Thread by @Brandi_Buchman

Good morning. The first hearing of the committee tasked to investigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th gets underway today. Thread will start here. Lawmakers debut the committee with testimony from officers who were on the front lines against the mob
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https://twitter.com/Brandi_Buchman/status/1419733472994893829

I am in the room and we are about a half hour from starting. The panelists today will be US Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonnell, U.S. Capitol Police Private First Class Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Department officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges.

TODAY: The medieval-style battle that was waged at the U.S. Capitol as thousands of people clamored to overtake the building and overturn the 2020 election comes into sharp relief Tuesday with first-of-its-kind testimony before a congressional committee.
courthousenews.com/committee-kick…

We can expect about 10 minutes of opening remarks from the chair and ranking chair of the select committee investigating the 1/6 attack before we get right into witness testimony.

Ahead of today's hearing, GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy held a strategically-timed press conference in an effort to get ahead of an expected full day of testimony where police officers will recount the horrors of the insurrection hugely driven by the former president's supporters

Witnesses are taking their seats. Pictured below is Officer Michael Fanone with his hand resting on Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's shoulder. Hodges and Dunn are seated to the left, Gonnell on the right.

Lawmakers of the committee are filing in and all are shaking hands with Officers Fanone, Gonnell, Dunn and Hodges before taking their seat.

Kinzinger, Schiff, Cheney, Thompson greet the panel. (All lawmakers on the committee shook hands)

Bennie Thompson kicks off the hearing saying there is no place for politics in this investigation. While we have a lot to uncover, there are a few things we already know. We know the insurrection on Jan. 6 was a violent attack that involved vicious assault on law enforcement..

Thompson: "We know men and women who stormed the capitol wanted to derail the peaceful transfer of power in this country and we know that 7 people lost their lives and more than 140 officers suffered injury."

"You held the line that day and I cannot overstate what was at stake that day - our democracy. You held the line." - Bennie Thompson commends the officers sitting before him today.
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The website for the select committee is live: january6th.house.gov

A violent mob was pointed to the Capitol and told to win a "trial by combat," chair Thompson reminds.
He recalls words of those insurrectionists that day: "We were just there to overthrow the government."

Thompson: They marched on the Capitol with clear intentions of stopping certification of the election and when they encountered the police, they went on their attack with bear spray, knives, tasers, hockey sticks, even flagpoles fashioned as clubs with the American flags.

They smashed windows, scaled walls, broke down doors and invaded the halls of Congress.
It was a scene of violence in the citadel of our democracy not seen since British soldiers sacked the building in the 1800s.

A video is being streamed now where officers can be heard on radios reporting multiple injuries and saying, with panic in their voice, they are taking on projectiles, sharpened sticks and more Fanon, Dunn, Gonnell and Hodges are all watching intently.

Pardon the typo - Fanone.

Lawmakers of the select committee are all watching the screens, eyes glued to its imagery: including rioters squeezing Hodges nearly to death in the doorway as they scream "heave, ho" and attempt to force their way inside the Capitol. You can hear the riot shields cracking.

The warning heard from one of the rioters, "We'll be back" is "just chilling" Chairman Bennie Thompson says. And that man's warning reminds us that "this threat isn't going anywhere and looms over our democracy like a dark cloud."

Some people are trying to deny what happened, turn insurrectionists into martyrs but the whole world saw what happened on Jan 6 - a hangman's gallow sitting on our nation's lawn, a confederate flag being paraded through the Capitol, Thompson says.

@BennieGThompson: The hatred, the bigotry, the violence. The rioters who tried to rob us of our democracy were propelled here by a lie.
As chairman of this committee, I will not yield to that lie, he says.
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Rep. Liz Cheney serves as the ranking member of the committee. Only she and Republican Rep Adam Kinzinger are representing the GOP on this committee. She is delivering her opening remarks now.

Cheney: The videos shown today show unexcusable violence and intolerable cruelty that the officers faced. Every one of us here on the dais voted for and would have preferred these matters be investigated by an independent, nonpartisan commission.

Cheney: We must know what happened at the Capitol, we must also know what happened every minute of that day at the White House, every phone call, every meeting, every conversation leading up and during the attack.
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Cheney: If those responsible are not held accountable and 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.

.@RepLizCheney says without accountability now, "We will face threats of violence in the months to come and another Jan. 6 every four years."
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On Jan. 6 and the days thereafter, almost all members of my party recognized the events of that day for what they actually were, Cheney says.

No member of congress should now attempt to defend the indefensible, obstruct the investigation or whitewash what happened that day, @RepLizCheney says.
@CourthouseNews #January6th

Cheney: The question for every one of us is: Will we adhere to the rule of law? Will we respect the rulings of our courts? Will we preserve the peaceful transition of power or will we be so blinded by partisanship that we throw away the miracle of America?
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Cheney: "Do we hate our political adversaries more than we love our country or revere our constitution? I pray that is not the case. I pray we all remember: Our children are watching."

Officers are sworn in.

After all officers swear in, Officer Aquilino Gonnell begins and says that it is crucial all who participated in the attack are held responsible so this never repeats.

Gonnell: There is overwhelming evidence, including hours of video and photographic coverage and yet there is a continuing shocking attempt to try to destroy the truth of what happened and whitewash the past into something other than what it was: an attack on our democracy

Gonnell is a veteran. He has defended the US in Iraq and repeatedly in his life since coming here as a child from the Dominican Republic.
"To be honest, I did not recognize my fellow citizens who stormed the capitol on Jan. 6 or the United States they claimed to represent."

In Iraq, Gonnell expected violence because it was a war zone. But nothing he learned in the Army would have prepared him for what he saw unfold on Jan. 6, he testifies. He was accused of betraying his oath, choosing his paycheck over his loyalty to the US Constitution.

Rioters called Officer Gonnell a traitor, a disgrace. And he recalls, "They shouted that I, I, a veteran and police officer should be executed."
He remembers their threats: "If you shoot us, we have weapons, we will shoot back."
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Officer Gonnell: Our fellow officers were kicked, shoved, sprayed with chemical irritants... rioters forcibly took our batons, shields to use against us. I was shocked at seeing insurrectionists violently attack us with the American flag

Gonnell testifies it was very clear to them that some of the rioters had law enforcement or military backgrounds. Every single member of the committee is looking at Gonnell as he speaks today

Rioters tried to pull him by his leg, his strap, his survival instincts kicked in and he started kicking and punching as he tried desperately to get the attention of officers above and near him.
But they could not help me because they were also being attacked, Gonnell says.

Officer Gonnell: "My fellow officers and I were committed to not letting any officers breach the Capitol. The rioters who reached the Capitol were shouting: 'Trump sent us.'"
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Gonnell, like Hodges was crushed by rioters. He could feel his breath slipping away as he was being crushed and he thought: "This is how I am going to die." He was also one of the few left w/a working shield, so he spent most of his time on the front protecting other officers

Gonnell chokes back emotions. He recalls coming home near 4AM on Jan. 7. He wipes tears from his face as he recalls telling his wife not to touch him because his skin was still covered in chemical irritants. A shower he took then reactivated them, adding insult to injury

Gonnell has been on medical leave for much of the past six months and will require physical rehab of the rest of the year to recover from his injuries, including an injury to his shoulder, sustained during the attack

As the world watched in horror, what was happening at the Capitol, we did not receive any timely reinforcement that we needed, Gonnell says. "In contrast, during the BLM protests last year USCP had all the support they needed and more"
Why the different response? Gonnell asks.

Gonnell: We lost some officers that day, some really good officers, but we held the line because the alternative would have been a disaster. We are not asking for medals or recognition, we want justice and accountability.
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cc: @GOPLeader, @SpeakerPelosi

For most people, January 6 happened for a few hours, but for those of us who were in the thick of it, it has not ended. - Officer Gonnell

Gonnell: "I hope everyone with a position of authority in our country has the courage and conviction to do our part by investigating what happened on that terrible day and why. This investigation is essential to our democracy."

Officer Michael Fanone begins his remarks now.

Fanone is a Metropolitan Police Department officer. He started his career working in the Capitol after 9/11. The terrorist attack inspired him to serve, he says.

He left the US Capitol Police and then moved to Metro PD. He's spent 20 years working special mission units. He's worked as an undercover and lead case officer.

Fanone: I thought I'd seen it all, many times over. But what I witnessed on Jan. 6 was unlike anything I had ever seen, anything I had ever experienced or could have imagined for our country. I defended the Capitol from an armed mob - an armed mob - determined to get inside

Fanone recounts how he desperately held onto his weapon, fearing that at any moment it would be snatched from him and used against him.

Why did Fanone run into the chaos, knowing he was outnumbered and outgunned?
"I did that because I simply could not ignore what was happening."
When he arrived at the Capitol, it was unlike any scene he had ever witnessed, he testifies.

When Fanone came upon the Cap, dozens of empty police vehicles littered the street, hundreds of angry protesters taunted him and other officers as they walked toward the building. They entered through the southside of the Cap and into the crypt.

There he observed a police commander struggling to breathe as he choked on CS gas and then after gathering himself momentarily, going right back into the fray and calling out "hold the line"

Fanone recalls how officers, injured, bleeding and fatigued, used little more than their bodies to keep the rioters at bay for hours. When Fanone and others asked fellow officers if they needed a break, "there were no volunteers."
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Fanone: Thousands upon thousands of ppl determined to get past us by any means necessary.
He was dragged from the line and heard someone scream "I got one" as he was swarmed by the mob where they ripped off his badge, his radio, seized his ammo secured to his body and beat him

Officer Michael Fanone "I was electrocuted again, again and again. I'm sure I was screaming but I don't think I could hear my own voice."
This is an important part of the record because it demonstrates the seriousness of the attack and its severity, he adds.

Fanone: The videos shown today are still extremely painful for him to watch at times, he says.
"It is essential everyone understand what happened that tragic day...There was a very good chance I would be torn apart or shot to death with my weapon."

Fanone: "I'm grateful that no member of congress had to go through the violent experience I underwent that day."
When he says this, Rep. Kinzinger nods in agreement
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Fanon reflecting on lawmakers who would say the hell he went through, "actually wasn't that bad."
"The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful," Fanone says, as he slams his fist down on the table and his voice booms throughout the small room.

Fanone desperately fought to defend the lawmakers inside the Capitol who, today, contend his experience was not as dangerous or dire as it really was.
"This is not about politics," Fanone says, or "what political party any of you public servants belong to."

Fanone: "I've worked in this city for 2 decades and I've never cared about those things. All I've ever cared about was protecting you and the public."

Fanone to the select committee: "You can do your job in service to this country... and I'm hopeful with your commitment that we as a country can confront what happened on Jan. 6."

Officer Hodges is now delivering his remarks.

Hodges recalls his experience on 1/6, listening to officers surveilling Trump's speech. Around 12:30PM he noticed a commotion, he ran toward the intersection of 10th and Constitution, a Black man was fleeing from a white man wearing a Trump face mask. Hodges separated them.

Hodges says the crowd shouted insults like "Your mother's a whore" but as more officers approached, that crowd dispersed.
This was before it went from "peaceful assembly to terrorism."
He became frustrated as he waited for his orders to change to he could respond to the Capitol.

Hodges recalls how as he marched toward the Capitol, rioters and Trump supporters taunted him. Hodges minces no words and calls these people terrorists as he recalls how some shouted at him "You will die on your knees."
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Hodges recalls how he was disarmed of his baton, wrestling for control. He was kicked in the chest, got his baton but was on his hands and knees as his medical mask was pulled over his eyes so he couldn't see. The crowd was chanting "USA" he testifies.

Hodges recalls seeing flags with the words writ large: "Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president" and he adds "And to my perpetual confusion" he saw the Thin Blue Line flag hoisted on high even as people ignored him and other officers calling for order, maced them, beat them

One man fixated on Hodges, kept yelling, telling him to show solidarity with the people or we'll gonna run after you.
"You think your little pea shooter guns are gonna stop this crowd? No, we're going in the building" a man told Hodges.
The rioters started to push the line

One man got his thumb into Hodges' eye. Hodges shook him off before any real damage was done.
In the fight, terrorists were knocked to the ground, one rioter who fell to the ground exposed a huge hunting knife secured to his belt. Officers seized on the man.

Hodges traversed long hallways filled with 'smoke and screams'
"It was a battle of inches," he tells the committee.
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Hodges recalls how a man tried to rip his helmet off and then beat him with it. He remembers the man foaming at the mouth. He wasn't speaking any language he could recognize, it was "just guttural screams."

"The mob of terrorists were coordinating their efforts, shouting, heave-ho," Officer Hodges testifies, his soft voice booming for a moment. He feared he was going to be "dragged out and lynched."
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Hodges like all other witnesses here today, is clearly still feeling some of the trauma from this day.

Officer Harry Dunn is now delivering his remarks. After his remarks, we are expected to move onto questioning.

Dunn says before he begins today, he wants to take a moment of silence for his fallen colleague, Officer Brian Sicknick who died from injuries he sustained on Jan. 6.
The room is quiet and he offers his thanks.

Dunn says he arrived early to work on Jan. 6. But they expected demonstrations to be peaceful, just like the scores of demonstrations officers had observed for many years.

As the morning progressed, he did not see or hear anything that gave him cause for alarm but around 10:56AM, Officer Dunn rec'd a text from a friend fwd'ing a screenshot of a potential plan of action, it had a caption "Jan 6 rally plan" with its objective as taking the Capitol

The text shared with Dunn on the morning of 1/6 said: "Trump has given us marching orders and to keep your guns hidden" among other things. It idicated there would be "time to arm up."

Dunn says seeing that message greatly alarmed him. At the time though, he and other officers had rec'd no threat warnings from the chain of command so he wasn't going to act on independent texts.

As the a.m. progressed and Dunn set upon the Capitol to defend it, he donned a heavy metal chest plate. He had a broad view, finally, of what was happening.
"I was stunned by what I saw," Dunn says.

Officer Dunn: "It was a sea of people engaged in desperate hand-to-hand fighting with rioters across the lawn."
Never in his career, Dunn testified, had he seen so many people assaulting law enforcement.
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Dunn helped fellow officers recover from chemical irritants for a time. He went back into the Capitol and it was there he saw a Confederate flag, a Trump flag, a "Don't Tread on Me' flag.
Dunn exhales briefly as he recalls seeing the symbols of hate before continuing.

I was physically exhausted and it was hard to breathe. It was hard to see because of all the chemicals sprayed in the air, Dunn says.
More and more insurrectionists were pouring into the rotunda, some wearing MAGA hats and shirts that said Trump 2020.

Dunn told rioters to just leave and they responded: "No man, this is our House. President Trump invited us here. We're here to stop the steal. Joe Biden is not the president. Nobody voted for Joe Biden."

Dunn: "I'm a law enforcement officer and I do my best to keep politics out of my job but in this circumstance, I responded, I voted for Joe Biden. Does my vote not count? Am I nobody?"
That prompted a torrent of racial slurs. A woman
cried out: "This nigger voted for Joe Biden."

A crowd started screaming at Dunn: "Boo, fucking nigger!" they chanted.
"No one, no one has called me a nigger while I was in uniform defending the US Capitol" Dunn testifies.
Lawmakers are visibly moved by this testimony. It is silent in here save for Dunn's voice.

Another Black officer told Dunn he was confronted by insurrectionists who told him, "Put your gun down and we'll show you what kind of nigger you really are."
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Dunn also noted today how he defended @GOPLeader McCarthy on 1/6 and vows before lawmakers he would do it again today, because that is the job he was hired to do

Democracy went on that night and still continues today. Democracy is bigger than any one person or any one party. For all of you who tried to disrupt democracy that day, you all have failed. - Officer Dunn

Liz Cheney questions Gonnell who said it was like a "medieval battlefield" and asks how Gonnell feels when Trump had said it was a "lovefest" that day.
Gonnell says Trump's words are a "pathetic excuse for his behavior" and "for something he himself helped to create"

Trump created the "monstrosity" of Jan. 6, Officer Gonnell testifies.
"And all of them, all of them, were telling us Trump sent us. It was not antifa, it was not BLM, it was not FBI, it was his supporters that he sent over to the Capitol that day."
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Trump could have done a lot of things, one of them was to tell them to stop, Gonnell says.

Fanone tells Cheney his response that day was based off of his obligation as a police officer to protect the lives of congress and staff and also his fellow officers. The politics of that day didn't play into his response at all, he adds.

Hodges tells Cheney that rioters had advanced equipment, he couldn't get a count, they couldn't stop and search everyone, he has no idea how many people were ultimately armed that day but it was a huge concern.

Cheney asks Dunn about the personal text he received warning of impending violence and how he didn't receive any direction from on high about the threat or its severity.

Dunn says officers were told it might be "unfriendly people" on 1/6 and disruption, but nowhere near the level of violence they actually saw. The text made the "hairs on his neck rise," but the chain of command did not say they need to be prepared for this level of violence.

"We were not prepared for what we experienced that day" Dunn says.
Cheney requests the text Dunn received be entered into the record and chair Thompson obliges.

'The time that you kept them out really made the difference. You saved the day. You saved the constitution and you did a tremendous service to our country," Rep. Zoe Lofgren addresses Officers Hodges, Dunn, Gonnell and Fanone.

Gonnell apologizes now for his "outburst" moments ago when he remarked on Trump's suggestion that the rioters on 1/6 were part of a "lovefest".
Gonnell had said: "If those are hugs and kisses, we all should go to his house and do the same things to him."

Democracies are not defined by our bad days. We're defined by how we come back from our bad days, @RepKinzinger says, holding back tears.
The mission of the committee is very simple regardless of the "overheated" political rhetoric, he adds: To find out what happened and why.

Kinzinger: "Many in my party have treated this as just another partisan fight. It's toxic and a disservice to the officers and their families, the staff and employees of the capitol complex and the American people who deserve the truth...

Kinzinger continues, saying GOP rhetoric/counter narrative about 1/6 is disrespectful to "the generations of Americans who went to war to defend self-governance because self-governance is at stake."

"Never once" did Kinzinger feel threatened when he was called up to serve in National Guard during the BLM protests of the summer before.

"You are four with stories but there are hundreds with stories as well that you represent from where you sit," Kinzinger tells Fanone, Dunn, Gonnell, Hodges

"There will be no healing, there will be no moving on until there is accountability," Officer Hodges tells Kinzinger.

Kinzinger zeroing in on the assertion from GOP members that there were not guns in the crowd.
Gonnell says to those who downplay it, "I suggest they watch the videos again"

Gonnell: Common items were used to brutalize them, we had all these items thrown at us and used to attack us, those are weapons and no matter if it is a pen, the way they were using these items was to hurt officers, to hurt police officers...

Gonnell continued on the insurrectionists/rioters: "Their intent was not to say, 'Hey let me go and find the Republicans or Democrats.'
Gonnel says: "Every single body that was here in this building? They were intent to get them out" however they needed.

Officer Dunn also testifies that it is perfectly within reason of law enforcement to presume that rioters had guns on them. If they see something on the hip or under clothes that may even suggest a gun, they will assume, people are armed.

They are not putting country before party and that's what bothers me the most. Because I, as a former soldier, knows what that entails, Gonnell says.
Gonnell, also repulsed by lawmakers right outside of the DOJ today asking for prisoners associated with 1/6 to be released.

.@RepAdamSchiff asks Officer Dunn about the question he posed to a fellow officer during the fray - "Is this America?"
Today, Dunn answers for himself.
"Frankly, I guess it is America. This is the way things are. I don't condone it and I don't like it."

But Dunn adds, to see that there are lawmakers in this room today, Republican and Democrat, willing to address the attack earnestly, honestly, with integrity, that *is* the side of America that he reveres.

Schiff quotes poet Amanda Gorman: "We're not broken, we're just unfinished."
Schiff then choking back tears, says, he wasn't expecting so much emotion. It must be an "Adam" thing today, he says, referring to Kinzinger who also cried.

Getting ready to update our story for you, in the meantime, @JackRodgersCNS has the live-tweet, too:

https://twitter.com/JackRodgersCNS/status/1420058085851340804?s=20

Officer Hodges to the committee: "I need you to address whether anyone in power had anything to do with this and whether anyone in power aided or abetted or tried to downplay or prevent the investigation of this terrorist attack."
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Dunn says Kinzinger and Cheney are described as heroes for standing up for the truth. Dunn asks: Why is telling the truth hard? I guess in this America it is.

Dunn: For us officers, we would do Jan. 6 all over again, we wouldn't stay home because we knew it was going to happen. That's corageous, that's heroic. So I ask you all to get to the bottom of what happened."

The hearing has concluded. Updated story will post for @CourthouseNews