Any doubts about the need for a public airing of the armed assault on the Capitol should have been put to rest within minutes after the beginning of the first hearing of the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.
They weren’t, at least not for some extreme partisans.
Still, the truth can’t be denied. Four police officers, public servants who risked their lives to protect the temple of American democracy and defend the lives of public servants who have much cushier jobs, delivered excruciating, gut-wrenching testimony about the inexcusable violence and sickening racism at that Capitol on that day in January.
If you were unable to watch officers Dunn, Fanone, Gonell, and Hodges, please do. Don’t trust the media filters on the left or the right.
Here’s a small sampling:
“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.”
--Aquilino Gonell, U.S. Capitol Police sergeant
“I was electrocuted again and again with a Taser. I’m sure I was screaming but I don’t think I could hear my own voice.”
--Michael Fanone, D.C. Metropolitan Police officer
"One woman in a pink 'MAGA' shirt yelled, 'You hear that, guys, this {racial epithet} voted for Joe Biden!' Then the crowd, perhaps around 20 people, joined in, screaming 'Boo! {racial epithet}!' No one had ever — ever — called me a {racial epithet} while wearing the uniform of a Capitol Police officer."
--Harry Dunn, U.S. Capitol Police officer
"Terrorists pushed through the line and engaged us in hand-to-hand combat. Several attempted to knock me over and steal my baton. One latched onto my face and got his thumb in my right eye, attempting to gouge it out.”
--Daniel Hodges, D.C. Metropolitan Police officer
I simply refuse to believe this country is so divided, that well-intentioned Americans who listened to the testimony and watched the frightening footage won’t be appalled at the events of that day.
Fox News anchor Brett Baier agreed, saying the hearing “was an eye-opener” for “anybody watching who … thought it was not violent.”
There was not “a lot of love” in that crowd, as former President Trump has said, and the video put a lie to his claims that the mob was “ushered in” by police who were “hugging and kissing” them.
One can only hope Trump listened to the officers. Even amid his delusion of having won the election and that these hearings are just another “witch hunt,” some part of him would know the truth: that a crowd he inspired carried out the most serious attack against the Capitol since the British partially burned it during the War of 1812.
Was it a significant insurrection that truly threatened American democracy? Was it a realistic coup? Probably not, and the left has hurt its cause with some of its hyperbole.
Still, we are left to wonder what could have happened if the rioters who were calling for their heads had succeeded in reaching Vice President Mike Pence or Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
The truth was plain to see at the hearing: A violent mob of white supremacists, QAnon conspiracy theorists, racists, and extremists who support Trump were willing to undermine the democracy that is at the essence of the country they profess to love and the rule of law that has made this nation great.
Plain to see, except for some on the far right who refuse to believe their own eyes and ears. Instead of following their own law-and-order beliefs and condemning the violence, many right-wing politicians, opinion writers, and TV commentators chose instead to go on the offense about the hearings, clearly thinking that was the best defense.
They preferred to distract from efforts to uncover what happened on January 6, choosing to attack those who defended democracy instead of those who attacked it.
On Fox News, Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson at times ridiculed the officers, with Ingraham referring to their testimony as “performance art,” while Carlson dismissed the attack on the Capitol as a “political protest that got out of hand.”
In The American Spectator, Scott McKay attacked the proceedings as a Pelosi “kangaroo court,” minimizing the violence and slamming the congressional and police participants in the hearings.
In The Federalist, Mollie Hemingway chose to go after officer Dunn for some extreme positions he’s taken on tweets. That’s fair, but is she arguing that his virulence toward Trump, support for leftist politicians, and contradictory stance on violent racial-justice protests prove he’s lying about what happened at the Capitol? Is she forgetting all the video evidence that supports his account?
Did their moms not teach these folks that two wrongs do not make a right? And this “wrong” targeted the most hallowed of American democratic institutions. How disingenuous can you get?
And what about the reaction from Republican leaders in the House and Senate? Many said they didn’t even watch. Were they embarrassed?
They should have listened to officer Fanone: “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 people are now telling me that hell doesn’t exist or that hell wasn’t actually that day. The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful!”
Disgraceful, indeed, as are the many contradictions from the mob and those who have dismissed the rioters’ offenses as overblown.
Carrying flags of support for law enforcement, the rioters assaulted officers with bear spray, shocked them with stun guns, and smashed their heads with baseball bats and metal flags, severely injuring some and killing officer Brian Sicknick.
Conservatives were right to blast liberals who called for defunding the police and who couldn’t bring themselves to condemn violent protests in Minneapolis, Portland, and many other cities after George Floyd’s killing.
But now they’re silent in the face of violence by right-wing rioters? Politicians and commentators on the right who railed about Democrats being soft on crime, are suddenly soft on this crime.
Conservatives were also right to demand the creation of the U.S. House Select Committee on Benghazi to investigate the deadly terrorist attack against the U.S. diplomatic mission in that Libyan city and the response by a Democratic administration.
So, how can conservatives now reject a similar committee to investigate a deadly domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol?
None of this should be partisan.
The mob embarrassed the United States in the eyes of the world, which watched in disbelief along with most Americans, stunned by a scene most never believed could happen here.
The Capitol riot will go down as one of the darkest days in the history of the American republic.
We must fully understand what happened and hold to account those responsible.