4:41
- ABC News
- July 27, 2021
Key takeaways from Jan. 6 hearing
The committee heard from four police officers who defended the Capitol.
4:41
The lawmakers choked up at times during the officers' testimony including Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who told them, \"You guys may like individually feel a little broken ... but you guys won.\"
\"Democracies are not defined by our bad days. We're defined by how we come back from bad days,\" he said.
Racial slurs heard at riot haunt hearing room: 'I guess it is America'
Racial slurs haunted the hearing room as officers recounted chants made by the mob, moving some officers to tears and prompting some lawmakers to hang their heads.
Dunn recounted the racist verbal abuse he endured from rioters in emotional testimony and said it was the first time he had been called the n-word in uniform.
\"I'm a law enforcement officer and I do my best to keep politics out of my job, but in this circumstance I responded, 'Well, I voted for Joe Biden, does my vote not count? Am I nobody?'\" he said he told rioters who falsely shouted at him the election was stolen.
Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn on racial abuse from rioters: \"It's so disheartening and disappointing that we live in a country with people like that, that attack you because of the color of your skin just to hurt you.\" https://t.co/pZb3doEsvx pic.twitter.com/rVGupmH6hP
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 27, 2021
\"That prompted a torrent of racial epithets,\" Dunn said. \"One woman in a pink MAGA shirt yelled \"You hear that guys, this n***** voted for Joe Biden.\"
Dunn, who also witnessed a Confederate flag carried through the Capitol, said that other Black officers shared similar stories of racial abuse from the day.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/dunn-testify-2-capitol-hearing-gty-ps-210727_1627398376665_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
\"I sat down on the bench in the Rotunda with a friend of mine, who is also a Black Capitol Police officer and told him about the racial slurs I endured. I became very emotional and began yelling, 'How the blank could something like this happen? Is this America?'\" he said. \"I began sobbing.\"
When Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., posed the same question to Dunn later, the officer said, \"I guess it is America. It shouldn't be.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/washington-dc-capitol-riot-charlottesville-donald-trump-election-01-gty-llr-210106_1609982976596_hpEmbed_2_22x15_384.jpg\")
Committee looking to subpoena Trump, lawmakers
Cheney, in her opening statement, made clear the committee is open to subpoenaing the former president, White House aides and members of Congress as they create a timeline of the day.
\"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. Honorable men and women have an obligation to step forward,\" she said.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/cheney-greets-2-rt-ps-210727_1627395966278_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Adding to that pressure, all four witnesses told lawmakers they wanted an investigation into those in power who may have aided and abetted rioters.
Dunn used an analogy with a hitman to describe his expectations, in an apparent nod to the former president, after the witnesses spent three and a half hours recounting chants of \"Trump sent us,\" among others.
\"If a hitman is hired and he kills somebody, the hitman goes to jail, but not only does the hitman go to jail but the person who hired them does. There was an attack carried out on Jan. 6 and a hitman sent them,\" he said. \"I want you to get to the bottom of that.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/listen-capitol-hearing-schiff-gty-ps-210727_1627403360532_hpEmbed_11x7_384.jpg\")
Thompson said at a press conference after the hearing that the committee could be brought back for another hearing during the House's August recess, which starts Friday. The panel said its work is just beginning.
The Department of Justice said in letters to former Trump officials, and provided to congressional committees, that they can participate in the investigations into the Jan. 6 attack, according to sources and letters reviewed by ABC News earlier Tuesday.
Cheney and Kinzinger poke holes in GOP arguments against committee
The two Republicans on the panel spent their questioning time pushing back on some of the most prominent Republican talking points after Jan. 6 -- including that the rioters were not violent and that whatever took place at the Capitol paled in comparison to violence perpetrated by antifa during racial justice protests.
\"I condemn those riots and the destruction of property that resulted -- but not once did I ever feel that the future of self-governance was threatened like I did on Jan. 6,\" Kinzinger said. \"There was a difference between breaking the law and rejecting the rule of law, between a crime, even grave crimes and a coup.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/kinzinger-capitol-hearing-2-rt-ps-210727_1627397206336_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Kinzinger also defended his choice to serve on the committee, saying it's \"not in spite of my membership in the Republican Party, but because of it, not to win a political fight, but to learn the facts and defend our democracy.\"
Cheney reminded in her opening statement that she and other lawmakers preferred to establish an independent commission to investigate the attack, but that effort was \"defeated by Republicans in the Senate.\"
\"That leaves us where we are today. We cannot leave the violence of Jan. 6 and its causes uninvestigated,\" she said. \"If those responsible are not held accountable, and if Congress does not act responsibly, this will remain a cancer on our constitutional republic.\"
Rep. Liz Cheney: \"We must overcome the many efforts we are already seeing to cover up and obscure the facts...No member of Congress should now attempt to defend the indefensible.\"
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 27, 2021
LIVE UPDATES: https://t.co/5JurU263Qs pic.twitter.com/FFSGMPfOt3
The former No. 3 House Republican also reminded that her GOP colleagues had \"recognized the events that day for what they actually were\" in the days after the attack, even if members downplay it now.
Ahead of Tuesday's hearing, Republicans who boycotted the select panel said the hearing should focus on the fact that Capitol Police were unprepared for Jan. 6. But because they gave up their ability to participate in the hearing, they couldn't lead the discussion in their preferred direction -- or challenge Democrats' lines of inquiry the way Cheney and Kinzinger picked apart some of their claims.
Officers, while praised for heroism, blast lawmakers for partisan politics
While the officers were praised throughout the hearing for holding the line on Jan. 6, with lawmakers on the panel thanking them for their protection, the officers didn't hold back when describing their disapproval in how partisan politics has muddied the search for the truth.
Fanone, the Metropolitan Police Department officer who was dragged down the Capitol steps, beaten with a flagpole, tased repeatedly and taunted with chants of \"kill him with his own gun,\" called out lawmakers on Tuesday who have blocked efforts for an investigation.
Officer Michael Fanone slams the table during Capitol riot hearing: \"The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful!\"
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 27, 2021
\"What makes the struggle harder and more painful is to know so many of my fellow citizens...are downplaying or outright denying what happened.\" pic.twitter.com/1mGO4hHTFG
\"The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful,\" he said, slamming his fist on the witness table. \"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.\"
\"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,\" he added.
Gonell said of the former president downplaying the day, \"It's insulting, it's demoralizing because everything that we did was to prevent everyone in the Capitol from getting hurt.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/harry-dunn-capitol-hearing-rt-ps-210727_1627396294216_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Dunn said that the investigation is innately political because of the landscape surrounding the attack, but that it shouldn't stop lawmakers from seeking the truth.
\"It's not a secret that it was political. They literally were there to stop the steal. So when people say it shouldn't be political, it is. It was and it is. There's no getting around that,\" he said.
\"Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are being lauded as courageous heroes and while I agree with that notion, why? Because they told the truth? Why is telling the truth hard?\" he asked. \"I guess in this America, it is.\"
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