Police tell of 'medieval' violence at US House hearing on Capitol attack
A congressional committee held its first hearing investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack on Tuesday with testimony by four police officers who struggled against a mob of then-President Donald Trump's supporters engaging in "medieval" violence and warnings from lawmakers against whitewashing the riot.
At the Democratic-led House of Representatives investigatory committee's first hearing, the officer, Aquilino Gonell, described being pummeled by rioters fired up by Trump's false claims that the election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud.
"What we were subjected to that day was like something from a medieval battlefield. We fought hand-to-hand and inch-by-inch to prevent an invasion of the Capitol by a violent mob intent on subverting our democratic process," added Gonell, one of four police officers called to testify. "The physical violence we experienced was horrific and devastating."
Gonell fought back tears as he recalled his family watching the violence unfold on television and wondering if he was alive.
The nine-member panel was formed after Senate Republicans blocked the creation of an independent commission to investigate the attack. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, named the committee's members. Its chairman is Democrat Bennie Thompson.
In his opening remarks, Thompson pledged that the panel's work will be "guided solely by the facts" and that there is no place for politics or partisanship. He also showed video of the violence, calling it "chilling."
Most House Republicans opposed the creation of the committee, calling it politically motivated. Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the panel and a fierce critic of Trump, defended the panel's work and urged a thorough investigation.
"We must know what happened here at the Capitol. We must also know what happened every minute of that day in the White House - every phone call, every conversation, every meeting leading up to, during and after the attack," Cheney said.
Cheney added, "If those responsible are not held accountable, and if Congress does not act responsibly, this will remain a cancer on our constitutional republic." She added that she hopes the nation does not become so blinded by partisanship that "we throw away the miracle" of American democracy.
Gonell and Harry Dunn, officers with the U.S. Capitol police, and Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges, officers with the District of Columbia police, appeared before the panel, wearing their uniforms.
Dunn, who is Black, said in prepared testimony that rioters called him a racial slur while he was trying to defend the Capitol after he challenged their claims that no one had voted for Biden by telling them that he himself was a Biden supporter.
'Kill him'
Fanone was pulled into the crowd of rioters, beaten, attacked with a Taser device and robbed of his badge, police radio and ammunition. As one rioter tried to pull his gun from its holster, Fanone could hear him saying he planned to take it and kill him.
Fanone said he heard a rioter say "kill him with his own gun." Fanone said he was beaten unconscious and doctors told him he suffered a heart attack.
Four people died on the day of the violence, including one rioter fatally shot by police and three others who died of natural causes. A Capitol police officer who had been attacked by protesters died the following day. Two police officers who took part in the defense of the Capitol later took their own lives. More than a hundred police officers were injured.
Police were overwhelmed when hundreds of Trump supporters intent upon stopping Congress from formally certifying now-President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory stormed the Capitol, smashing windows, fighting with officers and sending lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence scrambling for safety.
The riot followed Trump's speech to supporters in which the Republican repeated his false claims about voting fraud.
"Some people are trying to deny what happened, to whitewash it, to turn the insurrectionists into martyrs. But the whole world saw the reality of what happened on January 6th," Thompson said.
"The hangman's gallows sitting out there on our National Mall. The flag of that first failed and disgraced rebellion against our union being paraded through the Capitol. The hatred. The bigotry. The violence."
"And all of it: for a vile, vile lie," Thompson, referring to Trump's false claims of election fraud. "Let's be clear. The rioters who tried to rob us of our democracy were propelled here by a lie. As chairman of this committee, I will not give that lie any fertile ground."
Ahead of the hearing, Kevin McCarthy, the top House Republican, tried to shift blame for the attack onto Pelosi, saying she had been responsible for security arrangements at the Capitol. McCarthy declined to say whether he thought Trump bore any responsibility.
https://www.rawstory.com/police-tell-of-medieval-violence-at-us-senate-hearing-on-capitol/'He egged them on!' Capitol cop levels Trump for calling violent assaults 'hugs and kisses'
Sgt. Aquilino Gonell laid the blame for the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection squarely on the twice-impeached shoulder of former president Donald Trump.
The U.S. Capitol police officer testified before the a House select committee hearing on the assault, and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) asked what he thought when he heard the former president describe the rioters as a "loving crowd" -- and Gonell unloaded.
"It's upsetting," he said. "It's a pathetic excuse for his behavior, for something that he himself helped to create, this monstrosity. I'm still recovering from those 'hugs and kisses' that day that he claimed that so many rioters, terrorists, were assaulting us that day. If that was hugs and kisses, we should all go to his house and do the same thing to him. To me, it's insulting, it's demoralizing, because everything that we did was to prevent everyone in the Capitol from getting hurt. What he was doing, instead of sending the military, instead of sending the support or telling his people, his supporters to stop this nonsense, he egged them to continue fighting."
The rioters were clearly Trump supporters, despite what the ex-president and some of his allies say.
"I was on the lower west terrace fighting alongside these officers," Gonell said. "All of them, all of them were telling us. It was not Antifa, it was not Black Lives Matter, it was not the FBI. It was his supporters that he sent over to the Capitol that day. He could have done a lot of things. One is to tell them to stop."
"He talks about sacrifices," Gonell added. "The only thing he has sacrificed is the institutions of the country and the country only for his ego, because he wants the job, but he doesn't want to do the job. That's a shame on him himself."
Capitol riot committee won't waste time asking Trump officials for testimony -- and will go right to subpoenasThe House Select Committee investigating the deadly January 6th riots at the United States Capitol building isn't going to bother asking Trump officials nicely if they want to cooperate.
Commission Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) told CNN's Manu Raju that the committee will immediately start issuing subpoenas, as he said he was wary of the stalling tactics frequently used by Trump administration officials any time Congress asked them for information.
"Letters just lengthen the time," Thompson said. "We just want to get it all done."
Thompson said that the committee would be meeting with Attorney General Merrick Garland soon to discuss getting access to "all relevant data," as well as evidence compiled by impeachment investigators.
Tuesday marked the first day of testimony of the Capitol riot commission in which Capitol Police officers told stories about being physically assaulted by Trump supporters.
https://www.rawstory.com/capitol-riot-commission-2654016248/Ex-NYPD cop who gouged Capitol officer's eyes during Jan. 6 riot says he was just doing a defensive 'hockey' moveA former NYPD cop charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection says he was merely performing a defensive "hockey type of move" when he allegedly tried to gouge a Capitol police officer's eyes.
The claim by Thomas Webster is one of numerous revelations about his case contained in a new report from the New York Times, which chronicles his descent from a highly respected NYPD officer — once assigned to an intelligence detail protecting Mayor Michael Bloomberg — to the insurrectionist who became known as "#EyeGouger."
"Webster said he was not trying to gouge the officer's eyes, but called grabbing his mask a kind of defensive maneuver: 'a hockey type of move type thing where you don't want to fight somebody,'" the Times reports.
Webster's former NYPD colleagues told the Times they were shocked to learn that he committed one of the more violent attacks during the insurrection, after he apparently got swept up online in former president Donald Trump's false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
"He was not known for voicing political extremes, had no social media presence or ties to extremist groups, and once worked to protect the halls of New York City governance," the Times reports. "Now he had attacked an officer doing essentially the same duty in Washington, charging at a man who, one may imagine, looked to be both enemy and mirrored reflection."
Webster, a former Marine, had retired from NYPD and started a landscaping company, Semper Fi, in Florida, New York. He has a wife and three children, and his neighbors described him as "a cheerful family man with little visible interest in politics." He taught local children how to ride ATVs, and would mow the lawns of sick neighbors without even telling them.
Webster told FBI agents he had never protested before and on the day of the insurrection, he "just went down there just to show support for something." However, prosecutors have pointed out that Webster came to Washington "armed and ready for battle" with body armor, a map of the area, M.R.E.s, and a handgun, the Times reports.
Webster also claimed he was acting in self-defense — saying he had been sucker-punched — when he slammed through a police barricade and attacked a Capitol officer using his Marine flagpole, yelling "Commie" and shouting profanities.
"You wanna attack Americans?" he shouted, challenging the Capitol officers to "take your sh*t (body armor) off."
"In seconds, he and the officer are on the ground, Mr. Webster on top, reaching down for the officer's gas mask," the Times reports. "The officer later told investigators that he was being choked by his own chin strap and could not breathe for 10 seconds."
Webster then quickly disappeared into the crowd, but later looked into another man's camera outside the Capitol and said, "Send more patriots. We need some help."
Following a weeks-long manhunt that played out online, thanks to video and images released by the FBI, Webster turned himself in on Feb. 22. He was initially denied bond and spent four months in jail before being released, following a hearing during which his attorney said the weapon he used — a flagpole — weighs less than a pound, and claimed his client was angry because he had seen the Capitol officer push a woman to the ground earlier.
Webster is now on house arrest pending trial, barred from having firearms or using the Internet. He declined comment when a reporter from the Times knocked on his door.
Watch the full video from Webster's attack on the Capitol officer below:
https://www.rawstory.com/capitol-rioter-eye-gouger/Capitol rioter ‘on the tip of the spear’ has ties to Trump-loving GOP lawmaker Doug Mastriano: reportSamuel Lazar has been arrested by the FBI for allegedly firing chemicals at Capitol police officers as part of a "war" he claimed to be waging on January 6.
But Lazar -- nicknamed "Face Paint Blowhard" by the online sedition hunter community -- might be getting as much attention for his public pro-Trump political activities since the riot, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports today. Lazar had been distinctive for his camouflage face paint and tactical vest and goggles, it reported.
"Despite that positive ID — later confirmed by local and national news outlets — Lazar remained free for months and continued to appear at events hosted by political figures involved in advancing former President Donald Trump's stolen election lies," the Inquirer reported.
At the Capitol riot, Lazar was among the violent insurrectionists who physically attacked officers, the FBI criminal complaint states.
"Lazar walked along the police line, grabbed the bike rack and pulled it with his left hand in an attempt to remove it, while discharging the chemical irritant from a canister in his right hand,
"Lazar was told to 'get back' and police deployed a chemical irritant causing Lazar to retreat down the steps. Lazar then redeployed his chemical irritant toward (two officers) a second time, causing (one of them) to lose the ability to see."
"In this video, Lazar stated, "They maced us, those tyrannical pieces of spombleprofglidnoctobuns, and we maced them right the fuck back and now they're taking the building."
Lazar then referenced that the rioters had successfully breached the Capitol building.
"In the video, Lazar continued, 'They attacked the people. We have a right to defend ourselves. Fuck the tyrants. There's a time for peace and there's a time for war.' Lazar answered a question from someone nearby by stating, "I was right at the front, on the tip of the spear, brother. That's where you gotta be."
Earlier in the day, Lazar had declared the following in a since-deleted video on his Facebook page:
"Donald Trump is going to shock the world!" he said. 'We're ready for war, if needed.' He posted again after the day's chaos, saying there is "a time for peace and there's a time for war.
"Our constitution allows us to abolish our [government] and install a new one in [its] place," he wrote, according to the Inquirer.
Still, it might be Lazar's presence at pro-Trump political events that garners the most attention back home going forward.
"Despite his activities at the Capitol that day Lazar surfaced again months later in photos from a fund-raiser with Mastriano, who is widely seen as a leading GOP contender for Pennsylvania governor in 2022," the Inquirer reported.
"In photos from the event, Lazar is seen posing alongside Mastriano and other GOP election skeptics including Senate hopeful Kathy Barnette of Montgomery County, state Rep. Stephanie Borowicz, of Wayne Township and Teddy Daniels, who is running to represent portions of Northeast Pennsylvania in Congress.
"Mastriano, responding to the photos, has since denied knowing Lazar and publicly condemned his actions at the Capitol in a statement. 'Why would you assume that every politician who takes a picture with someone at an event automatically knows who they are or agrees with what they believe?' he wrote.
"But the same group of online sleuths that first identified Lazar and uncovered his photos with Mastriano later discovered that the two had been photographed together at two earlier events — an event in late November and a December trip to Washington in which they posed outside the U.S. Supreme Court building while attending a "Stop the Steal" rally."
"Mastriano's campaign spent thousands of dollars chartering buses to Washington for Trump supporters on Jan. 6. And despite the Franklin County Republican's public condemnation of the riot and claim that he left as soon as violence broke out, videos have since surfaced that appear to depict him passing through breached barricades near people brawling with police."
Lazar, 37, of Ephrata, PA was charged with assaulting and obstructing law enforcement officers, along with violent unlawful entry at the Capitol.
You can read the FBI complaint here:
https://www.rawstory.com/capitol-rioter-on-the-tip-of-the-spear-has-ties-to-trump-loving-gop-lawmaker-doug-mastriano-report/Unhinged conservatives lash out at Capitol police 'crisis actors' who testified before Jan. 6 commissionFour law enforcement officers who witnessed the violence firsthand at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 are again coming under attack — this time from right-wing media figures hoping to downplay the Donald Trump-inspired insurrection.
On Tuesday, the House Democratic-backed select committee held its first hearing on the January 6 Capitol riot.But rather than defending law enforcement – a natural posture for right-wing media when discussing state-sponsored violence – conservative pundits pounced on the officers, belittling their grievances and outright denying their accounts.
Newsmax host Greg Kelly has largely been at the helm of the online brigade, suggesting that the officers may have been "used" as "pawns" to push a left-wing agenda.
Referring to Capitol Officer Michael Fanone, who personally described his own assault by a horde of rioters, Kelly asked his Twitter followers: "Is it possible FANONE was mistaken for ANTIFA? He often, for media appearances, has worn all Black but no insignia, police patches, rank etc."
"Did they pick THESE cops because they're so Emotional?" Kelly followed up, latering asking: "Do these guys know who shot ASHLI BABBITT? Ask them!"
Kelly is likely referring to any number of baseless conspiracy theories about who killed Ashli Babbitt, a rioter who was shot and killed for attempting to breach the Chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives during the insurrection.
Raheem J. Kassam, the former editor-in-chief of Breitbart News London, also took aim at what he saw as the officers being overly emotional, despite them being nearly killed. "Is there really a Capitol Hill Police Officer crying about hurty words live on national television right now?" Kassam tweeted: "Fucking whole world is laughing at this spombleprofglidnoctobuns."
Kurt Schlichter, a senior columnist for Townhall.com, called out Officer Harry Dunn, who during his testimony called it "disheartening and disappointing" to "live in a country with people … that attack you because of the color of your skin just to hurt you. Those words are weapons."
"You lying sack," Schlichter responded.
Other conservatives, meanwhile, fell back on downright conspiracy.
Julie Kelly, a former political consultant and conservative writer, called Fanone a "crisis actor."
"Crisis actor Fanone just beat on the table and said it's 'disgraceful!' that any elected official denies his narrative of what happened on January 6," Kelly tweeted. "Calls it an 'insurrection.' Blasting GOP lawmakers. Now says this isn't about politics, lol. He has many tattoos."
The first law enforcement officers to provide testimony included Pfc. Harry Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell of the Capitol Police, as well as Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges of D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.
Over 550 people have been arrested in connection with the Capitol riot, though thousands of Trump supporters had stormed the Capitol.
https://www.rawstory.com/conservatives-go-after-capitol-police-officers-who-testified-before-jan-6-commission/‘Disgraceful’: Officer Michael Fanone fights back tears as he calls out Republicans for ‘betraying their oath of office’DC Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone gave emotional testimony during the first hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
Fanone, who is a plainclothes officer, described suiting up in his uniform for the first time in a decade as he and his partner responded to the riots.
"I thought I had seen it all, many times over. Yet what I witnessed and experienced on January 6th, 2021, was unlike anything I had ever seen, anything I'd ever experienced or could have imagined in my country," he said.
"I was grabbed, beaten, tased, all while being called a traitor to my country. I was at risk of being stripped of and killed with my own firearm, as I heard chants of 'kill him with his own gun.' I could still hear those words in my head today," Fanone explained. "At some point during the fighting, I was dragged from the line of officers and into the crowd. I heard someone scream 'I got one!' as I was swarmed by a violent mob. They ripped off my badge, they grabbed and stripped me of my radio. They seized ammunition that was secured to my body. They began to beat me with their fists and with what felt like hard metal objects."
He called out Republicans downplaying the severity of the insurrection.
"What makes the struggle harder and more painful is to know so many of my fellow citizens, including so many of the people I put my life at risk to defend, are downplaying or outright denying what happened," he said. "I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them and the people in this room, but too many are now telling me that hell doesn't exist or that hell actually wasn't that bad."
"The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful!" he said with raised voice as he slammed the table. "My law enforcement career prepared me to cope with some of the aspects of this experience. Being an officer, you know your life is at risk whenever you walk out the door, even if you don't expect otherwise law-abiding citizens to take up arms against you. But nothing — truly nothing — has prepared me to address those elected members of our government who continue to deny the events of that day, and in doing so, betray their oath of office. Those very members whose lives, offices, staff members I was fighting so desperately to defend."
Watch:
Capitol cop shames ‘Blue Lives Matter’ crowd: ‘I’m still waiting for them’ to ‘condemn the violent attack’A U.S. Capitol police officer shamed Republicans who publicly back law enforcement to serve a racist agenda but tolerate violent attacks by Donald Trump's supporters.
Sgt. Aquilino Gonell was the first witness to testify in the House commission hearing to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection, and he called out GOP lawmakers and others who object to protests against police brutality but defended the rioters who brutally attacked officers as they attempted to overturn Trump's election loss.
"There are some who express outrage when someone kneels by calling for social justice," Gonell said. "Where are those same people expressing the outrage could condemn the violent attack on law enforcement at the Capitol and our American democracy? I'm still waiting for them."
"As Americans and the world watched in horror what was happening at the Capitol we did not receive timely reinforcement and support we needed," the officer added, "in contrast during the Black Lives Matter protest last year. U.S. Capitol police had all the support we needed and more. Why the different response? Were it not for the brave members of the [Metropolitan Police Department] and later on from other law enforcement agencies, I'm afraid to think what could have happened on Jan. 6."
'Beyond horrifying': Viewers stunned by new House video showing Capitol riot carnageViewers tuning into the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6th Capitol riot were universally appalled by a new video shared by the committee that showed the insurrectionists storming the building and attacking Capitol police attempting to protect lawmakers.
Immediately following the airing of the clip -- which can be seen below -- commenters on Twitter expressed dismay, with many saying it drove them to tears again.
Princeton historian Kevin Kruse tweeted: "This video of the Capitol attack. Jesus," with another commenter adding, "It's beyond horrifying. We all saw the videos, the speeches."
