By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — What insurrection?
Flouting all evidence and their own first-hand experience, a small but growing number of Republican lawmakers are propagating a false portrayal of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, brazenly arguing that the rioters who used flagpoles as weapons, brutally beat police officers and chanted that they wanted to hang Vice President Mike Pence were somehow acting peacefully in their violent bid to overturn Joe Biden’s election.
One Republican at a hearing Wednesday called the rioters a “mob of misfits.” Another compared them to tourists. And a third suggested the sweeping federal investigation into the riot — which has yielded more than 400 arrests and counting — amounts to a national campaign of harassment.
It’s a turn of events that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, another target of the rioters, called “appalling” and “sick,” and it raises the possibility that the public’s understanding of the worst domestic attack on Congress in 200 years — an attack that was captured extensively on video — could become distorted by the same kinds of disinformation that fueled former President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election. It was the lie about the election that motivated the rioters in the first place.
“I don’t know of a normal day around here when people are threatening to hang the vice president of the United States or shoot the speaker, or injure so many police officers,” said Pelosi, who has pushed for a bipartisan commission to investigate the riots.
The hearing Wednesday was supposed to be the latest dive by congressional investigators into the chaos of Jan. 6 — the missed warning signs, confusion and delays that allowed the rioters to terrorize the Capitol for an entire afternoon. But several Republicans used their rounds of questioning not to pepper the witnesses with questions but to downplay the brutal assault on America’s seat of democracy.
“Let’s be honest with the American people — it was not an insurrection, and we cannot call it that and be truthful,” said Rep. Andrew Clyde, a Republican from Georgia serving his first term.
Clyde said one video feed of the rioters looked like they were on a “normal tourist visit.” Those in the video, taken in Statuary Hall, were able to enter the building after rioters broke through glass, pummeled officers and busted through the doors as lawmakers were frantically evacuated. They were headed to the House chamber where they tried to beat down the doors with lawmakers still inside.
Clyde wasn’t the only Republican making that argument. Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar portrayed a woman who was shot and killed by Capitol Police as she tried to break through a door next to the House chamber as a martyr. He said Ashli Babbitt was “executed” and noted she was an Air Force veteran who was wearing an American flag. The Department of Justice decided after an investigation not to charge the police officerwho shot her.
The Justice Department, Gosar said, is “harassing peaceful patriots across the country” as federal prosecutors file charges against hundreds of people who stormed the Capitol and participated in the riot. The massive investigation, one of the largest in American history, remains ongoing with federal agents continuing to serve search warrants and attempting to locate dozens of other people still being sought for questioning.
Georgia Rep. Jody Hice also painted the rioters as the victims, noting that they were four of the people who died, including Babbitt. The other three suffered medical emergencies while part of the crowd laying siege to the Capitol. “It was Trump supporters who lost their lives that day, not Trump supporters who were taking the lives of others,” Hice said.
A fifth person, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, collapsed immediately after the insurrection and died the next day. Video shows two men spraying him and another officer with a chemical, but the Washington medical examiner said Sicknick suffered a stroke and died from natural causes. The men have been charged with assaulting the officers.
Two other officers took their own lives in the days afterward, and dozens more were hurt — including one officer who had a heart attack and others who suffered traumatic brain injuries and permanent disabilities. The union that represents the Capitol Police said some of the officers may never return to work.
The attempt to defend the insurrectionists came on the same day that House Republicans voted to oust Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney from their leadership team for repeatedly rebuking Trump for his false claims that the election was stolen. Cheney voted with Democrats to impeach Trump for telling his supporters hours before the Jan. 6 attack to “fight like hell” to overturn Biden’s win. Trump’s lies about widespread election fraud were rebuked by numerous courts, election officials across the country and his own attorney general.
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, who led the Democrats’ impeachment prosecution and sits on the Oversight Committee, said after the hearing that he believes that Republicans were “emboldened and emancipated” by Cheney’s ouster earlier in the day.
“They have declared themselves to be on the side of Donald Trump and the ‘big lie,’ and the ‘big lie’ now has spread outwards to include denial of what happened on Jan. 6,” Raskin said.
Timothy Naftali, a professor of history and public service at New York University, says it is “deeply cynical” to set aside the insurrection as if it didn’t happen. He compares it to political elites in Southern states after the Civil War who failed to examine its causes, which he says prevented racial reconciliation and healing and still affects the country to this day.
“Political amnesia never helps,” Naftali said. “It’s a source of poison.”
Given the extensive record of the attack, captured in video and photos seen the world over, defending the insurrectionists required some creative omissions. One point Clyde emphasized was that the rioters never made it to the House floor — even though they tried, only to be held back by police officers with guns drawn. Some lawmakers were taking cover in the gallery of the chamber as they tried to beat down the doors.
“I can tell you the House floor was never breached and it was not an insurrection,” Clyde said. “This is the truth.”
The mob did break into the Senate minutes after senators had evacuated, some carrying zip ties and tactical equipment. They rifled through desks and hunted for lawmakers, yelling “where are they?” They walked into Pelosi’s office, stealing a laptop and calling out her name while some of her staff huddled quietly under furniture.
Other Republicans — some quietly, some publicly — have made clear they don’t agree with their colleagues.
“I was there,” said Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, who was caught in security video being diverted away from the rioters by a police officer. “What happened was a violent effort to interfere with and prevent the constitutional order of installing a new president. And as such, it was an insurrection against the Constitution. It resulted in severe property damage, severe injuries and death.”
Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley, another Democratic member of the Oversight panel, says the Republican denials are wishful thinking that reverberates with their most partisan voters.
“These folks passionately want what they want to be true,” Quigley said after the hearing. “So it’s no longer I’ll believe it when I see it. It’s I’ll see it when I believe it.”
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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Michael Balsamo and Nomaan Merchant contributed to this report.
Takeaways: Partisan discord instead of Jan. 6 answers
WASHINGTON (AP) — A House hearing about what went wrong in the Jan. 6 Capitol siege frequently spiraled into partisan shouting matches on Wednesday, with lawmakers more often blaming each other than thoroughly questioning witnesses about the events of the day.
Democrats and Republicans have so far been unable to agree on a bipartisan commission to investigate the insurrection, and officials involved in responding to the attack have pointed fingers at one another. The latest witnesses, including former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, were called by Democrats who are conducting their own set of investigations in the House.
Amid the rancor, the hearing yielded few new answers about the confusion that day, including why it took so long for the National Guard to arrive at the Capitol as the rioters — supporters of former President Donald Trump — beat and injured police defending the building and sent lawmakers running as they broke through windows and doors.
Five people died, including a Capitol Police officer who collapsed afterward and a woman who was shot by an officer as she broke through a broken window adjacent to the House chamber with lawmakers still inside. Two other police officers took their own lives in the wake of the riot.
Takeaways from Wednesday’s House hearing:
PARTISAN FRICTION
Democrats focused on Trump from the start, with House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney saying the riots were “incited by shameless lies told by a defeated president.“ The House impeached Trump shortly after the attack for telling his supporters that day to “fight like hell” to overturn the election and for pushing lies about election fraud. He was later acquitted by the Senate.
Republicans defended the former president, who baselessly says the election was stolen from him even though his claims were debunked by election officials across the country and his own attorney general.
And some defended the rioters, painting them in a patriotic light.
“It was not an insurrection,” said Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde, a freshman Republican. He described the rioters as peaceful and said video of their presence in the Capitol didn’t look much different from a “normal tourist visit,” despite the fact that they injured police outside, broke through windows and doors and breached the Senate floor moments after senators had evacuated. They tried to beat down the doors of the House as well, but were stopped by police. Some menacingly called out for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and chanted for the hanging of Vice President Mike Pence.
Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona defended a woman who was shot and killed by the Capitol Police as she tried to break into the House chamber, saying Ashli Babbitt was “executed” and casting her as a martyr because she was an Air Force veteran and was wearing an American flag. The Department of Justice decided after an investigation not to charge the police officer who shot her.
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin said the Republican narrative was “outrageous, Orwellian revisionist history” and showed the need for a bipartisan commission.
CHANGING THE SUBJECT
Many Republican members turned the subject to riots in cities around the country instead of what happened at the Capitol, a contrast that resonates with base GOP voters.
“Democrats continue to demonize tens of millions of Americans who support President Trump and have legitimate questions about the integrity of the elections,” said Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the top Republican on the panel, about those who believe Trump’s false claims.
He said individuals who take to “crime, violence and mob tactics” are wrong, and that was true on Jan. 6 and also during last summer’s riots in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. Comer said it’s “hypocritical” that Pelosi and Democrats are focused on Jan. 6 instead.
Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs played videos of riots last summer in Portland, Oregon, comparing an attack on a federal courthouse there to the Capitol siege.
FEW NEW ANSWERS
The hearing ultimately fell short of its advance billing as addressing “unexplained delays and unanswered questions.”
There’s still confusion on why law enforcement didn’t bolster security prior to Jan. 6 after weeks of public concerns about pro-Trump extremists descending on Washington for a rally near the White House.
Timelines issued by law enforcement agencies and the military conflict on what authority the D.C. National Guard believed it had as rioters ransacked the Capitol, with hours elapsing before a quick response force set up prior to Jan. 6 arrived to help restore order.
And who was ultimately in charge remains in doubt. The Associated Press has reported that Pence told military leaders at 4:08 p.m. to “clear the Capitol.” But Miller said Wednesday that he didn’t consider Pence’s statements a direct order since the vice president wasn’t in the chain of command. He also said he didn’t speak to Trump that day because he believed the then-president had given him the authority he needed earlier.
Miller did describe a conversation he had with Trump three days earlier. On Jan. 3, Miller said, Trump told him to “do whatever was necessary to protect the demonstrators that were executing their constitutionally protected rights.”
PENTAGON DELAYS
Democrats attacked Miller repeatedly — at some points screaming at him — about what they argue were unnecessary delays by the Pentagon in sending help to an overrun Capitol.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told Miller that he has “never been more offended” by a witness statement than he was at Miller’s testimony defending his own actions. As the former acting defense secretary became more combative, Khanna told him that “your pugnacious style is not going to override the Democratic process” and said he was after “total self promotion.”
Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia speculated that Miller may have “slow-rolled” troops and asked if Trump or any officials had pushed for a delay.
“110%, absolutely not,” Miller responded. “No, that is not the case.”
Under questioning from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Miller said he agreed at 3 p.m. to move guardsmen to the Capitol. A Defense Department timeline includes that direction but also adds that at 4:32 p.m., Miller “provided verbal authorization” for the Guard to “conduct perimeter and clearance operations.”
During those 92 minutes, rioters continued to rampage inside the building as lawmakers and others inside huddled for safety.
Miller testified that D.C. National Guard Commanding Gen. William Walker was preparing a formal plan — a “concept of operations” — for the Guard to enter the Capitol.
Walker has testified that the “concept of operations” his superiors wanted was “unusual.” Miller retorted Wednesday that Walker’s request could have been met “in a matter of seconds with an oral briefing.”
Asked by Ocasio-Cortez if he doubted Walker’s testimony, Miller said, “I can understand there’s an inconsistency and perhaps disagreement.”