Hey, Mom! The Explanation.

Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.

Friday, July 30, 2021

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2355 - FIND THE PERSON WHO HIRED THE HIT MAN: January Sixth Insurrection Commission - Historical, Powerful, and FINDING THE TRUTH



A Sense of Doubt blog post #2355 - FIND THE PERSON WHO HIRED THE HIT MAN: January Sixth Insurrection Commission - Historical, Powerful, and FINDING THE TRUTH

The original January 6th Commission -- a 9/11 style commission -- passed in the House but was defeated by craven officials in the Senate who fear the loss of the power if the truth of what happened in the STORMING OF THE CAPITOL on January 6th, 2021 would be in the official record of the federal government.

And so, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, formed a United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack and has started holding hearings.

Widely criticized by the same senators who blocked the original bicameral commission from being formed due to the membership of the select committee, these public hearings will still try to establish the truth of what happened on January 6th 2021 as the official public record of what many believe to be (and the video evidence is difficult to deny) an insurrection against the federal government and the function of our democracy.

Of course, the committee and then the hearings drew ire from Republicans and "news" personalities (such as Fox "News"), but that's the subject of tomorrow's post.

For now, I just want to document what has taken place in the hearings so far.

Like many attending or serving on the committee as well as those who reported on it, I was brought to tears by the stories of what Capitol Police Officers endured to protect our democracy, our America, and our elected officials, many of whom, now, are down-playing, denying, and outright lying about what happened that day, events we can see with our own eyes in the many videos and photographs that have been released since that day and the more than 500 arrests by law enforcement since that day. 

It was some of the most powerfully moving stuff I have seen in my life.

I did a post about the Insurrection (which I believe it was) two days later, here:

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2152 - Welcome to Trump's America - Insurrection 2021 - January 6th - Day of Shame

How anyone can deny what happened, who is responsible both for the violence and instigating the violence, let alone how anyone can MOCK the trauma, injury, pain, and death the brave officers defending our country endured is beyond me. But more on that tomorrow.

For now, the hearings have begun, the truth is coming out, and there MUST BE consequences.

COMPELL EVERYONE INVOLVED TO TESTIFY!!





#Jan6 #Capitol #CapitolRiot
Police Officers Deliver Emotional Testimony At Jan. 6 Committee Hearing
Jul 27, 2021



NBC News

The Capitol attack was recounted in horrifying detail Tuesday by the police officers who fought on the front lines. Republicans have criticized the committee, which is composed entirely of lawmakers selected by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Some of the testimony includes racist terms.




Liz Cheney on January 6 commission, public battle with leader McCarthy
Jul 27, 2021


CBS This Morning

Republican Representative Liz Cheney joins "CBS This Morning" to discuss her appointment to the House commission investigating the January 6 riots — and what her involvement means for her future in the Republican Party.



4 Takeaways From The Emotional 1st Select Committee Hearing On The Capitol Attack


DEIRDRE WALSH


U.S. Capitol Police Pfc. Harry Dunn wipes his eye as he testifies during Tuesday's House select committee hearing on the Jan. 6 attack. During his testimony, Dunn said rioters hurled racial epithets at him and other Black officers. Oliver Contreras/AP



The stunning attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters roughly six months ago threatened lawmakers and came close to upending the process to certify the 2020 presidential election.

Most members of Congress decried the onslaught in the hours after the Jan. 6 insurrection, but since then the date has become a deeply polarizing moment on Capitol Hill.

After Senate Republicans blocked a bill to create an independent commission to investigate the attack, the House established a select committee to lead the probe.

 

The panel's first hearing on Tuesday was emotional as four law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol that day gave firsthand accounts of being overrun, assaulted, and harangued by rioters as "traitors." All described lingering physical and emotional trauma. Some rioters hurled racial epithets at African American officers.

The four officers' gripping testimony, accompanied by horrific images from police body cameras played by the Democratic-led committee, did not reveal much new information. But it launched the investigation with a compelling reminder of what was at stake as the seat of the federal government came under violent attack.

Several times during the hearing both the witnesses and some of the lawmakers on the dais teared up and struggled to gain composure as they relived that day.

Sgt. Aquilino Gonell of the U.S. Capitol Police, an Army veteran who served in Iraq, described the scene on the complex's West Front, where officers were outnumbered by thousands of people wielding bats, flagpoles and other items used to pummel the police. He said he thought to himself, "This is how I am going to die."

 

Another officer, Michael Fanone of the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department, called the hand-to-hand combat between police and rioters "nothing short of brutal." Fanone said he was Tased repeatedly and dragged into the crowd as members of the mob took his gun and threatened to shoot him with it.

He was visibly angry at lawmakers who have since downplayed the violence that day. Fanone told the panel, "I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them."

"The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful!" he shouted, pounding the table.

 Here are four takeaways from the hearing:

1. Officers point the finger at Trump for inciting supporters

U.S. Capitol Police Pfc. Harry Dunn said what happened on Jan. 6 was political and that those participating had a mission: "They literally were there to 'stop the steal,' " he said, using a phrase former President Donald Trump and his supporters invoked to falsely claim that the 2020 election results were illegitimate.

Dunn said he wants the committee to look at why rioters were there that day.

"If a hit man is hired and he kills somebody, the hit man goes to jail," he told the panel. "But not only does the hit man go to jail, but the person who hired them does. There was an attack carried out on Jan. 6, and [someone] sent them. I want you to get to the bottom of that."

Dunn, a Black officer who has been with the department for more than 14 years, said he was called the N-word after acknowledging to rioters that he voted for Joe Biden for president.

Officer Daniel Hodges of the D.C. Metropolitan Police repeatedly used the word "terrorists" to describe those involved in the siege, and he defended the term by coming prepared with the U.S. Code definition of domestic terrorism.

Hodges said rioters pledged support to Trump as they assaulted officers. He said they appealed to him to join their effort to take the building, and he said they tried to "convert us to their cult."

2. Murphy reveals rioters were 40 paces from two lawmakers

Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy, one of the seven Democrats on the nine-person committee, revealed for the first time Tuesday how close the throng of rioters came to her and New York Democratic Rep. Kathleen Rice.

She described how the two lawmakers were holed up in a room in the basement of the Capitol, a location they thought would be the most secure in an emergency. But she said that the two were just "40 paces" from where Officer Hodges and others clashed with rioters attempting to breach the West Front entrance.

She told Hodges she could hear the screams of those being attacked just yards away. She said that without his bravery, and that of others there that day, "I shudder to think had you not held that line" what could have happened to her and others.

In the second Trump impeachment trial, earlier this year, the House impeachment managers showed video of then-Vice President Mike Pence and senators being evacuated from the Senate chamber on Jan. 6, minutes before many pro-Trump protesters walked into the chamber.

3. McCarthy's move to boycott the panel leaves Trump without a defense

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., made the call to pull all five members he named to the select committee after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., vetoed two of them — Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana.

Pelosi's move was unprecedented because no leader had blocked another party from installing their members for a select committee, but she argued that the statements and actions from Jordan and Banks made it untenable for her to accept them. The resolution creating the panel gave the speaker the power to block GOP picks.

Instead, Pelosi tapped two Republicans, Wyoming's Liz Cheney and Illinois' Adam Kinzinger, who both voted to impeach Trump and have been strong critics of the former president.

And they both used their platform during Tuesday's hearing to argue that defending the rule of law was more important than loyalty to a political leader.

Cheney, for instance, asked Sgt. Gonell about Trump calling the group at the Capitol a "loving crowd." He retorted that it was "pathetic" and that he was "still recovering from those 'hugs and kisses' that day."

McCarthy scheduled a press conference ahead of the hearing as a chance for GOP leaders and those he wanted on the committee to do a prebuttal. He said the panel was a "sham" and he and others at the event attempted to blame Pelosi for security failures at the Capitol on Jan. 6. None provided any evidence, and the speaker does not directly oversee the U.S. Capitol Police.

The GOP leader's decision not to participate in the select committee meant that the 3 1/2 hour hearing that was carried live by many news outlets did not include any GOP lawmaker defending the former president or raising the security issues Republicans say should be central to its probe.

No senior official from the Trump administration has testified in any of the hearings conducted by House or Senate panels to date, and without any allies on the select committee, the former president has no one defending him.

4. The committee could subpoena the former president and other Republicans

Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., didn't rule out subpoenas for Trump and other senior White House officials, telling reporters after the hearing, "We will follow the facts." He indicated that the committee could schedule a hearing next month, even though the House is scheduled to take its regular August recess.

Cheney made it clear that getting testimony from those around Trump that day is essential. "We must know what happened every minute of that day in the White House," she said. She has stated recently that Jordan is potentially a "material witness." And McCarthy's telephone conversation with the president that day, a topic that came up during the impeachment trial, could be something the committee wants to hear more about directly from the California Republican.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the panel, told NPR on Tuesday that "we'll do whatever is necessary to make sure we get the answers, and no one is off the table," including the former president or members of Congress.

Officer Hodges implored the committee at the end of the hearing, "I need you guys to address if anyone in power had a role in this, if anyone in power coordinated, or aided and abetted" what happened that day.

The Justice Department, now under the Biden administration, decided Tuesday that former government officials could not invoke executive privilege to avoid testifying about conversations with Trump or his advisers about the insurrection.

 


Daniel Hodges of the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department watches footage from his body camera during Tuesday's hearing. Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool photo/Getty Image.


#January6th #Insurrection #USCapitol
Capitol Police officer Michael Fanone reacts to footage of rioters attacking him
Jul 27, 2021


ABC News

"I've got kids," Fanone recalled telling rioters who beat him.



#Jan6 #Capitol #CapitolRiot
Watch Highlights From Day One Of Jan. 6 House Select Committee Hearing
Jul 27, 2021


NBC News

Watch four police officers testify and other highlights from day one of the House select committee formed to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.


'The physical violence we experienced was horrific and devastating': Officers recount harrowing events of Capitol insurrection

By Clare ForanJeremy HerbLauren Fox and Annie Grayer, CNN

Updated 11:12 PM ET, Tue July 27, 2021

 

(CNN)The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol kicked off its first high-profile hearing Tuesday with harrowing testimony from officers who experienced firsthand the violent events of that day at the hands of a pro-Trump mob.

The vivid testimony puts witness accounts on the record and a national spotlight on the insurrection, once again forcing a reckoning over the tragic events of January 6 for lawmakers on Capitol Hill as well as the American public. Regardless of the testimony's raw power, entrenched partisan battle lines in the months following the attack and during the shaping of the select committee have ensured that few minds are likely to be changed. Democrats have denounced the Capitol riot as an attack on democracy, while Republicans have almost uniformly downplayed and dismissed the insurrection's implications, especially former President Donald Trump's incitement of it.

The committee heard gripping and emotional accounts from four officers -- DC Metropolitan Police Officers Daniel Hodges and Michael Fanone and Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell -- and will use the testimony as a jumping-off point for embarking on a probe that could lead to seeking testimony and documents from the former President, his aides and even Republican members of Congress.

The officers described the horrors they witnessed and endured as rioters stormed the building after Trump incited them to do so, and recounted the assault they faced on January 6 -- including being beaten with their own equipment, getting crushed in a doorway, being the target of racial slurs and facing rioters who tased them. Their gripping testimony drove multiple lawmakers on the committee to grow emotional as part of their questioning.

 

"I never expected today to be quite as emotional for me as it has been" said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the committee, who appeared to get choked up during his initial remarks. "I've talked to a number of you and gotten to know you."

The witnesses made clear that the trauma and injury of the insurrection have had long-lasting consequences that they are still struggling to deal with now. They spoke of how painful it has been to see attempts to whitewash the insurrection, including by members of Congress, and called for a rigorous investigation to get to the bottom of what happened to ensure it is never repeated.

"The physical violence we experienced was horrific and devastating," Gonell told the committee. "My fellow officers and I were punched, kicked, shoved, sprayed with chemical irritants and even blinded with eye-damaging lasers by a violent mob."

"I was particularly shocked at seeing the insurrectionists violently attack us with the very American flag that they claimed they sought to protect," he said.

Fanone said that he was "grabbed, beaten, tased, all while being called a traitor to my country," and "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 can still hear those words in my head today."

Taking aim at efforts to rewrite the history of the insurrection, he said, "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."

"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 isn't that bad," Fanone said. Visibly upset, he said, "The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful."

 

Many Republican fmembers of Congress have sought to downplay the insurrection in the weeks and months since it occurred, even some who forcefully denounced the events in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

In one notable example of that, GOP Rep. Andrew Clyde has compared some scenes of the insurrection to a "normal tourist visit."

Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the other Republican lawmaker serving on the committee alongside Kinzinger, said in her opening remarks, "On January 6 and the days thereafter, almost all members of my party recognized the events of that day for what they actually were," and then said, "No member of Congress should now attempt to defend the indefensible, obstruct this investigation or whitewash what happened that day."

In his comments, Kinzinger sought to dismantle misinformation and call out his own party for trying to delegitimize the efforts of the select committee.

"For all the overheated rhetoric surrounding this committee, our mission is very simple: it's to find the truth and it's to ensure accountability," Kinzinger said. "Many in my party have treated this as just another partisan fight. It's toxic and it's a disservice."

U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell wipes his eye as he watches a video being displayed during a House select committee hearing Tuesday.

'The task of this committee will require persistence'

The hearing started with a warning from Democratic Chairman Bennie Thompson that "we cannot allow ourselves to be undone by liars and cheaters," while Cheney, one of two GOP members on the panel, called for prompt enforcement of subpoenas.

"The task of this committee will require persistence," Cheney said in her opening remarks. "We must issue and enforce subpoenas promptly. We must get to objective truth. We must overcome the many efforts we are already seeing to cover up and obscure the facts."

In a reference to Trump's role in January 6, Cheney said it is imperative to "know what happened every minute of the day in the White House. Every phone call, every conversation, every meeting leading up to, during and after the attack."

At the start of the hearing the committee showed video footage with graphic content depicting the violent storming of the Capitol, including rioters making threats directed at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Mike Pence.

"These rioters were organized. They were ready for a fight ... they came close to succeeding," Thompson said in his opening statement. "It's frightening to think about how close we were. A few inches of wood and glass. An officer turning left instead of turning right."

 

As he denounced the "Big Lie" spread by former President Donald Trump that the election was stolen, Thompson said, "We know that efforts to subvert our democracy are ongoing, and a major part of the Select Committee's work will be to find ways to eliminate that threat."

Washington Metropolitan Police Department officer Michael Fanone watches as a video being displayed during the hearing Tuesday.

Officers recount vicious attack

Body-camera footage shows how Fanone was pulled into the crowd and tased repeatedly with his own stun gun. Gonell was beaten with a flagpole and his hand was sliced open. Dunn has spoken out about the racist attacks he and other Black officers faced that day. And Hodges was the officer in one of the most harrowing and well-known scenes from the riots, when he was writhing and screaming in pain while crushed in a doorway by a crowd of rioters.

"The two sides were at a stalemate at a metal door frame," Hodges said during his testimony as he recalled the horrific scene. "I inserted myself so the frame was at my back in an effort to give myself something to brace against," he said, describing how his arms became pinned and "a man seized the opportunity of my vulnerability, grabbed the front of my gas mask and used it to beat my head against the door."

Hodges described the rioters as "terrorists" and likened the mob to a "cult," saying at one point during his testimony, "terrorists pushed through the line and engaged us in hand-to hand combat ... one latched onto my face and got his thumb in my right eye, attempting to gouge it out. I cried out in pain and managed to shake him off."

Dunn, who is Black, testified that the rioters repeatedly targeted him with him vicious racial slurs and called him the n-word.

"In the days following the attempted insurrection, other black officers shared with me their own stories of racial abuse on January 6," he said.

At one point, he recalled growing emotional and yelling, "Is this America?" as he began sobbing while other officers tried to console him.

DC Metropolitan Police Department Officers Michael Fanone (at left) and Daniel Hodges (at right) arrive to testify before the committee hearing.

Long-lasting consequences of the assault

Testimony during the hearing underscored how the aftermath of the insurrection continues to have a devastating effect on front-line responders and those who witnessed the events firsthand.

Recalling the violence, Fanone said, "Doctors told me that I had suffered a heart attack and I was later diagnosed with a concussion, traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder."

"I have been left with the psychological trauma and the emotional anxiety of having survived such a horrific event," he said. During an interview with CNN's Don Lemon later Tuesday, Fanone said he had received an angry voicemail with a number of profanities and slurs aimed at him while he was testifying earlier in the day.

Dunn said in his testimony, "More than six months later, January 6 still isn't over for me ... I'm now receiving private counseling therapy for the persistent emotional trauma of that day."

He added, addressing fellow officers specifically, "There is absolutely nothing wrong with seeking professional counseling. What we went through that day was traumatic."

Calls for a rigorous investigation and what comes next

At the end of the hearing, Thompson asked the officers what they hope the committee will accomplish.

Hodges implored the committee to take action, saying, "As patrol officers, we can only deal with the crimes that happen on the streets ... you guys are the only ones we've got to deal with crimes that occur above us."

"I need you guys to address if anyone in power had a role in this. If anyone in power coordinated, or aided or abetted, or tried to downplay, tried to prevent the investigation of this terrorist attack because we can't do it."

The emotional testimony marks the start of the committee's investigation into the circumstances surrounding the attack as Democratic leaders look to set the tone for a panel that congressional Republicans have dismissed as a political sideshow created merely to discredit the legacy of the former President.

The hearing will be just the beginning. In the weeks ahead, the panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans, all appointed by House Pelosi, will contend with how they can make the biggest impact, how to choose which documents to seek and, perhaps most importantly, to decide whether they will try to force Trump -- as well as some of their Republican colleagues who spoke to him that day -- to testify.

Democrats had pushed for an independent commission to get to the bottom of how pro-Trump supporters breached the Capitol in a deadly riot, attacked police officers and disrupted the certification of Joe Biden's November election win. After Senate Republicans blocked the commission, Pelosi moved forward with a select committee.

Pelosi has sought for the select committee to be able to provide an exhaustive accounting of the events surrounding the attack, the former President's role, how extremist groups were able to organize and how security failures resulted in the deadly clash. But the California Democrat has also taken steps that have infuriated House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, including shutting down two of his picks for the select committee because of their past statements and actions that bolstered Trump's false narrative about the election being stolen.

Pelosi named Cheney to the select committee, and after she rejected Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana, McCarthy pulled the rest of the Republicans from the committee. Pelosi responded by adding Kinzinger to the panel, in an effort to give it bipartisan credibility even without McCarthy's participation.

Cheney and Kinzinger have faced sharp blowback for joining Pelosi's committee, with conservatives arguing that they should be removed from their other committee slots. The two members have said those threats won't deter them.

"If the conference decided or if Kevin decides they want to punish Liz Cheney and I for getting to the bottom and telling the truth, I think that probably says more about them than it does for us," Kinzinger said Monday.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments Tuesday.

CNN's Manu Raju, Paul LeBlanc, Melanie Zanona and Ryan Nobles contributed to this report.

 

US Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn becomes emotional as he testifies before the committee Tuesday.



Rep. Adam Kinzinger Grows Emotional At Jan. 6 Committee Hearing
Jul 27, 2021


MSNBC

Rep. Adam Kinzinger grew emotional at the House Select Committee’s hearing after hearing testimony from four officers who served during the Capitol riot, and thanked them for their service on January 6.


#CapitolRiot #Jan6 #Congress
Watch: Officer Fanone Condemns 'Disgraceful' Indifference For Victims Of Capitol Riot
Jul 27, 2021



NBC News
DC Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone recalled the encounters he had with rioters and praised the efforts of officers as they responded to the Capitol riot in his opening statement to the January 6 select committee.


#January6th #Insurrection #USCapitol
Officer Daniel Hodges testifies on Jan. 6 insurrection
Jul 27, 2021


ABC News

“My arms were pinned and effectively useless … I was effectively defenseless and gradually sustaining injury from the increasing pressure of the mob,” he said.



#CapitolAttack #January6 #HouseSelectCommittee
Watch Live: House Committee Holds First Hearing On January 6th Capitol Attack


ABC News

House select committee tasked with investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol holds its first hearing. LIVE UPDATES: https://abcn.ws/3rCg6SU


https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2021/07/31/january-6-committee-witnesses/

National Security

Jan. 6 committee faces unprecedented choice of whether to call Republican lawmakers to testify

Several congressional Republicans have admitted to having some contact with President Donald Trump during the insurrection or in the days leading up to it, making their testimony potentially key to the panel’s stated goal of being ‘guided solely by the facts’

By 

Karoun Demirjian, Marianna Sotomayor, and Jacqueline Alemany

 

Today at 8:02 a.m. EDT

 

The leaders of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol are promising a vigorous inquiry into a day they have called a threat to American Democracy, which could lead to an unprecedented legal and political showdown over how to force members of Congress to take the witness stand.

 

Several congressional Republicans have admitted to having some contact with President Donald Trump during the insurrection or in the days leading up to it, making their testimony potentially key to the panel’s stated goal of being “guided solely by the facts.”

 

The Jan. 6 panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), said in an interview that there is “no reluctance to subpoena” any member of Congress “whose testimony is germane to the mission of the select committee” if they resist cooperating voluntarily.

 

Thompson said the panel will be seeking the White House telephone and visitor logs to further scrutinize which members were in touch with the White House on Jan. 6.

“I would say between noon and 6 p.m., any call that went to the White House, you assume had to be something that had to do with it,” he said.

 

But legal experts said there is little precedent for forcing lawmakers to testify as part of a congressional inquiry if they resist a subpoena, an issue members of the Jan. 6 panel said they have yet to fully investigate or plan for as they plot out the next steps of their probe.

 

“I don’t know what the precedent is, to be honest,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), a member of the committee who oversaw the first impeachment trial of Trump and has one of the heftiest investigative résumés in the House. “Obviously we will have to look into all those questions.”

 

Members of the executive branch have often avoided or delayed for years appearing before Congress by asserting executive privilege. Lawmakers on the Jan. 6 panel are hoping that tactic will be less useful to former Trump administration officials after the Justice Department recently said it would break from tradition and not invoke that privilege with regard to inquires regarding the attack on the Capitol.

But while the steps are clear — if arduous — for compelling administration officials to testify, that’s not the case when it comes to lawmakers.

 

“I don’t recall a case where members of Congress were subpoenaed to an oversight hearing,” said Stanley Brand, an expert on congressional ethics investigations and the former House counsel from 1976 to 1983.

 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) have been the recent subject of questions about which members could be called to appear before the select committee.

 

Earlier this year, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) described what McCarthy told her about a phone call he had with Trump on Jan. 6 in which he asked the president to help calm his supporters who had broken into the Capitol.

 

“When McCarthy finally reached the president on January 6 and asked him to publicly and forcefully call off the riot, the president initially repeated the falsehood that it was antifa that had breached the Capitol,” Herrera Beutler said in a statement in February, referring a to a loosely knit group of far-left activists. “McCarthy refuted that and told the president that these were Trump supporters. That’s when, according to McCarthy, the president said: ‘Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.’

 

Jordan for months has seemed to indicate that he spoke to Trump that day, but would obfuscate when asked specifically if he talked to him on Jan. 6, saying he spoke to the president all the time. But this week he confirmed to a local television reporter that he did talk to Trump while not revealing the content of their discussion or what time the phone call occurred.

“I spoke with him that day, after?” Jordan said during an interview with Spectrum News, in which he was asked to clarify previous comments. “I think after. I don’t know if I spoke with him in the morning or not. I just don’t know. … I don’t know when those conversations happened.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) recently rejected Jordan and one other of the five members McCarthy proposed to represent the minority side on the select committee, prompting GOP leaders to boycott the panel. Jordan’s contacts with Trump were among the reasons Democrats cited for keeping him off the select committee, for which the only Republican representation is Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), both appointed by Pelosi.

 

Cheney has said both McCarthy and Jordan could be called as witnesses.

 

On Thursday, McCarthy said that if the panel had included the five members he recommended, Republicans would have “gladly” appeared before it as witnesses. When asked later if he personally would comply with a potential subpoena, he laughed. Jordan has declined to say whether he would testify.

Other lawmakers who could be of interest to the panel include Rep. Greg Pence (R-Ind.), former vice president Mike Pence’s older brother who was with him that day, and Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), who participated in the same rally as Trump on Jan. 6. Across the Capitol, Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) also spoke to Trump. The president accidentally called Lee looking for Tuberville, who spoke with Trump for several minutes after being passed the phone by Lee and before the senators were evacuated from the chamber.

 

Lawmakers who spoke with the vice president or White House officials could also be potential targets.

 

Members of the Democratic caucus have been careful to say how they want the committee to run the investigation, while making clear they want any Republicans with potentially pertinent information to testify.

“It’s not just progressives, it’s the country [that] wants to know what happened and in order to know what happened and to make sure it never happens again,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “We have to bring in a number of those individuals. People who are in Congress who may have been involved.”


The issue could be politically tricky for Democrats. While panel members have brushed aside any concerns about setting a precedent for forcing a member to appear as a witness, it’s an almost certainty Republicans would look to retaliate if they were to take back control of the House after the 2022 midterms. The committee could also potentially have to rely on a vote of the full House to compel any testimony, which could be difficult if any Democratic members balk at the idea given the party’s slim majority.

Some Hill aides have speculated that whether a member has to testify could wind up being an issue for the Ethics Committee, while acknowledging that too would be uncharted territory.

 

“The House rules say that members shall reflect credibly on the House,” Brand said. “I’m sure that somebody could formulate a theory that says you’re duty bound to respond to a subpoena.”

 

Members who exhaust their legal options and are forced to testify could invoke their right against self-incrimination, according to legal experts, but that could be a politically damaging stance to take, particularly during a public hearing.

 

When members have testified in the past, it has been to advocate their policy views or as part of an ethics investigation involving their behavior. There are also instances in which members have voluntarily agreed to testify in complex investigations. In 2017, for instance, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and then-Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) agreed to be deposed in a GOP-led House Intelligence Committee investigation of Trump’s alleged Russia ties.

 

Jessica Levinson, director of Loyola Law School’s public service institute, said the fact that there is even a discussion about whether a member’s role or relevance to an assault on Congress can be used to force that person to testify reflects the breakdown in political norms since Trump was elected and the divisiveness that now accompanies even something as seemingly unifying as investigating a violent attack on the Capitol.


“We’ve never been here before — but if we had been here before, really, we’re in deep trouble,” she said.

 

So far, most rank-and-file House Republicans have taken a wait-and-see approach regarding the issue of their colleagues appearing before the Jan. 6 panel.


Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) said that while it’s “appropriate” for members to question whether a subpoena is justified, “if the court orders you to testify, I think you’ve got to follow a court order.”

 

Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), meanwhile, whom McCarthy had pitched as one of his five picks to serve on the panel, said only that he hoped “any subpoena process is not just a partisan attack.”

 

The Jan. 6 committee is looking beyond former Trump officials and Republican lawmakers for its witness list.


Thompson said he intends to press the Justice Department for access to many of the people who are presently facing federal charges for their participation in the attack — particularly those who have pleaded guilty. More than 550 people who took part in the riot or its planning have been charged with federal crimes so far, including 165 who are accused of assaulting or impeding law enforcement.

 

“If somebody’s pled guilty, and if in return they’re offering some information, that could be helpful — either to further prosecutions or to the benefit of our investigation,” Thompson said in an interview. “We don’t want to impede the prosecutions, but we think there’s a body of information that would be germane to what we’re doing. … We need a process of expediting requests.”

 

Thompson later added that discussions with Justice Department officials to put such things in motion will begin next week. He also expressed optimism that the department will abide by its recent promise to the House Oversight and Senate Judiciary committees not to prevent Justice officials from testifying in Jan. 6 probes. He added that he hoped that the Pentagon and other agencies would follow suit.

 

Thompson expressed confidence turf battles with other committees over witnesses would not be an issue.

 

“The chairs of the committees have said, if we’re going down a path that you all see yourselves going, we’ll get out of the way,” he said.

 

Thompson has promised to issue “quite a few” subpoenas in the coming weeks and months, but will not say where he plans to start — or whether Trump will be on the list.


“If we get an inkling that there’s any resistance with providing the committee some of this information, boom, here comes the subpoena,” he said. “We’re not there yet.”


“Nobody has said no,” he added coyly, “but we’ve not made any requests yet.”

 

Paul Kane contributed to this report.

 



Day of Rage: How Trump Supporters Took the U.S. Capitol | Visual Investigations
Jul 1, 2021


The New York Times

Sign up for our Visual Investigations newsletter: https://nyti.ms/3xhj7dE

As part of a six-month investigation, The Times synchronized and mapped thousands of videos and police audio of the U.S. Capitol riot to provide the most complete picture to date of what happened — and why. 





https://www.wonkette.com/republicans-not-interested-in-hearing-capitol-police-drone-on-about-saving-them-from-trumps-mob



Republicans Not Interested In Hearing Capitol Police Drone On About Saving Them From Trump’s Mob


The House investigation into the January 6 Capitol attack began Tuesday, and while hardly an Agatha Christie thriller where the villain remains a mystery until the very end, it was certainly compelling viewing — at least if you're a reasonably engaged citizen and not a GOP congressman who just can't be bothered with the grisly details of the Trump-inspired insurrection.

CNN congressional correspondent Ryan Nobles said the most common response from Republicans when asked their thoughts about Tuesday's hearing was variations of "I was too busy to watch." According to CNN's Melanie Zanona, House Minority Leader and Trump step stool Kevin McCarthy couldn't watch the hearings because he was “stuck in back-to-back meetings." (He must've filled his schedule in the week after pulling his selected GOP members from the committee.)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters Tuesday that he didn't watch the hearings because he “was busy doing work," as if it's that time consuming to block any legislation that might help Americans. McConnell didn't have time for casual TV viewing. He proudly declared, “I serve in the Senate!" We wouldn't describe what McConnell does as “service" of any kind, but his office is located inside the crime scene. He's only in one piece now because the Capitol Police held off Trump's Frankenstein army. At the very least, he could've sent the cops a pot of jam.

This pathetic, passive aggressive display is the insurrection version of "I didn't see that tweet." C'mon, Republicans wanted congressional hearings over so-called "cancel culture," but they can't listen to police officers testify about how a violent MAGA mob tried to kill them?

Twitter

Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio's shame, was still stinging from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejecting him from the 1/6 committee because she wasn't interested in a carnival act. He subtweeted the hearing, suggesting that now suddenly Democrats care about violence against the police. This is the tired rightwing argument that somehow a violent insurrection, which led to a cop's death, is the same as someone accidentally stepping on a cop's toe at a Black Lives Matter rally. (That toe cruncher is probably still in jail pending trial.)

Jordan also berated Pelosi for even having hearings when America is not yet a utopian paradise.

Crime's skyrocketing. The border's in crisis. The price of everything is up.

“God knows where we're heading." Jordan's doing his best Marvin Gaye here.

What's Speaker Pelosi doing about it? Nothing. She's too busy pushing her partisan January 6th charade.

Jordan also asked what the difference was between a Democrat and a Never Trumper. This was presumably a dig at Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, whose voting records speak for themselves. The current GOP doesn't bother hiding that it's nothing more than an autocratic cult of personality. Members of organized crime families demonstrate more honor.

The GOP House Judiciary account tweeted some quaint old-timey rhetoric about how Democrats are the ones who hate cops.

Twitter

Democrats defunded the police.

Democrats belittled the police.

Democrats threatened to abolish the police.

Republicans #BackTheBlue.

Period.

This charming set of lie-filled declarative statements can't hold up against the gripping testimony from officers who faced off against Trump's MAGA mob. The footage was devastating and undeniable, though Republicans are very good at denying reality. That's one of their core competencies.

If it wasn't clear already that Republicans back the insurrectionists who beat the cops black and blue, Newsmax host Grant Stinchfield mocked Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell who feared for his life on January 6. Stinchfield insisted that Gonell couldn't possibly have been in any serious jeopardy because “there were no guns" in the Capitol. That's a lie, and even if no one literally shot Gonnell, the mob tried to hug and kiss him to death like he was one of Lennie's rabbits from Of Mice And Men.

Fox News contributor Julie Kelly, who's appeared multiple times on Tucker Carlson's white power hour, smeared Officer Michael Fanone as “crisis actor" who apparently went so method he let Trump's mob beat the crap out of him.

She tweeted:

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.

Calls it an "insurrection."

Blasting GOP lawmakers.

Now says this isn't about politics, lol.

He has many tattoos.

OMG, Officer Fanone has ... tattoos, possibly even many, as in more than one. He'll never get an invite to Kelly's country club. She also dismissed Officer Harry Dunn's testimony that Trump's thugs repeatedly called him racial slurs. She wasn't alone in her repulsiveness: Federalist co-founder Sean Davis said Dunn's claims are “unsubstantiated." He also shared damning examples of Dunn tweeting while a liberal.

This was all predictably horrible, but truly the low point of the day was Reps. Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, and Louie Gohmert — all sitting members of Congress — attempting to hold a protest rally outside the Justice Department on behalf of the true January 6 victims — the criminal suspects who have been mostly treated with kid gloves considering they tried to overthrow the government. Cheney called this spectacle a “disgrace." We don't enjoy this recent trend of agreeing with a Cheney, but when she's right, she's right.

Follow Stephen Robinson on Twitter.




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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2107.30 - 10:10

- Days ago = 2219 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

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