentum after lawmakers leave Washington.
But they will still have to resolve thorny questions such as whether to call Trump or former Trump officials as witnesses, let alone other members of Congress who are seen as potential physical witnesses to the events of January 6.
Democrats have waged deadly court battles with the Trump administration over their ability to enforce Congressional subpoenas of administration officials, but the Biden-era Justice Department informed former officials on Tuesday. the Trump administration that they could testify before the various committees investigating the attack.
Olivia Beavers, Maeve Sheehey, and Nick Niedzwiadek contributed to this report.
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