Thread by @kyledcheney

Officer Hodges watches along as footage of his own mask getting ripped off, while he was wedged in a Capitol door, is shown at 1/6 committee hearing

The four officers are sworn in and will testify under oath

Officer Gonnell says as he lost oxygen amid a crush of rioters he thought to himself “This is how I’m going to die.”

Gonell says he had to push his wife away when she tried to hug him that night because he was covered in chemicals, which reactivated and started burning again in the shower. He went back to the Capitol just hours later for work.

Nearly every detail shared by the officers so far has been unearthed in court documents, impeachment proceedings and reports. But hearing it unfiltered from their own mouths is more powerful than any recollection of the 1/6 attack to date.

FANONE: “Truly nothing has prepared me to address those elected members of our government who continue to deny [what happened on Jan. 6] and in doing so betray their oaths of office.”

Important point from Hodges: Many gun arrests / seizures were made from Jan 5-7. But decision not to make arrests that day means we’ll never know how many firearms were present at the Capitol (prosecutors have only charged one rioter with bringing a gun and suspected others.)

DUNN urges fellow Capitol officers to seek help if they’re struggling with trauma from 1/6. @nicholaswu12 and I wrote about the strain on officers and rising mental health concerns in the aftermath of the attack. politico.com/news/2021/04/0…

Hodges describes injuries to fellow officers: One lost a finger, one has been on leave since that day after being struck in the head, one was tased repeatedly with a cattle prod.

GONELL describes the exhaustion of the attack. While rioters kept rotating and sending fresh bodies to break the police line at lower west tunnel, the outnumbered cops had to hold ground without rotating for more than an hour in some cases.

GONELL says people like Gaetz, Taylor Greene, Gosar and Gohmert — who are protesting today to demand release of many 1/6 defendants charged with assault — “shouldn’t be elected officials.”

Hodges says he and others didn’t fire on violent attackers for fear it would prompt armed response and possible detonation of pipe bombs that had been discovered.

Rep. Stephanie Murphy says she and Rep. Kathleen Rice were barricaded just 40 paces from where Hodges and other officers held back a crush of rioters.

GONELL says efforts by Trump and some Rs to downplay the Jan. 6 attack have made it hard for Capitol Police to recruit officers at a time when the department needs people more than ever.

This is a rare hearing where lawmakers didn’t really try to make themselves the story (at least as much as they usually do) and let the witnesses and their words be the story.