into the january 6 attack on the u.s. capital. we are joined by kat cammack. we continue the conversation with north carolina democratic congresswoman alma adams washington journal is next. ♪ host: on capitol hill yesterday, four police officers who defended the capital on the january 6 attack vowed to tell the truth during the first hearing of the select committee investigating the attack. the men shared details of the physical and mental trauma that they suffered that day. good morning to you on this wednesday, july 28. we want your reaction to what you heard from those police officers yesterday. democrats (202) 748-8000.

republicans (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8002. you can text us with your first name, city and state at (202) 748-8003. you can also post your comments on facebook.com/c-span or we can read your comments on twitter and instagram. let's begin with the testimony of those police officers. d.c. metropolitan police officer michael flynn known yesterday recalled being physically attacked on january 6. >> during those moments i remember thinking there was a very good chance i would be torn apart or shot to death with my own weapon. i thought of my four daughters who might lose their dad. i remain grateful that no member of congress had to go through the violent assault that i experienced that day. during the assault, i thought

about using my firearm on my attackers, but i knew that if i did, i would be quickly overwhelmed. and that in their minds would provide them with the justification for killing me. so i instead decided to appeal to any humanity they might have. i said as loud as i could manage, i've got kids. thankfully some in the crowd stepped in and assisted me. those few individuals protected me from a crowd and inched me toward the capital until my fellow officers could rescue me. i was carried back inside. what happened afterwards is much less vivid. i had been beaten unconscious and remained so for more than four minutes. i know that jimmy helped evacuate me from the building and drove me to medstar washington hospital center. despite suffering significant injuries himself. at the hospital, doctors told me

that i had suffered a heart attack and i was later diagnosed with a concussion, a traumatic rain injury and posttraumatic stress disorder. as my physical injuries gradually subsided and the adrenaline that had stayed with me for weeks waned, i had been left with the psychological trauma and emotional anxiety of having survived such a horrific event. my children continue to deal with the trauma of nearly losing their dad that day. 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 our downplaying or outright denying what happened. i feel like i went to hell and back to protect them and the people in this room. 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. host: your reaction to what you heard from those officers and the questioning by lawmakers from the january 6 select committee. their first hearing. the chair of that committee says they will likely hold another hearing during the august recess when most lawmakers are back in their home district and their states. mark in waterville, maine. democratic caller. morning. how much were you able to watch yesterday? caller: oh my gosh greta, it is something else. i don't know -- they want to punish somebody. i don't get that. who are they talking about? host: what do you mean? what are you referring to? caller: the january 6 attack. that's what the guy said.

host: what did you think of the police officers? caller: that one, i like that one that said they called him vein and stuff. they are just doing what they can do. host: terry in akron ohio. independent caller. good morning. caller: it was really something. i watched the whole hearing. it actually brought a tear to my eye just listening to what those guys went through. i really don't know if it's going to affect any republicans though. they are so hardened in what they believe. one thing i wanted to kind of widen the whole discussion and include the two officers of color. one officer that was in iraq and

then of course the black american. i just wonder if all of those people who criticize critical race theory, i just hope that they can listen to that testimony from those officers and maybe they can understand the whole point that we are trying to get across. this country steeped in racism and just needs to be brought out. and i thank you, c-span. host: an immigrant from the dominican republic served in the u.s. military and became a citizen. some of his testimony yesterday spoke about the idea of self-sacrifice. >> my rushing out there and the way i was thinking, we can't let these people in a matter what. even if it costs my life -- no

matter what. even if it costs my life. that luddy hand you saw -- bloody hand you saw is me. both my hands were bleeding bad. at no time did i stop to consider because the attacks were so relentless that all you had to do, i was thinking i need to survive this if possible. but i'm willing to sacrifice myself to prevent this, the attackers from coming in. i swore an oath to protect the public members of congress and the united states constitution and that's what i was doing that day. regardless of my personal safety along with everybody else that was there that day. they were calling us traders. -- traitors.

even though they were the ones doing the treasonous act that day. it was devastating and demoralizing for people, whoever party it is, to call this attack and continue to minimize it like nothing happened. it was an attempted coup that was happening at the capital that day. if it had been another country, the u.s. would have sent help. people need to understand the severity of and the magnitude of the event that was happening that day. we were all fighting for our lives. to give them, to give you guys the chance to go home to your family. to escape. now the same people who we helped, the same people who we gave them the borrowed time to

get to safety, now they are attacking our characters. people who never served in the military or as law enforcement. it's a disgrace. my actions that day was to save you guys regardless of my personal safety and i still continue wanting to do that. today, tomorrow. if it is demanded of myself to do that in the future. host: sergeant gonell from yesterday's hearing. we are getting your reaction to what you heard. larry in new jersey texted us to say it's a sad day for this country if the deniers of january 6 cannot accept the testimony of police officers

that are sworn to protect them. caller: good morning greta. how are you today? host: i'm fine. what did you think of the testimony? caller: i don't condone anything that happened. if they broke the law, they need to be charged and tried to read one of the things that caught my attention was a statement that one of the police officers had said that never in his wildest dreams he could have ever thought of this happening at the capitol. i'm paraphrasing. and to me that just shows the lack of training that they did not receive. if you receive the training, you would have thought that this could have happened. and to me i feel that they were set up. they didn't have the protection they needed to help defend the capital and i just think it's a

shame. i would like to know who knew what when and why wasn't anything done prior to january 6 to help defend the capital. and that's my biggest question. host: mike in lafayette, tennessee. caller: good morning. he stole my thunder, the one democrat. exactly the same. i had tears running down my eyes. i was disgusted and i just could not believe. when you turn on the other channels that were conservative and how they deny and whitewash everything. if you ask me, there is hope, but in my opinion these people were traitors to the constitution. this did not happen at the capital since 1811. we have had threats, but they did not know to the extent that

this was going to be an attack like that. and the capitol police had been staffed just fine. they had been trained. now with these far-right winners, the way they are now especially the white supremacists. the tears that were running down my face when that african-american brother of mine said what he was called, i almost went into sobbing. i could not believe it. there is hope. my neighbor who works on my atv's is a staunch trump supporter. when i went to pick up one, i said where is all the trump signs? he said i'm done with that party. i'm done with trump. what changed your mind? i've just been doing the research on the capital and that was an insurrection and i'm disgusted. i said, you and i are going to be friends for a long time. thank you for the discussion this morning and i just hope this never happens again and that these people are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

host: let's show that moment you referenced from yesterday. u.s. capitol police officer harry dunn testified on being verbally assaulted. the language in this video may be offensive to some. >> more and more insurrectionists were pouring into the area by the speaker's lobby. some wearing maga hats and shirts that said trump 2020. i told them to just leave the capital and in response they yelled no man, this is our house. president trump invited us here. we are here to stop the steel. joe biden is not the president. nobody voted for joe biden. i'm a law enforcement officer and i do my best to keep politics out of my job. in this circumstance, i responded. i voted for joe biden. does my vote not count? am i nobody?

that prompted a torrent of racial epithets. one woman in a pink maga shirt said, you hear that guys? this n-word voted for joe biden. the crowd joined in screaming, boo, -- n-word. no one had ever called me a n-word in police close. one officer told me he had never in his entire 40 years of life been called a n-word to his face and that streak ended on january 6. another black officer later told me he had been confronted by insurrectionists in the capital

who told him, put your gun down and we will show you what kind of n-word you really are. host: officer harry dunn from yesterday. bob in wakefield rhode island. independent. caller: how are you this morning greta? it's good to be seeing you on. i'm an every morning watcher of your program, washington journal. i think it's one of the most important couple of hours but i don't usually get to be able to watch all of it, but i always watch the first hour or so and then i have to go about my business. i was watching the hearing yesterday and i wondered if i was going to stick with it. and i listened to the first presentation of the experiences

that one of the -- i can't give you the names now. i'm not good with names. i'm 81 and my mind is still intact, but my hearing and a number of other things are going. anyway, he started talking, described his feelings about how he generated into the job that he ended up in. and then he started with an unbelievable i thought excellent discussion of what happened and then it went on for the next person and the one you just had on. every one of them i thought was compelling. i could not leave the program and then after they spoke, they had a couple questioning and i was very pleased that the two republican participants that

showed some compassion towards the unbelievable event on january 6. there is so much going on in the world right now that it's hard to even focus on, know what to focus on. i believe that this commission needs to be doing what they're doing and i pray that the american people will pay attention. that one comment that was made a little while ago with the person that spoke, that called in and had the person realized and reject the stuff that has gone on in this country and kind of leave the trump era is -- i can't believe it isn't happening a lot more than it is and it's the one thing that scares the life out of me.

and there's no end to what i could be talking about. anyway, i just want you to know about your program again. you don't want to force people to do anything. but if they are not doing anything in the morning and they are having their breakfast, this is what they ought to be listening to every morning. it's important. host: why do you think it's important for others to listen to this first hour? caller: you get a perspective of how people think about issues from all different sides. and i think that a lot of people want to just listen to one side. but i crave for programs that if there's an issue that there's disagreement, that you're going to get both sides or at least some other side other than one projected opinion. that's why i feel this program

and i tell people the best i can, try to listen. a lot of people maybe they don't want to do that. maybe they don't want to listen to any news. i'm a c-span person and a pbs person and i've watched you and others on your program. i don't know what i would do if you went off the air. i would be losing a big piece of democracy and freedom if this program ever disappeared. so that's all i can say. host: bob in wakefield rhode island. the emotional comments made by adam kinzinger on the january 6 select committee. listen to what he had to say yesterday. >> i never expected today to be quite as emotional family as it

has been. i've talked to a number of you and gotten to know you. i think it's important to tell you right now though, you guys may individually feel a little broken. you guys all talk about the effects you have to deal with. you talk about the impact of that day. but you guys won. you guys held. democracies are not defined by our bad days. we are defined by how we come back from bad days. how we take accountability for that. and for all the overheated rhetoric surrounding this committee, our mission is very simple. it's to find the truth and to ensure accountability. like most americans, i'm frustrated that six months after

a deadly insurrection breached the united states capitol for several hours on live television , we still don't know exactly what happened. why. because many in my party have treated this as just another partisan fight. it's toxic and it's a disservice to the officers and their families, to the staff and the employees in the capital complex to the american people who deserve the truth and to those generations before us who went to war to defend self-governance because self-governance is at stake. it's why i agreed to serve on this committee. i want all americans to be able to trust the work that this committee does and get the facts out there free of conspiracy. this cannot continue to be a partisan fight. i'm a republican, i'm a conservative. but in order to heal from the damage caused that day, we need

to stop the outrage and conspiracies that fuel violence and division in this country. we need to reject those that promoted. as a country it's time to learn from our past mistakes. rebuild stronger so this never happens again and then we can move onward. serving on this committee i'm here to investigate january 6 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. here's what we know. congress was not prepared on january 6. we weren't prepared because we never imagined that this could happen. an attack by our own people fostered and encouraged by those granted power through the very system they sought to overturn. that is a lesson. that is not a conspiracy theory or a counter narrative. we don't blame victims. we go after the criminals.

host: adam kinzinger put on that panel i speaker pelosi along with representative liz cheney. adam kinzinger writes, the questions i want answered. here are some of them. was it organized. when did our government leaders know of the impending attacks and what were their responses. what level of preparation or warnings did law enforcement have. was there coordination between the rioters and any members of congress or staff. virginia in waldorf, maryland. republican. we will go to you next. >> there's only one thing that really stood out to me and that was in the house floor when they were saying call trump and have him call his gang off or his followers off. how more apparent credit the then trump was behind this. these people representing us said to call trump, they must

have known something. i just think it is so disgraceful. i have no intentions of ever supporting a republican again. host: did you vote for president trump in 2016? caller: no. host: did you leave before the january 6 attack? caller: yes. host: when did you leave the party? caller: the second term right after he ran and i saw everything that he was about. i just can't support a party that can support a man even before he was elected lying to the american public. i just could not support that. host: with the tweet, i feel sorry for the officers that have to go to therapy.

hopefully they will find closure after receiving their 15 minutes of fame. caller: good morning. watching that hearing kind of brought tears to my eyes. i'm a federal police officer. it really did something to me. the fact of the matter is we had a president that by all character matters did some -- uncanny things that no probably person that would actually do. kind of reminds me of my wish that the american people could kind of close their eyes and think about the summation that was given in the movie a time to kill when jack asked the jury to close their eyes and imagine what would happen if that were

you. this is sad. it really is. i don't know what to say. i work for the department of veterans affairs. here it is almost august and we still haven't had a picture of our president posted up yet. host: linford in north carolina. l in georgia texts us to say, officer did not mean he was not trained for attack at all, but training was not for an attack by fellow americans. as far as the security of the capital, here is the story in roll call this morning. deal reached on 2.1 billion. it seeks to pay for the january 6 right cost and assisting afghans in danger by pending withdrawal of u.s. troops. john, democratic caller.

caller: i want to give you my personal perspective on that day. i drove by. i was in d.c.. and what i saw was surreal. it was like the independence day movie. you never think that you could ever see it in real life. what i saw was thousands of people around the rotunda on the house side of the capitol building and here's another perspective. on the grounds, on the capitol grounds, i didn't see anybody. i didn't see any capitol police. usually there's capitol police all around the capital. they stand guard and stuff. i didn't see any of that. i didn't actually drive in, i could have driven right through

the capital but i didn't feel like it because i've done it hundreds of times. it was a surreal experience. and i didn't think i would ever see it in my lifetime. host: mike in north carolina. republican. how much of the testimony were you able to listen to and watch? caller: i watched a little here and there. but i've got a couple points. first of all, any violence against law enforcement i condemn and 99 point 9% of the republicans condemn. but the thing is, this commission is so hypocritical. these democrats for the whole year of last year basically condemned cops during all these blm and antifa riots where they burn down cities and killed over

25 people. and shot david dorn, the policeman in oklahoma. or in oakland california. and it is so hypocritical about them. they're talking about they are worried, they are supporting police when it protects them, but on every average american, they condemned the police. they want to defund the police. look at the crime going on in these cities. look at baltimore, portland. the murders and the crime are up 200%. it is so hypocritical about this. any violence against police is absolutely horrific to me. but you don't hear nothing about the policeman that got run into by the car with the black leftists. they don't want to bring up nothing about that. and bennie thompson, one of his

opening statements is no questions about pelosi. pelosi was asked to get national guard and extra police six times and she denied at all. why? why did she not want to police there? it's like she wanted something to happen to make all trump people look bad. i voted for trump, i voted for trump twice and i'm going to vote for him a third time. it is just so hypocritical. they don't want to bring nothing about all the violence, all the burning, all the killing, looting, nothing that's happened in the summertime time of last year and it's happening now. look at the people -- crimes in the streets. host: let me ask you something about the testimony yesterday. did you learn anything from listening to those police officers? caller: yeah. being a police is not -- what do

you call it -- it's not an admired profession. it don't matter if it's on the left or the right. seems like men and women in blue are victimized. they are demoralized and being a policeman is rough. they don't just stand there protecting people. they do all kinds of things. they rescue people. they try to talk to people. but once one of them defends their selves against a thug and shoots and kills, it's either him or the criminal and if they shoot the criminal, they get victimized that they shouldn't have done this, they shouldn't have done that. caller: most democrats looked like they were trying to get oscar's for the back -- best actor. that black guy on the internet, they caught him on the internet

saying about how the riots are justified. they attacked trump, white supremacist, the same old garbage. the thing is -- cry for the people killed in the streets. they cry about illegal aliens killing people couple years ago. nothing but fake tears. host: when people testify at hearings, when they deliver their opening statements most times if not all times, they read from their statement. they read what they have written down. caller: that doesn't matter. i heard what they said. these guys are all corrupt. these guys all had some kind of hatred for republicans, trump and the people in the streets. the other members are 25,000

people and they are condemning every white person in america when you can see on tv who is doing most of the killing in this country. it's all by blacks. host: i'm going to leave it there for now. we will return to this conversation in our last hour of washington journal. that's 9:00 a.m. eastern time. we will get your reaction to the officers testifying on the january 6 attack. after break we are going to be joined by lawmakers for their reaction plus other congressional news of the day. we will talk to tat cameco -- kat cammack. we will be right back.

>> david stewart use to practice law in washington, d.c.. he gave that up over 15 years ago to write history. his first book was all about the constitutional convention in philadelphia. called the summer of it -- 1787. that was in 2008. a year later, he wrote about the trial of andrew johnson. then he focused on aaron burr. now in 2021, he takes a look at george washington. and in david stewart's words, his mastery of politics. host: historian and attorney david stewart on this episode of book notes plus. listen at c-span.org/podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

>> washington journal continues. host: kat cammack is with us. she's the top republican on the homeland security emergency preparedness response and recovery subcommittee and also as a member of the future of americans freedoms task force. thank you so much for being here. i want to begin with your reaction to the police officers testimony yesterday at that january 6 select committee. guest: from what i was able to watch in between committee

hearings and votes yesterday, i have to say it was of course exceptionally emotional. very jarring and my heart breaks for the officers and the experience that they went through. the whole day truly was a tragic horrible day. having been there on the house floor when did all -- when it all went down, i know firsthand the bravery that are capitol police officers and others displayed in a moment of crisis. as the wife of a first responder, my heart was breaking for them listening to that very jarring testimony. i know that we are but a moment in time right now. this will be a part of our history and we will learn from it and move on and we will be stronger for. host: is the january 6 select committee legitimate in your opinion? guest: no it is not. because you have a political

outcome that has been established before this committee even began. before the testimony was heard. this had been politicized every which way. we have committees that have been undergoing investigation. we have had the senate conducting investigations and if nancy pelosi was truly serious about getting to the bottom of what really happened that day and not just on january 6 but the events leading up, where the failures of leadership work, who was behind it. if she was truly serious about that, she would have called for them in the days and weeks immediately in the aftermath. that's why i signed on to legislation to form a commission. but after months and months of hearing from her and those in her leadership that they had a political outcome in mind, that they had their own truth that they were going to seek. that to me sounds more like a

political witch hunt than actually getting to the bottom of what happened that day and unfortunately that's what you're going to see. a political outcome that has been predetermined despite what facts may or may not have been presented. host: we heard that the events of january 6 were true -- were a coup. guest: i think that would be the purpose of an investigation that was completely bipartisan to determine the motive of that day. you have heard that it was an insurrection, that it was a c oup. and it was an attack. all i can tell you from my perspective is that it was an attack on members, on our institution. united states capital and it is

something that we never ever want to go back to. there needs to be accountability, or needs to be transparency in the investigation and we need to get to the bottom of this. host: you voted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. have you changed your view? guest: no. because it's quite simple. my vote to decertify arizona and pennsylvania's vote was simply an result to my oath of office which was a constitutional duty. and the notion that people were upset have their timeline mixed up because the vote didn't occur until the early morning hours for this attack occurred about 12 hours prior. in the thing that i cannot understand is why people on the left when they voted to decertify trump's election in 2017 or in 2006, that was seen as an act of bravery and

standing up for the constitution when republicans do it, it's not. we have a constitutional duty to certify the election but only those that have been conducted under the articles that have been laid out in the constitution, specifically article one, section four. so we have a constitutional duty. those states in particular had taken steps that subverted, undermined the constitution. their state legislatures had not been part of the decision-making process to change their elections. and so when you have local election officials that are appointed, not elected or activist judges making decisions that impact the election process, that is when congress has a role to step in and say no. host: should president trump run again in 2024? guest: that is up for mr. trump to decide. host: would you support him?

guest: i would. he did an incredible job in the last four years. he was firm, he had a vision for america. and we certainly do not have today. i think more than anything we need a president that will put america first instead of america last. host: we want our viewers to join in on this conversation as well. phone numbers on your screen. democrats, republicans, independent. let's go to ron and marilyn. democratic caller. go ahead. caller: good morning representative. i have a question for you. the only trials that republicans had on benghazi, do you think those were correct? guest: i was not involved. i wasn't a member during the benghazi hearings. but i can tell you that i was in

the room when former secretary of state hillary clinton slammed her fist down on the table and said what difference does it make. i can tell you that there were four americans left behind that lost their life that day. it absolutely makes a difference. and that's why it is so important that we got to the bottom of benghazi. there is still lingering issues from that. still documents that are classified that i believe the american people need to see and i think if we are to remain a constitutional republic we have to have that accountability and transparency. be it 9/11, benghazi or january 6, american people deserve to know exactly what happened today -- that day, the failures of leadership, and how we can make sure it never happens again. host: why were you in the room that day? guest: previously i served my district as deputy chief of

staff for the representative who served the third district of florida for eight years and that was actually right at the beginning of our tenure, it was 2013. that's why i was in the room that day when hillary clinton made those infamous remarks. caller: good morning. when you ask this congressperson, would she support mr. trump in 2024 and she said yes, you need not ask her any more questions after that because she is one of those same people who shunned those police officers who saved their lives. this is one of those people who was hiding under the benches, about to be murdered by that group. yet when somebody is trying to murder you you still back them. the same person that wraps themselves up in the flag and says they love police officers

in the same one will not give them anything. guest: i appreciate your calling in and everyone is entitled to their opinion. unfortunately you are not there that day. i was not hiding under a bench. i was in the background of the house chamber and ready to fight alongside my colleagues from florida, from texas. that day we were not republican versus democrats. we were all americans. i think it's embarrassing when people want to suggest an opinion about something that happened that day when they don't know. like i said, we were all americans in that moment. there was no hiding. and my support for president trump is not defined by one day. it's defined by the goals and the agenda and the america first vision that he made. being a constitutional conservative, i respect your opinion.

we need to have the opinion of everyone upheld whether we agree with it or not. host: what role did president trump play on january 6? guest: president trump wasn't there. he was i believe still down the mall on stage when it all began. again, something else with the investigation is going to determine but only if it is a truly bipartisan and thorough investigation with no political agenda in mind from the outset. host: john in ridgefield, connecticut. republican. caller: why aren't the republicans speaking out more forcefully about the hypotheses for one thing of not investigating what happened last summer, burning down the federal courthouse and all the looting

and all of that. the other thing is there were reportedly 100,000 people in washington that day and 500 people have been arrested and prosecuted so where's the problem. the policeman should be mad at misses pelosi for not offering them better protection. thank you. guest: that was john, right? i agree with you. it's very frustrating that the leadership of the house, the speaker who is nancy pelosi and was speaker at the time of the attack, they are actually the mayor of sorts of capitol hill. they are responsible for sergeant at arm's, for capitol police. and yet there has been no accountability, no questioning of speaker pelosi and her role, her knowledge leading up to that

day. where are the people demanding her knowledge of the intel briefing. we know that there were warnings, that there had been threats made, but no action had been taken on them. we also know there was a memo distributed days prior that muriel bowser was denied aid from metro police and didn't want to have national guard in the district. so i think people need answers. we need to understand why leadership was so hell-bent on making sure that our capitol police did not have the reinforcements that they needed knowing that there was an active thread. host: you are the top republican on the homeland security subcommittee on emergency preparedness, response and recovery. as fema prepares for wildfires and hurricane season and other weather-related disasters, do you think they have adequate funding and are prepared?

guest: we have some tremendous challenges with wildfires and a very active hurricane season. he has been very confident that we have the resources. i can tell you that several of the money that go to emergency preparedness and response have been decimated because of our southwest border crisis that is unfolding. one of the programs of resettlement exist to help people move around in the event of an emergency for american citizens, that money has been used to reimburse ngos who are flying and bussing migrants all over the country. so what remains of that money i am not sure. we have an official congressional inquiry and we are hoping to get answers shortly.

host: ricky in michigan. democratic color. -- caller. caller: i watched the whole thing. i have been watching trump from day one from when he got elected. when he was up on the bus and all of that. i watched this thing for a long time. anyway tom -- anyway, trump told them peoples to go to the capital and he did say he would be there. he jumped on his helicopter and went back to the white house to start watching this thing. i know that trump sent them peoples there. our country is better than this. and the republicans, you republicans, yell want to not even try to help the turnaround and get a bipartisan committee.

nancy pelosi asked you to come in. you sent two guys that wanted to interrupt the process. host: let's get a response. guest: i agree with you that our country is better than this. i think our country is bigger than this moment in time. it's bigger than one main -- man, it's bigger than all of us. that is something i absolutely agree on. to suggest there has been any effort by nancy pelosi to really forge a bipartisan committee has really been something the mainstream media has tried to promote but i know to be false. when you look at the commission she proposed, there was an uneven balance of republicans and democrats. they restricted our witnesses that republicans could call.

it protected her from subpoena power. there's a litany of things that made this exactly what the american people don't need. a dog and pony show that looks like they are trying to get to the bottom of it but in reality it really missed the mark. i like so many of my colleagues support a complete and total equitable bipartisan investigation. that's what we need, what the americans deserve, and i hope that at the end of the day we can get to the bottom of this because we all deserve answers for what happened that day. the buck stops with nancy pelosi. she needs to be held accountable for the failures of her office and herself to make sure the capital was adequately protected, that we acted on known intelligence from all of the various agencies and that her different offices are held accountable.

host: in alexandria virginia. you are on the air with the congresswoman. caller: the democrats did try to have a bipartisan commission when mccarthy and mcconnell encourages the voters to not vote for that. so i would love to know the answer to that i think what you are telling us is not accurate. another question i have been wanting to ask republicans forever. he said you would support donald trump again and again. another caller said the same thing. i'm just curious about you as a representative, female at that. trump said earlier that he can touch a female anywhere in her private parts and nobly can do any thing about it, what would he do -- what would you do if he touched you or your daughters? would you still vote for him? guest: thank you for calling in. as i was just telling ricky, i have read the legislation that

was proposed. i actually was a early cosponsor of a truly bipartisan fair commission in the days after january 6. that's what america needed in that moment. that's what we need today. we need a commission that is focused on getting to the truth, on getting to the bottom of this. not a political agenda that has been predetermined. we have seen the comments from speaker pelosi and her leadership team. they have said we are going to let the american people know what our truth is. we don't need their truth, we need the truth. and there is a distinct difference. i just hope and pray that we can come together as americans, not republicans versus democrats. our constitutional republic is bigger than this tragic event. it is bigger than one person. we all need to be behind getting to the truth of what happened to that day and the events leading up to it and it needs to be

accountability. not fake accountability, not a slap on the wrist. there needs to be truly accountability for the actions and inaction of that day. host: we are talking to kat cammack, republican of florida. bill in louisiana. you are next. caller: hello. cat, i would like to thank you very much for coming on this network. this network does not like you or any of us republicans. i voted for trump in 2016 and i will vote for him in 2020 and i will vote for him again in 2024. because he would be the only president that has ran and won three times in a row. he will be our president again. i sure hope that he does run again and you are very brave to come on this network. very brave and i applaud you for that. you are really good.

host: i will disagree with bill about not liking you, but we will leave it there. the republican leader kevin mccarthy appointed you to a newly created future of americans -- american freedom task force. what is this task force, what is its goal? guest: the committee addresses the economic disparities and cause as solutions to move forward. aoc was one of her appointments to that committee and i'm really proud of the fact that leader mccarthy appointed myself and several of my freshman colleagues to this committee to really take a stand on the issues that we as conservatives have really exceeded that the left. issues like poverty, homelessness. opioid addiction. all things i believe republican puddle -- policies are best

suited to really work on and lift people to a new station in in life. i can tell you haven't gone from homeless to the house of representatives, i know that there is an inherent grit that americans have that we can do anything. but we need sometimes hands up. but not a handout. handouts and this growing dependency on government is exceptionally detrimental to who we are as americans, our way of life and the future for our kids. i think it's a tremendous opportunity for us to highlight very different paths that we find ourselves going down. there is one that is one of freedom, individual responsibility, choices for ourselves and our family because we believe that we know better than an oversized one-size-fits-all overreaching federal government. the left says we believe as government that we know best and we are going to make decisions

for you and you are going to pay for them. so it really comes down to freedom versus socialism. those are the options that americans are presented with and this select committee is going to be highlighting those. when nancy pelosi rejected the membership of representative jim jordan and jim banks because she truly did not want to have conservatives on the committee for january 6, leader mccarthy removed the members saying if you're not going to accept our appointees, we know exactly what you are going for. a political outcome that has been predetermined. host: randy, democratic caller. caller: it's funny to me, i watched it when they had black lives matter, they had every police officer, prison guard, fbi, cia. everyone in the world for trump

supporters. and when the republicans put that mess on that rally, there wasn't nobody there at all. mccarthy i seen him running down the hall like a little woman. now he's not going to -- put the money where the method -- mouth is, but the mouth where the money is. i think it is a scam. host: congresswoman, your thoughts? guest: i'm not quite sure where randy is going with that. i appreciate you calling in, randy. host: question from a viewer. our liz cheney and representative kinsinger any less of being constitutional conservatives than yourself? are you doing the people on your

side of the aisle labeling them as pelosi republicans? guest: something i have been very adamant about is we do not do republican on republican violence. anytime we want to tear one another down over difference of opinion, that's a very dangerous thing to do. i have chosen not to speak out against my colleagues. while i may not always agree with them, that is for a family discussion to happen behind closed doors. representative kinsinger and representative cheney know exactly where i stand. i believe the republican party has a big enough tent to accommodate opinions of all sizes. that's what makes republicans great. we have a variety of opinions. we respect individuals to have that opinion and also disagree with it. i think it is truly a matter for representative kinsinger and cheney to make that

determination if they are constitutional conservatives. just because you call yourself conservative doesn't mean that your actions reflect that. i grew up in a way that your actions upon them to show where they truly stand. host: in florida it is responding to your criticism of your -- of speaker pelosi and he writes "does mcconnell have the same security rights as he was the majority leader at the time?" guest: that is a good question for the senate. we have the sergeant and arms in the house and they respond to or report to the speaker of the house. i know there was a discrepancy in the response, so that is a question from the senate and senator mcconnell. host: joe, in hudson new york. independent. caller: yes, this woman is so disingenuous, she gets up in front of the nation and says

that trump did a good job and he left us with the worst economy since the great depression. he left $6 trillion more in debt and when we started, 33% more when he left. he is the only president ever to lose more jobs in the economy began were grown. he lost 30 million jobs. what was so great about this guy? he lied about the seriousness of a deadly pandemic, killing unnecessarily probably over half a million people. we have 4.5% of the world's population and we had 20% of the world's cases and deaths. and then he leaves with a violent insurrection that killed five policemen, injured 150 others, and everyone in the world could look at the tv and see what happened. and this woman is up there saying that nancy pelosi is wrong for what happened.

and mitch mcconnell is the head of the senate, and guess who is in charge of ordering the national guard to washington, d.c.? it is the president of the united states, and he did not. he disappeared after saying i will be there with you shoulder to shoulder, inciting a riot at our capitol, organizing a riot, talking about it for two or three months before the riot happens, and then, walks away and does not -- cannot be found for three hours to call off the hounds that he sent down to attack people. host: joe, i have to jump in because we are running short of time. i will give you a chance to respond. caller: i did not -- guest: i did not catch his name. i did catch that the caller was from new york and i am terribly sorry about your situation with your governor and the fact that the governor has imposed really locked down situations result --

that resulted in tragic deaths and cost the lives of so many. i think the response from president trump through covid and really a global pandemic that the world has not seen, his response was remarkable. operation warp speed resulted in one of the quickest turnarounds of vaccines, which of course president biden has taken full credit for, and likes to tout the rollout of the vaccine deployment across country, which would have not been possible without president trump's leadership under operation warp speed. something that is so great about our republic is that we can have difference of opinion, and while we may not like them, i respect them. i think it is hypocritical that someone who wants to criticize myself, and being disingenuous and being a supporter of president trump is saying that the leadership of the left has been wonderful, and also the national guard, there was actually a member that was sent

from d.c. mayor marielle bowser's office in the days prior saying that she did not want to have a national guard presence, and a standdown order. there needs to be accountability for that. nancy pelosi is speaker of the house and whether she likes to admit it or not, she was the leader and responsible ultimately for the actions of that day. you cannot claim that you hold the gavel and then not accept the responsibility and consequences that come with it. again, every american regardless of party affiliation, we want answers and we want to know what she knew, when she knew it and why she did not take action. that i think is what the key issue is. host: thank you for the conversation this morning. guest: have a great day. host: we will take a short break. when we come back we will keep getting your thoughts on yesterday's testimony by the

four police officers. they detailed their physical and mental trauma to the nation. what did you think. there are the lines. after that we will talk to another member of congress later on, alma adams, a democratic ran congresswoman of north carolina and we will keep the conversation rolling. we will be right back. "-- ♪ >> saturday on "the communicators" technology reporters discuss the future of the tech industry and congress's tech agenda. >> if you look at the priorities , you have seen the pandemic take over early and you have seen infrastructure take over now. there are a lot of big tech topics that historically attracted interest that just are not front and center including section 230 debates. i think data privacy is something that was hugely front and center, maybe 2019 some 2020

initially. those things are off to the side a little bit. i think they are important and people are interested, but there are not any consensus proposals that will move in any way. >> the future of the tech industry saturday at 6:30 p.m. eastern on "the communicators" on c-span. >> "washington journal" continues. host: the first hearing for the january 6 select committee took place with four police officers testifying about what they experienced that day. the seven democrats and two republicans heard testimony for nearly four hours. what was your reaction to hearing what they had to say? let us begin with one of those republicans, appointed by speaker pelosi. liz cheney, questioning police officers sergeant about then president trump's reaction to the events of january 6.

[video clip] >> i would like to ask you, you describe that it was like a medieval battlefield. and, what you were suggested was something like a medieval battlefield. you said we fought hand-to-hand and inch by inch to prevent an invasion by a violent mob intent on subverting our democratic process. and, is it the case as you were fighting, you were not aware that the capital had been breached elsewhere, i believe you said that you thought you were the last line of defense, is that right? >> that is correct. >> so, when you think about that, and share with us the vivid memory of the cruelty and violence of the assault that day, and you hear former president trump say "it was a loving crowd, there was a lot of love in the crowd," how does

that make you feel? >> it is upsetting, it is a pathetic excuse for his behavior for something that he himself helped to create. this monstrosity. i am still recovering from those hugs and kisses that day that he claimed that so many riot orer -- righters -- rioters, terrorist gave. if those were hugs and kisses we should do the same thing to him. it is insulting and demoralizing because everything we did was to prevent everyone in the capital from getting hurt, and 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.

i was on the west terrace fighting alongside these officers, and all of them were telling us trump sent us. no one else, there was nobody else, it was not antifa, black lives matter, the fbi, it was his supporters that he sent over to the capital that day and he could have done a lot of things, one of them was to tell them to stop. he talked about sacrificing -- sacrifices. the only thing he sacrificed where the institutions of the country, and the country itself only for his ego because he wanted to continue -- he wanted the job but he does not want to do the job. and, that is a shame on him and himself. [end video clip] host: later in the day, apologized for a of his response to the congresswoman. take a look. >> before i start, i just want

to by no means am i suggesting that we should go to his house. i apologize for my outburst. host: officer goneel yesterday. carol in florida, a republican, how much were you able to watch? caller: i gave up pretty quick. i think this is just scripted. it is a load of bull. ms. cheney the next person who says she has a fair republican, do not. she is democrat all the way through. closely removed the only two republicans who would've gotten to the bottom of this. the next officer is why didn't they call for help? instead of just trying to fight them off. they should've called for help the moment they saw that crowd. nancy pelosi didn't because this is what nancy pelosi wanted to

happen. host: robert in baltimore, democratic collar. caller: good morning. yes, i watched it yesterday the select committee, and all i have to say is, i watched january 6 when trump was in front of the white house, sending that mob down. the american people do not realize that trump will not be here by december of 2021. trump is not going to jail, and he is in a world of trouble now as soon as this indictment comes down. he has jumping on his plane, and he is gone. he told everybody last year during that riot, i am going to leave the country if i lose this

election. that is the reason why he tried his best not to leave that white house. people have got to understand, what prompted the man to do all of that, because he knew that once he walked out of that door, he was going to jail. host: carrie johnson of npr news reporting yesterday that the doj concluded that representative mo brooks' participation in the january 6 rally amounted to the campaign event not within the scope of his employment, and that instigating an attack on the capital would not be in the with -- in the scope of the lawmaker's employment. the doj alleges that brooks engaged in contact -- in contact preventing the lawful certification of the 2020 election and to injure members of congress and inciting the

riot. justice does not resolve the question of whether brooks incited the crowd that day, but points out that "under district of columbia law, an employee who maliciously asked contrary to his employer's interest acts outside the scope of his employment." robert, in baltimore, democratic collar. -- caller. robert are you there? let us go to rich, hickory hills, and -- illinois, independent. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have not been watching my cashier show lately because after watching this stuff with the whole debacle of that presidency, what really stands out is the sickness of this country, that the people that we have that voted this fiasco in,

the belief that they believed that this guy would do anything other than what it brought to this conclusion. this man was out there to become in my opinion, a nazi leader in the united states, that is what this was about. it was his attempt to try to take over as hitler's did in world war ii by denying the results of the congress, the senate, it was all part of the major plan from donald trump to sit there and say that we cannot believe the news because they are not telling you what i am telling you. they are lying, i am right, you are wrong. this is something that the republican party bought into and now they have to defend it. they are hoping that they will get some sanity someplace along the line and they will clean this mess up, but right now they

have nothing to do. it was just like on the streets they would say deny, deny, deny. it is like donald trump, admit nothing, get a good attorney. these are the kinds of things that has brought us to this. if people could not see that or did not want to see that, and think that, it is a sad comment about how sick and twisted we are that we are watching this and saying that is a loving crowd that is doing this stuff. these people -- if the steal was there, but only if we win it is not a steal. host: john in bismarck, north dakota. republican caller, we will go to you. caller: i watched the entire hearing with the officers, and i

thought they did a very good job in presenting their viewpoint of what happened. i did find that all of them seems to be -- seemed to be anti-trump, or never trump. i found that all of the officers did not have anything good to say about donald trump, or the party, the rnc. i also found that liz cheney and the other person, i forgot his name. host: adam kinzinger? caller: yes. they did not help at all in getting to the bottom of the truth. in fact, liz cheney seem to be feeding questions and such that she might as well have been a democrat. she was prompting the one

officer to make comments that were meant to make donald trump look bad. so, i do not have any respect for her at all anymore. i thought she would be a little bit more -- i thought she would be probing into who had the ultimate security and to had to find the security for the capital and things like that. she did not do anything. host: perhaps those questions were not -- are better asked of other people than the police officers. caller: for sure. but i do say that, for sure, the officers, i think they were heartfelt in what they experienced. it was tragic, a total tragic day.

i do not believe that it was -- i do not believe they were incited, i do not believe they were true maga people. they looked like they were fresh out of the packages, so i do not know who they were, maybe they were proud boys or some other group, but i do not think they were maga people. maga people at all of the rallies, not a single bit of violence at all by maga people, except for when they come out of the rallies they would get harassed by antifa or whatnot. i never heard of magna -- maga people doing anything against the law. host: cynthia gist said "i have never been prouder of congress. representative thompson gave the

nation a true investigative hearing concentrating on the facts without distraction." the republican leader kevin mccarthy of california does not believe that this committee is legitimate. he has withdrawn the republican lawmakers from serving on the committee after speaker pelosi barred jim banks and jim jordan from serving on it. here is what he had to say yesterday, requesting the test questioning the legitimacy before the hearing began. [video clip] >> you headache and mary -- committee chair of question the election of george bush and who was suing the president. you have a mini chair who believes that republican senators are equal to terra rest -- terrorists and should be on the watchlist. you have a member who said that the president should be impeached and questioned the election and objected to the elect tears. you have adam shift who is playing nothing but politics. he lied that he had proof, took

this country through an unbelievable false impeachment, to find out that he lied to us. the idea that she thinks these predetermined people will protect her, i think you should start off with everybody should be able to ask the questions. let us get to the bottom of this, they should never happen again. when the kavanaugh hearings took place there was a break in the line of the capitol police, they are the majority party. why didn't they take for that to be prepared for any other time going forward. we have a house administration who oversees much of this and a chairman of that committee who had not been to washington since may. you had ig reports that told you you were ill prepared for capitol police. why would you damage the men and women that we have watched time and again put their life on the line to go into the line of fire, you have steve scalise and rodney davis who was on that baseball field. why wouldn't we make that

commitment to them? you had rodney davis who offered let us just legislation as the ranking member in the minority that the majority would never bring up even though others said that they would need it. all those questions going to be asked? are we going to be back in the situation in the future? two question should be why were we so ill prepared for the day and how can we make sure that this never happens again? that is what you drive the committee. there might be filled up before that you will have to investigate. speaker pelosi worked six months trying to make sure that that would never happen. we had an officer killed on good friday, just across here, based upon if you listen to who made the killing of buying the knife, it was politically motivated but we will not investigate that. you have the fbi doing investigations making sure that nothing in this committee gets in the way of that. you have an architect of the

capitol that has appropriated $10 million to make sure that this is better prepared. why wouldn't we then ask the tough questions and make sure that they capitol police have the resources, training, and equipment, that is what is being withheld. [end video clip] host: the republican leader in the house around 8:00 a.m. yesterday, 90 minutes before the hearing began. a few hours later, harry dunn asked the select committee to find out who was behind the events of january 6. here's what he had to say. [video clip] >> there is a sentiment that is going around that said everybody is trying to make it political. well, it is not a secret that it was political. they literally were there to stop the steel -- steal, so when people say it should not be political, it was and is. there is no getting around that.

telling the truth, should not be hard. fighting on january 6, that was hard. showing up january 7 was hard. the eighth, ninth, and 10th all the way to today, that was hard. when the fence came down, that was hard. we lost a layer of protection that we had and the fence came down and nothing has changed. everything is different but nothing has changed. 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? i guess in this america, it is.

us four officers, we would do january 6 all over again. we would not stay home because we knew it would happen. we would show up, that is courageous, and heroic. what i ask from you all is to get to the bottom of what happens, and that includes and i echo the sentiments of the other officers sitting here. i use an analogy to describe what i want as a hitman, 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 hires him does. there was an attack carried out on january 6, and a hitman sent them, i want you to get to the bottom of that. host: officer dunn's testimony and he was joined by three other police officers. if you missed any of their testimony go to c-span.org. if you hit the video player in

your screen, the triangle, the sideways triangle, at the bottom you will see gold stars show up at the bottom of the video, and that indicates to you points of interest from the campaign. if you do not have nearly four hours to sit and listen to every minute you are able to find the different key moments throughout the hearing. in california, independent. let us hear from you. caller: good morning, greta. my sympathies to you in trying to ferret out and be fair handed in this attempt at trying to get at the truth. because, i think on one hand, greta, what we have here in this what about-ism, and this democrat versus republicans, their opinion versus the other, what is going on in this reality of information is a new dynamic where the desire to be objective

is manipulated to the degree to in which we are being gas lighted by one side with pure propaganda. and, we know it. we can believe our lying eyes, we know what we saw on that day, but to hear your people calling in on the so-called republican line or trump supporters, we know what they are saying does not rise to the level of sanity, let alone truth. are you still with me? host: we are listening. caller: i am understanding that you are trying to be polite to these people and it is not your job to do fact-checks with all of your people who call in, but on one level, greta, and this is the dilemma that we find ourselves in in our reality in the united states. it is that there is no such

thing as alternate reality and alternate truth, his opinion versus my opinion. we are both sitting appear watching the same thing, and somebody is going to tell you what you saw was something like a picnic in the park after we have seen this confrontation and you want to convince me and my lying eyes that i did not see this confrontation, that it was a picnic in the park? come on. america, we have to come to grips with the fact that we have sick people in this country, right? and there are no alternative facts. what is going on here on the others of the spectrum is propaganda, and it is deadly. that is the nature of propaganda, it is weaponized misinformation. are you still with me? host: we are listening, david. caller: i am looking at you and

i am seeing your smiles and i know when you are hearing these people like that congresswoman who was on, right? it is like, seriously, who do you think you are talking to? host: you made your point. we will go to club and on twitter. "moving testimony. not much more info. this investigation will be running into a brick wall. the people behind the money will not allow themselves to be exposed and they will be back." mary, louisiana, a republican. caller: hello. host: good morning. caller: ok, i hope you will allow me to be able to finish my statement. ok. this committee that they have called, they think if they get all of that out and up on

television for a million of people, they think what that would do -- they think if donald trump runs in 2024, they see that people will not vote for him. and, not only that, the reason that nancy pelosi only allowed kissing your -- king zinger and cheney -- kingzinger and cheney on her committee is the only qualification you need is to hate trump. we know how much liz cheney hates trump and we know that however you pronounce his name hates trump. not only that. you know what, there were people who lied and they said -- they

set that church and stuff on fire. i see nobody is calling a committee meeting to check into that. but, i am going to tell you something. they tried for three years to impeach trump, that tells you something, that this is not finding out facts. this is trying to destroy and bludgeon and try and keep trump from winning the white house again. but i will tell you something else, and those police officers, of course -- who wouldn't have? but that seems false. i am going to tell you something. i am 75 years old, and you know what, i was called nigger when i

was young and it never bothered me. it did not make me cry, and not only that, i am going to tell you this. i think those four officers, i think, i reckon -- i recommend them for their jobs, but i think they were handpicked. and i also know that they were going to sit there and say what the democrats wanted them to say. host: alright mary, hang on the line, we will take a short break and we will welcome congresswoman alba adams, a democrat from north carolina. we will get her reaction and then we will go back to your calls. we will be right back. ♪ >> sunday, c-span's series, " january 6 he was from the house"

continue. free members of congress tell about what they saw and heard on that day including senator robbie davis of illinois. >> there were a lot of freshman that i got to know during orientation that this was our first real experience as a member of congress, and we were watching them and talking to my fellow colleagues about what we could do to try and stop this. >> what were those conversations like? >> i remember a conversation that i had with marjorie taylor greene, she was a freshman and very active during the orientation. and she was very upset about what was going on. and her and i chatted and i said what you can i do? >> and i said go back in the cloakroom and posted on social media and if you have influence, tell them to stop. she did that. >> you will also hear from madeleine dean of pennsylvania.

"january 6: views from the house" sunday at 10:00 p.m. eastern, on c-span, c-span.org or on the c-span radio app. >> "washington journal" continues. host: congresswoman alma adams represents the 12 the district in north carolina, a democrat to join our conversation about yesterday's january 6 select committee's first hearing. what was your reaction to the testimony? guest: well, i was certainly concerned with all that i heard, but i certainly commend the officers who testified for their courage, and my colleagues as well, representative cheney and kinzinger who were standing up to the leaders of their party to get to the truth of january 6,

the insurrection. i know we need to do that, so i commend the committee and the chair for the direction that he is giving it. host: what questions do you have about that day? guest: i certainly want to get to the bottom of what happened, we can clearly see it. but, why it happened, who was behind it? i think everything that was connected to this january 6 insurrection we need to know. i think these officers are heroes, and they defended the capital from a violent, deadly attack. my heart goes out to them. but i think we have an obligation as a congress to get the answers, not only for them, but for the american people. host: do you think the committee should subpoena speaker pelosi to testify about the phone calls she received that day and the questions over security? guest: well, i think the chair

is going to determine who they need to call. and i am not on the committee, so i am not -- i do not know who they are going to call, but i think everyone is connected, if they believe they can get information that will get to the answers in the bottom line, i think they will call them. host: here is a text from one of our viewers who writes "there are over 300 people in jail due to their part on january 6, none in jail over the 2020 summer riots, not one democrat leader cared about police officers and what they had to say over the trauma they suffered over the riots in 2020. month-long versus one day." what is your response to that? guest: i do not agree with that in terms of the democrats not being concerned about police officers, that is not true.

but, what we are dealing with right now is the insurrection of january 6, that is what this committee will be focused on, and that is what -- that is the direction they are taking and i think they are doing the right thing. host: what was your experience like that day? guest: horrifying. i was here with three of my staffers, these are young people who i am responsible for, not only as their boss, but a member of this house. it was frightening, we did not know what was going on. people were texting and calling. family was concerned. and, i did not have a sense of all that was happening until i actually looked at the tv because they could see the people on the outside, they could see what was going on and many of us did not know. i was in the area of the capital and i was due to be in the

chamber for my 15 minutes of observation, and i was turned away by the officers because i thought that there was something going on with the protesters invading the building, and so i came back to my office, and we sort of buckled down here with the staff and then we will moved -- we were moved to a safer place. it was very frightening. we have people who are still traumatized as a result of what happened and what they experience. host: mike, houston texas, republican. you are up first. good morning. caller: good morning. we heard from the media last summer that the riots were mostly -- that the demonstrations, whatever they were. they were not mostly peaceful, there were fires. you will never talk about the fires that occurred on january 6 because there were zero. you will not talk about damage

portraits because there were zero. he will not talk about the number of trump supporters murdered because there were zero. zero. now, there were people who were breaking the law, they did not come there with molotov cocktails, they did not come there with bricks to throw coordinated with deliveries. they did not have blinding laser beams. none of those police were blinded, i am wonder how many spent a night in the hospital. over 3000 police were injured last year by bricks, frozen water bottles, and blinding laser beams. now, let us put perspective in this. lawbreakers should be punished. and there is no conversation, it seems to me, about why there was not some preparation. what was the conversation about the preparation for security in advance of the rally on january

6? there is no conversation about that. host: let us take that point. congresswoman. guest: yes ma'am. i do not know what all of the conversations were that were had. i have a lot of respect for the capitol police, and for the leadership that they had, and i think that clearly, it appears that things happened that we did not expect to happen, and they were not fully prepared for. i am not sure that they knew all that was going to happen, and i am not sure that you do either, the gentleman calling in. but, right now, we are focusing on trying to get to the bottom, i think all of those answers will be had at some point as this investigation continues. that is what we are looking for,

and we will be getting testimony from everyone who played a part. i think they are doing a good job right now of trying to identify people. i would just add to the gentleman, we are talking about people on january 6 who were beaten with flags, and who were -- the whole facility was vandalized. democracy was interrupted at some point. at the same time, we look back and officers were killed, people were injured and people are still suffering. again, this committee is charged with getting to the bottom of it. we have good leadership on this committee and members trying to get to the truth and that is really what we need, not only for the officers or members of congress, but for the american people. host: eddie, pennsylvania.

democratic caller. caller: can you hear me? host: yes we can. caller: my question is simple. after the civil war, ok, we failed to hold those people responsible who caused the problem in the first place. here we are, we are repeating the same thing. we are not holding the people accountable who created this mess. and if we do not, it is just going to happen again. that is my question to the lady. guest: thank you for your question, and i think that is what the intent of this commission is, to hold those accountable, i agree with you that accountability is what we need at this point. we do not want -- no one does --

this kind of thing to happen again. we have to get to the bottom of why it happened and who was involved and all of those folks need to be held accountable, no matter who they are. host: richard, verona, missouri. independence. caller: you know, i was watching this, and this was a well organized attempt to overthrow our government. if the people got into the senate and gotten a hold of the ballots and destroyed them, the holy election one of had to go back to the state legislators -- the whole election would've had to go back to the state legislators. it is an attempt to overthrow our government and congressmen and senators delayed action to give these people time to overthrow the dam government. you can say what you want, but it will make a movie about this, and we will all see what really happened.

guest: thank you, sir. listen, we want to know. we have an obligation as members elected by the people, not this -- just of our districts but of all of the districts across the country. i do not know if there will be a movie made, but certainly we will get to the truth. it was well orchestrated, it appeared to me. you do not bring ladders to a rally. you do not bring climbing gear to a rally. you do not do all of the things we were able to see that people came equipped and prepared to storm this capital, -- capitol and disrupt our democracy. host: i want to switch gears and talk about your constitutional amendment, fundamental human rights constitutional amendment that reads "the right of any person to affordable housing, cost-effective health care, adequate nutrition shall be done

-- shall not be denied any person of the united states or the state and the congress should have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." why are you trying to get -- trying to amend the constitution with his language? guest: i think these are all fundamental rights. when we talk about what is in this constitution recognizing and securing the fundamental rights of life, liberty, and property which should include housing, health care, housing, and nutrition. those are the four ages that i work on in congress, if anything was revealed during this pandemic it shows us that we have failed at guaranteeing these basic security and human dignity rights for our most vulnerable. that is why i believe we need the legislation and constitutional amendment that will ensure the right to shelter, health care, food

security, and education, and that should be in our founding documents. host: have you had any assurances that this will come to the floor for a vote? guest: i don't have that assurance at this point, but i know that there are many areas under these h's that we are working on through these -- through this committee. we will get there one way or another. i hope we can amend the comp -- the constitution, it is a hard thing to do. but in addressing these h's, we will be looking at those various legislations, and at least we are doing that for the moment. it is a common humanity that requires us to certainly address the dignity and health and safety of all americans, and i believe this will do it. host: congresswoman alma adams serving her fourth full term. she represents the congressional

district -- the 12th congressional district in north carolina. we will go to tennessee, republican for her question. caller: thank you for taking my call. my question is i love what this it -- this lady is saying about accountability, but what about the officer that shot the female, unarmed veteran down in cold blood. where is the accountability for that? yes, we all deserve housing and insurance, but we all must be willing to work for a living. i am 67 years old and i am still working for the simple fact that i feel like nobody is obligated to keep me up. i raised my children to work hard and work as they went through school. i have one with a masters degree and one with a phd, that they have learned to work for a living and pay for your education. what are your answers to that? guest: let me just say i paid for my education and i believe

an education is expensive. i am saying that everyone deserves a good education, quality education. that does not necessarily have to be paid education because, for example, public education is free education and open for any parent or student. and so, it is one of the rights, i think we should make sure that everybody has a decent, affordable place to leave, we should ensure that we have opportunities for people to have health care. health care should not be something that only a few people have, it should be guaranteed for everyone. if the lord has blessed you to live for 60 whatever years, he has blessed me as well. but you are going to need, at some point, to see a doctor, and i think the way things are going

right now, having to go through the emergency room is a greater cost to our government as well. but you know, i remember martin luther king 55 years ago who declared that all forms of inequality, health care is in those shocking and inhumane. in terms of the capitol, let me get back to that. the officers were doing their jobs, they were defending this capitol and those of us who work here, whether they are members of congress, they were defending the vice president and all of the other folks, defending the senate and house. and so, this person broke in. you have seen the footage on all of that. other than that, i do not have a comment on that other than these gentlemen put their lives on the line for the lives of so many of us who were here. host: janice.

tennessee, democratic caller. caller: good morning, how are you doing? guest: i am fine. how are you? caller: fine. i watch that hearing yesterday, i even watched the attack on january 6. they are saying that there were peaceful people coming in there. everybody in the united states and around the world saw what happened when they attacked the capital. we saw senators running and hiding. we did not see nobody going out there trying to say stop, only the police officers that put their lives on the line. i was crying when they saw them beating the people. they will tell the other officers that they would kill him. what is going on with this country? we all saw this? it should not take months to hold them accountable. the republicans and trump all

the cause of all that happen. i do not see why they hold him up for murder, trump, when he knew about the virus and did not tell us. hundreds of thousands of people died, he even took the shot that they are telling other people do not take the shot, what is wrong with this country? thank you very much. guest: i have to agree with you, ma'am. we are living in a difficult time. it is very unfortunate that so many things are happening that we know are basically violations to people's rights. and we are divided right now, and that is unfortunate. our president has said that he is working hard to bring that division to close that division, and to bring people closer together. and, we have to heal this nation

and it will take all of us to be committed to doing all of that. host: peter's town, west virginia. independent. caller: good morning, how are you ladies this morning? good. i wanted -- i voted republican for 36 years, i live in a red state, what i wanted to clarify this misinformation being put out by the republican party. this is not the republican party i belong to, i belong to the party of lincoln. i never would belong to the party of trump, which is why i changed my affiliation to independent. the decision on whether or not to call the national guard troops does not lie on nancy pelosi's shoulders. it is by capital -- capitol police board which is made up of

the house sergeant at arm's, the senate sergeant of arms and architect of the capitol. now, the house sergeant of arms reports to nancy pelosi. the senate sergeant at arms reports to mcconnell. so, how can people say that this was all pelosi's fault? you cannot say that. that is just misinformation being spread by -- let us -- second of all, during the riot -- or the protest, the protest after george floyd died in washington, d.c., trump was taken to the bumper the bunker. the secret service evacuated him to the bunker. why was he not take into the bunker on that day? the reason why was because they were his supporters. nobody else's, his supporters.

that is exactly why he was not taken to the bunker. why people are unable to use common sense and look at the whole picture instead of trump supporters who watch from -- -- they watch fox news. i watched fox news after i watched the hearings, and they were talking about these officers being scripted by nancy pelosi. nancy pelosi cannot script an individual's experience. what happens to them, and it is a shame that the gop will not fund the capitol police, they are standing in the way of funding the capitol police. they are the ones who were defunding the police, and all of this rhetoric around who is at

fault, people need to wake up and realize what has happened to this country and the divide in this country. thank you all. guest: i could not have said it better, and i certainly want to commend you for doing your research in terms of getting your factual information and sharing that, because you are absolutely right. there is a lot of misinformation and people have not done their homework. they do not really know the details. and this is how misinformation gets out. there is no way you could have watched the hearing and listens to those officers and not had some sense of compassion. first of all, there is no way that you could not sense the genuineness and pain that these officers are still feeling. so, i appreciate your clarifying

of a few things about who is in control of what when, and where. host: james, lawrence, massachusetts. independent, you were on the air. good morning. caller: good morning. first i would like to say that i have tremendous feeling for these gentlemen and what they went through during the protest at the statehouse. i have problems with this. i have been a democrat as long as you have. what bothers me about all of this is everything that went on during the summer. i have a nephew who is a portland police officer who had urine thrown in his face and was called every name in the book. he was yelled at, he was beaten, everything like that, where was you people then? it was the summer of love. i am a democrat.

it is time that the democrats start with their agenda and rhetoric and turn this thing around so everybody can be friends again. this is getting ridiculous. as far as the officer who said i hope it happened at trump's house, it did. at lafayette park there were 156 officers hurt and no one from the democrat party said anything. this is what the problem is. the republicans that there and watch us ignore everything that we do wrong, and then castigate them and do everything they can to them or anything else that goes wrong while they are doing it. this is wrong. host: i am going to have the congresswoman respond. guest: thank you for your comments, and, i will just say any damage and hurt to any police officer is in my opinion inappropriate. and, i will also tell you that

members of my party feel just as i do. that those kind of things are inappropriate, i agree with you that we do have to come together. and, we are certainly trying to do that. of course, what we are hearing as we are moving legislation through this house, and in the senate, when you heard the senate leadership say -- not the leadership, but the republicans say that they are just not going to work with democrats, they want the president to fail. it is a lot of work that needs to take place, in terms of not only what people say, but what people do. that is -- the proof is in the pudding in terms of what you do. you cannot just talk the talk, you have to walk it to. i said that i do not agree that any officer, any person who is

defending our democracy, defending our government, who is actually working in uniform should be beaten as the officers were. none of that should happen. we do not support that. host: here is a text from paul in wilmington. "please ask your guest for a definition of a right. does a right mean the government provided? how does that compare to the rights to bear arms, should guns be government provided? guest: should guns be government provided? i do not agree to that. those are fundamental rights, having health care, housing, a decent affordable place to live,

having a good education, having housing, all of those things in my opinion our rights. i do not have an opinion about guns. i do not think that. i think that people should have guns if they wish to have them, they should not have weapons that destroy people that are used for war and those kinds of things. there are lots of things i think we can do to curb some of the situations we are having in terms of gun violence, because it is totally out of control. so, but other than that, that would be my comment about it. host: we appreciate your time this morning. guest: thank you. and thank you, greta for having me, and i think your listeners for -- thank your listeners for calling in and expressing their opinions. host: we will take a short break

and then we will continue on with the conversation about yesterday's first hearing of the januarycommittee. four officers testified. we will hear what you have to say when we come back. ♪ >> sunday, c-span's series january 6: views from the house continues. three more members of congress share stories of what they saw, heard and experienced that day, including a teller for the electoral count that day. >> an capitol came and it said it was necessary to evacuate and that we should take the hoods.

there are hoods under the seat of each seat in the chamber. take them out and be prepared to put them on. so everybody did. and i think, when you pull the little red tag, it activates, so people were wearing them. there had been teargas released in the chamber, and the rotunda, which was why we were advised we might need to wear them, but there was this tremendous roaring, hissing noise from all these hoods. it was the background of the moment. and of course, the pounding and the noise from the mob had become much louder. at some point, someone open the -- someone up in the chambers, in the gallery, a member, was

yelling at the republicans to call trump and have trump call off his mob, and there was some little yelling back and forth among members in the gallery. >> call trump. tell him to call them off. call your friend. [shouting] >> you also hear from republican rodney davis of illinois and pennsylvania democrat madeleine dee. views from the house on sunday on c-span, she spent at org on the c-span radio app. >> washington journal continues. host: we are back for our last hour this morning up today's washington journal. we continue our conversation about the testimony of those four police officers yesterday,

who vowed to tell the truth lawmakers and gave specific details about their experience that day, the physical and mental trauma that they suffered when the capitol was attacked on january 6. your reaction. ellie from syracuse, new york, democratic caller from new york, good morning. go ahead. caller: hi. good morning. i have so much to say. i watched that day on january 6 -- host: we are listening to you, ellie. can you turn down the tv so you are not confused? caller: ok. host: all right. you watched that day on january 6. caller: yes. i did. i was an independent for many years. it was over six years that i bridged to democrat.

that was after many years of studying the different parties. watching that day, i watched trump in front of the white house revving up his crowd and his supporters and i heard him say very clearly marched down to the capitol. i will be joining you, which i knew he would never do. however, watching that crowd, it was absolutely disheartening, and listening to the people today on the program, the young senator -- congresswoman, the hypocrisy of the republican party is so palpable to so many people and i would like to say one thing. all of the states that we have, i believe it is 23 states, that

are completely run by the republican party are the lowest ratings -- florida. rated 50 in education for children. health care. and if you look up every state, you will see that the states that are governed -- mitch mcconnell's estate, 500,000 -- governed -- mitch mcconnell's state, 500,000 on food stamps. host: ok. your point? caller: my point is this is not a which -- not a witchhunt by the republicans, and nancy pelosi is a stellar, stellar person, and to see and hear the rhetoric of the republicans knowing they do not answer a question. they go right immediately to the democrats. host: ok.

mark in tallahassee, florida, a republican. your turn, mark. caller: the last woman you had on there. it was seven people killed at the capitol on january 6. host: mark, she is not on the line anymore. all right. mark, you are confused by the television. can you mute it? caller: yes. host: go ahead with your reaction to the police officer'' testimony yesterday. caller: the democrats keep saying that seven people were killed that day and i want to know who they were. host: to the callers, you have to call -- you have to mute your television when you call in. it will get confusing for you. listen to your phone. a d.c. metropolitan police officer and what he told

lawmakers about being physically assaulted on that day, jeannie rhee six. -- day, january 6. [video clip] >> i remember thinking there was a very good chance i would be torn apart or shot to death with my own weapon. i thought of my four daughters who might lose their dad. i remain grateful that no member of congress had to go through the violent assault that i experienced that day. during the assault, i thought about using my firearm on my attackers, but i knew that if i did, i would be quickly overwhelmed, and that, in their minds, would provide them with the justification for killing me, so i instead decided to appeal to any humanity they might have. i said as loud as i could manage, i've got kids. thankfully, some in the crowd stepped in and assisted me. those few individuals protected me from the crowd and inched me toward the capitol until my

fellow officers could rescue me. i was carried back inside. what happened afterwards is much less vivid. i had been beaten unconscious and remained so for more than four minutes. i know that jimmy helped to evacuate me from the building and took me to medstar washington hospital center despite suffering significant injuries himself. at the hospital, doctors told me that i had suffered a heart attack, and i was later diagnosed with a concussion, traumatic brain injury, and posttraumatic stress disorder. as my physical injuries gradually subsided and the adrenaline that had stayed with me for weeks waned, i had been left with the psychological trauma and emotional anxiety of having survive such a horrific event. my children continue to do with the trauma of nearly losing their dad that day. -- to deal with the trauma of nearly losing their dad that

day. what makes the struggle harder and more painful is knowing that so many of my fellow citizens, including 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 help doesn't exist -- that hell doesn't exist or that hell actually wasn't that bad. the indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful. host: the officer from yesterday. your reaction to what you heard from those four police officers. paul from charlestown, virginia, independent, you are up. paul? caller: good morning. i wanted to ask either of the congresspeople a question, to enter into a dialectic with them, -- to enter into a

dialectic with them, but they are not on. so a question and then a follow-up. i read harry g. frankfurt'book ons -- frankfurt's book on bs. there are people who say that world war ii started when belgium invaded germany. and of course, the congressperson would go, no. belgium did not invade germany. we all know that's not true. then my follow-up question would be, how do we know that? do you have an answer? host: what are you driving it, paul? caller: how do we know that belgium didn't start world war ii by invading germany? host: and your point? caller: how do we know that trump had nothing to do with it?

and it was antifa? black children of slaves who stormed the capitol. how do we know? how do we know that belgium did not invade germany to start world war ii? we all know that. how do we know that? host: ok. jeffrey in auburn, new york, democratic caller. caller: hi. good morning. how do i follow up on that? i have to quote my mom. birds of a feather flock together, and these people were trump's followers. they drink the kool-aid, and i believe -- they drank the kool-aid, and i believe they were 99% white supremacists. i think i saw one or two black faces in the crowd. i will point out something no one has spoken about.

when i watched live the riot, i saw a fire truck parked right next to the capitol building, on the next street over, and i am wondering why they didn't charge the hoses and spray these people down with water. on january 6, it was pretty cold. i think if you soaked them down, they would have all left frozen and soaked. other countries use water cannons on their riders and -- they are rioters and they break up riots pretty quickly. i don't know how the response wasn't better. the other thing is, most riots, you bring the paddy wagons in. why didn't they get school buses and herd these people into the buses, fingerprint them, photograph them, and release them instead of having the fbi follow them around the country

via social media. they should have been arrested on the spot. why the national guard was not called and why they did not round up these lunatics i will never know. host: from yesterday's testimony, which officer's remarks stand out to you? caller: this is a disgrace. it is a national disgrace, and how anybody that is a republican could still stand by this man is beyond me. i think -- i will quote another computer quote. the brain is a computer and there's an old saying in computer programming lingo -- garbage in, garbage out. these people have been programmed by antifa, fox news, misinformation and propaganda. garbage in your brain, garbage out. i don't know what else to say. host: ok.

in san clemente, california, ron, a republican. hi, ron. caller: very seldom do you get an opportunity to see real american heroes live on television, and yesterday i don't think there was a dry eye in the whole country that really heard what these guys had to say and what they experienced. you are talking about one hundred six police officers against 10,000 people. i think the former caller had a lot of good points about, you know, how this should have been handled. we thought, you know, maybe dropping red dye on top of them like they do in fire suppression might have given them an easier way to track them down later, but the point really is simply this. years and years ago, if a kid in

your neighborhood broke a window, you can sometimes call the police. today, if you are a black kid and break a window, you have other serious problems. the division in our country is ridiculous. we are all americans, republicans, democrats, independents. peace and freedom. it does not matter what you are. it is whether or not you saw exactly what happened on january 6. one last point and i think it is an important one. how come this is only a one day deal? with fast and furious, with one undercover agent, they spent eight months. host: let me jump in because it

is not a one day deal. the chair said there will be more hearings, one of them likely to take place in, august next month, when other lawmakers are back and this is from roll call this morning. they are planning to put -- to go forward with subpoenas. so there is more to come. you have to turned on the television, ron. let me go back to yesterday and capitol police officer gunnel when he talked about self-sacrifice. [video clip] >> my thinking was we cannot let these people in no matter what, even if it cost me my life -- it costs meet my life. that bloody hand you saw, that is me in there.

and both my hands were bleeding bad. and at no point in time did i stop to consider because the attacks were so relentless that all you had to do -- all i thought was i need to survive this if possible but i am willing to sacrifice myself to prevent this, the attackers, from coming in. i swore an oath to protect the public, members of congress and the united states constitution, and that is what i was doing that day regardless of my personal safety, along with anyone else that was there that day. they were calling -- calling us traitors even though they were the ones committing treasonous acts that

day. it was demoralizing for people, whatever your party is, to call this attack, to continue to minimize it like nothing happened. it was an attempted coup that was happening at the capitol that day, and if it had been another country, the u.s. would have sent help, and people need to understand the events happening that day. we were fighting for our lives to give them, to give you guys, a chance to go home to your family, to escape, and now the same people who we helped, the same people who we gave them the borrowed time to get to safety, now they are attacking us. they are attacking our character, people who never

served the military or in law enforcement. it is a disgrace. my actions that day were to save you guys regardless of my personal safety and i still continue to want to do that today, tomorrow and if it is demanded, i will do that in the future. host: the officer, an immigrant from the dominican republic, became a citizen of this country. testifying yesterday, one of four yesterday who testified on capitol hill. did you watch yesterday? caller: i watched about 30 minutes of it, and, you know, anyone that saw the insurrection or whatever you want to call it,

it just makes us sick in our stomach, so i just want to mention that, when i watched it yesterday, and this was intentional, i watched it with three friends that are police officers, and, you know, we have all seen the senate investigation. we kind of know what happened, the days before, we know people compliant some -- people declined some, but as far as the impact on the officers, i will not comment, but i will tell you what one of the officers said who was watching with me. he said i am glad that, you know, my sergeant, my teeth, would not put us in that situation. a single weapon discharges and the thing is over. if you have to shoot someone in

the leg outside the capitol, this should have been ended long before that. the problem is that, you know, people are afraid to see how the police -- to be viewed as overreacting, over responding to people, and this has crept in, so people held back until, basically, you are backed into a corner and there is nothing left to do. and then it ended. we already know what happened. we know the problem. we need to be more honest about how we have been -- the impression that police officers have. they are not allowed to do their job. host: in montgomery, alabama, a democratic caller. good morning to you. caller: i want to know what they say, all these people. i thought you would go to jail if you did not go to court.

they'll need to go up thrtr and -- go up there and tell what happened because what i saw yesterday broke my heart. i never saw anything so bad. they do not care about the government, about people's lives, about anything. they are awful, terrible people. host: what did you learn about these police officers yesterday? caller: they care about us. they tried their best, but what can you do when there is 1000 people against one? you cannot do anything. i am happy that they lived through it, aren't you? host: brenda in montgomery, alabama, democratic caller. yesterday, four republicans, including marjorie taylor greene, demanded congress asked specific questions about the january 6 attack.

here is what they had to say. [video clip] >> as members of congress representing districts with hundreds of thousands of people, it is unbelievable to me that the department of justice will not let us in the lobby to answer our questions. questions that we have been asking. [whistling] what intelligence was available prior to january 6 about a watch of people preparing to enter the capital and their intentions? intelligence new there were threats. as a freshman member of congress, that was the fourth day on the job, january 6, and i was absolutely shocked at what happened at the capitol. even more so, i am shocked that

with the intelligence that there was going to be violence, that the national guard was not present on january 6. on january 5, we know that there were pipe bombs at the rnc and dnc. there's a video of the person who placed them there. i would like to know, with that great threat of violence, pipe bombs at both places, rnc and dnc, why was it not taken seriously, and why wasn't the national guard brought in? those are the questions that we have? also, when the capitol police were questioned by nancy on january 6, asking her office, asking her for the national guard on january 6, why wasn't that request made? why did the national guard not come in to protect the capitol police and all of us inside?

you see, currently, there's the january 6 committee happening with nancy pelosi leading it in some sort of manner where she does not want republicans who are picked by the minority leader placed on the committee. these are all good questions that we should be asking. host: marjorie taylor greene along with a handful of other republicans outside the justice department. the whistling you heard was from protesters who were trying to interrupt their news conference. on her last claim about the speaker and the national guard, the washington post has analyzed this claim by republicans and have asked republicans further evidence of this. the washington post reported that they have not provided any yet. this is what they say, that there are three key players here, steven sund, capitol police chief, the sergeant at arms of the house and the

sergeant of arms of the senate -- sergeant of the senate. all three resigned after the insurrection. sund said herein the national guard request by irving and stenger and neither supported the idea. in the letter, he wrote that he approached the sergeant at arms to request assistance from the national guard and had no authority to do so without an emergency declaration. -- at the time, the chair of the cpb, and get his thoughts. instead of improving the use -- of approving the use of the national guard -- in case we had to request assistance. sund said he had to contact general william walker from the d.c. national guard. he said he could have some to me quickly. i asked general lockard to be prepared in the event we

requested them. there was no indication that nancy pelosi was involved or had made a vague reference to optics, but there's no indication what that means. the sergeant at arms were also reluctant to support the immediate dispatching of national guard troops, so there is little to suggest that irving acting under pelosi's direction alone is responsible. irving said that the proposed national guard troops were to be unarmed and only there to work traffic control. the word optics has been mischaracterized. let me be clear -- optics is portrayed -- as per trade had no role whatsoever. safety was paramount when making plans for january 6. cynthia in oakwood, illinois, a republican. your reaction to yesterday's hearing with those four police officers.

caller: i think that the situation with the police was avoidable, with the national guard. my point is that if you look at this globally, you had a summer of rioting and democrats were defunding the police so now they have increased violence but, as a white person, when i hear that i am an oppressor and that black rioters or whoever get away with smashing businesses that are black, white, chinese, whatever, and then you focus on this insurrection, which it was, you've got a country where people are on the fringe, are reacting, and you are taking our police away with defunding,

taking everything -- defunding, making everything dangerous, and i think the administration is just looking the other direction. my question is when are you going to go back and look at the root of the other riots? host: we have on this program, cynthia. we have had call in programs about the riots in the summer of 2020. james in mississippi, independent. caller: yes. how are you doing, ms. greta? host: go ahead. caller: i watched all of this yesterday. ms. greta, it is a shame that our young people, young babies, young girls, young boys, young men, have to hear these grown people screwing this evil

in these young people's minds about what went on and then taking it to the protesters, the protesters that was marching, and say, well, they did not investigate them. that was on president donald trump's watch. if they wanted to bring those people in and do an investigation, they could have done it. but why did those people, black, white, brown, all races, come out and march? why did they come out? they came out because of the excuses. people are saying black people don't love police officers. we love police officers. we need police officers, but the corrupt ones, the ones that violate their oath, and you talk

to the governors and they still reject you? those people have been marching, ms. greta, ever since 1960, black folks and white folks, against police brutality. they you are using these incidents -- they are using these incidents to compare what happened at the capitol. before you hang up, go back and look at what mcconnell said after the impeachment. what did they say about this insurrection? this is what they said. then they turn around and switched over. but go back and play what mitch mcconnell said today. and i ask you that the next time that they want to win in 2022, they are forgetting about one thing. black folks, white fol areks

-- white folks are going to come out in droves, no matter how they try to suppress these votes. people are waiting to vote in 2022. you have not seen voting it. you have not seen people come out to vote. host: we will leave it there. to your point about what people have said in the past, you can find it all into c-span archives. go to our website c-span.org. at the top, you will see a live search engine. use it to find what decision-makers in washington have been saying for the past year and the past month and going back many years. you can find it all on c-span.org. on this program yesterday, we interviewed a washington post reporter about their new book, i alone can fix it, about

president trump's last year in office. they interviewed mr. trump earlier this year at his mar-a-lago home. i want to play for you a portion of the interview where the president talks about the crowd that marched up to the capitol on january 6. [video clip] >> it was a loving crowd, by the way. there were -- there was a lot of love. it was a loving crowd. it was too bad, you know, what they did. a nice day. >> mr. president, i apologize. what we are trying to understand is not halfway. we want to understand what did you went when you said go up there? >> i said, not to go in. i mean, in all fairness, the capitol police were ushering people in.

the capitol were very friendly. they were hugging. you don't see that. the capitol police work -- that's the way it is. but i wanted, i mean, personally, what i wanted is what they wanted. they showed up to show support, because i happen to believe the election was rigged at a level like nothing has ever been rigged before. host: that was the president on march 31, 2021 after the january 6 attack on the capitol in an interview with the two authors of the book i alone can fix it. if you missed the interview with those two reporters, you can find it on our website, c-span.org. mark in bethlehem, pennsylvania, a republican. caller: good morning, greta. host: good morning. caller: i watched the entire

hearing the other day and it was very emotional obviously, but we are supposed to be getting facts about things we do not already know. we have seen the carefully edited videos. i will break down things i picked out from their testimony. it was clear there was no command and control of any of these officers. they were working on their own. not one example of their superior telling them to do something. one comes over, he and his partner, nobody told him to come over. nobody asked, du jour superior officer say to go? he is obviously a hard-core leftist and he was the one at the tip of the spear in that tunnel. he was also making false statements. the one who said he was dragged 250 feet from the capitol building would have been in the middle of the street. he was on the steps. maybe he was confused. i get it. but the bottom line is why make hyperbolic statements and not let the video speak for itself? he had a camera on him.

where's the video? it is not there. i don't know why they have to go to this level to make a point. it was a horrible situation, what happened that day. one individual said that he decided to stand ground in this one location. fine. but then he is having political discourse with the rioters. when one of them approaches him, he knocks the guy out. is that the way police are supposed to handle rioters? maybe the way the left would like to see it, but i don't think we were doing that in the summer. this was a mess. this was a mess because there was no leadership there. individual officers had their own political agendas they were instilling and the result was it ended up in a melee. completely avoidable. host: let's hear from the officer about his perspective on

the point you are talking about, when he let the group in front of him know that he voted for joe biden. here's what he has to say. a warning to you that this contains language some may find offensive. [video clip] >> more and more insurrectionists were pouring into the lobby of the rotunda, some wearing maga hats and shirts that said from 2020. i told him to leave the capitol and in response they said this is our house. president trump invited us here. we are here to stop the steel. -- the steal. joe biden is not the president. nobody voted for joe biden. i am 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?

that prompted a torrent of racial epithets. one woman in a pink maga shirt yelled "do you hear that guys? this nigger voted for joe biden." the crowd joined in, screaming "boo. fucking nigger." nobody had ever called me that while wearing the uniform of a capitol police officer. in the days following the attempted insurrection, other black officers shared with me their own stories of racial abuse on january 6. when officer told me he had never in his entire life been called a nigger to his face and that streak ended on january 6. another black officer later told me he had been confronted by

insurrectionists in the capitol who told him put your gun down and we will show you what kind of nigger you really are. host: the officer's testimony yesterday. you can find it on our website, c-span.org. pete in richmond, virginia, democratic caller, your reaction to what they told lawmakers yesterday? caller: good morning. i wanted to say i am glad to see you back on. i appreciate all you do. i have a few points and i would just try to make them brief for you, but this is based on my reaction. i want to say that i am an african-american man. my wife is a white young lady, beautiful white young lady. when we watched yesterday this hearing, i just want to say we both sat and cried. i have to tell you it was just

so powerful. as a black person. and i just say that because i have seen a lot of what has been done to blacks, but i just want to say that really, really hurt to see the testimony yesterday, and i want to say my second point is that, prior to watching the hearing and those testimonies, i did watch the mccarthy come out onto the front of the capitol and make his statement and calling it whatever he said, and i just want to say that, to me, that was a sham because, in that statement, he did not really attribute any responsibility to what actually happened with the rioters and insurrectionists.

my third point would be that, as i watched the film and i have watched -- and as i have watched ever since january 6, i have never seen not maybe one black face in the crowd of insurrectionists, so those that want to blame antifa, i am telling you you have no basis. that is totally not the case. that is all i wanted to say. host: let me show our viewers with a republican leader had to say around 8:00 a.m. yesterday, a couple of hours before the committee began their first hearing, the january 6 select committee began their first hearing investigating the attack. here he is. >> [video clip] you have a committee chair that questioned the election of george bush. you have a committee chair of this who was suing the president. you have a committee chair of

this who believes that republican senators are equivalent to terrorists. you have a member who said that the president should be impeached before he was sworn in, who questioned the election before the electors were there. we have adam schiff, who we know is playing politics. he lied to the country. we had to go through a false impeachment to find out that he lied to us. the idea that she picked these predetermined people -- i thing we should start off with everybody should be able to ask a question. let's get to the bottom of this. this should never happen again. when the kavanaugh hearings took place, there was a break in the line of the capitol police. they are the majority party. why did they not take from that or prepare for anything moving forward? you have a chair of that committee who had not been to washington since may. you had reports that told you

the capitol police were ill-prepared. why damage the men and women who have put their life on the line? to go into the line of fire, you have steve scalise, rodney davis on the baseball field. why wouldn't we make that commitment to them? you have rodney davis, who offered legislation as the ranking member in the minority that the minority -- the majority would never bring up even though the ig report and others said it was needed. are we going to be back in this situation again in the future? two questions for this entire committee should be why were we so ill prepared for that day and how can we be sure this never happens again? that is what should drive the committee. there may be billed out before that day that you are going to have to investigate -- there may be build up before that day that you were going to have to investigate.

nancy pelosi spent six months making sure that would never happen. we have an officer killed friday, just across from here. it was politically motivated but we will not investigate it. you have the fbi doing investigation. this committee gets in the way. you have the architect of the capitol that has been appropriated $10 million to make sure this is better prepared. why would we then not ask the tough questions to make sure the capitol police have the resources, the training and the equipment? that is what is being withheld and that is what we complain about. host: we will go to adam in kentucky, independent. adam, we are getting your reaction to the testimony yesterday on capitol hill, letting the lawmaker and nation know what they experienced on january 6. what did you think while you watched? caller: hey, greta. you know, the capitol police

officers, just like every police officer, we hold them to the highest regard and everything they do for the communities and the capitol, i think no one has any issues of what they did -- issues with what they did that day in terms of their response, but what i am seeing in a lot of this is it is more political fodder, it is more division, and from an independent perspective, i don't hear january 6 being brought up on a daily basis in conversations with people, and so i think it's -- i think it kind of puts it to bed. people will have a hard time swallowing that pill, but it is over. it was not 9/11. it was not like a 9/11 event. i think the people are attributing -- especially the congressmen and the people in the house and senate. they had a day that was traumatic, no doubt, but to

compare that day's events to 9/11 or to combat or something of that nature that they experienced, not the capitol police, it is a little bit of political theater i think, and i think that, from the ground level, no one in the country is talking about this in terms of what we are doing, so it is just -- i think that message should be out there and we respect the capitol police, but at the same time, we are not talking about this anymore. it is over with. host: got it. susan in florida texts us to say yesterday showed the horrendous job of holding a line of rioters. support police, prosecute all righters in all cities. debbie in tucson, arizona, a republican. good morning to you. caller: i watched yesterday and i was just wanting to add to that that, yes, it was terrible

for those police. we all agree. nobody disputes that, but it is terrible with the riots in other cities over the summer happened the same way. they had bombs thrown at them, molotov cocktails, whatever those were. nobody stood up for them or said anything like that. they were told to stand. i don't think it should have been that way for them either. it should be the same for capital city people. we are citizens. we pay the bill for these people. and on top of that, i really do want to hear the truth behind what shot the woman and why? and why were there not everybody -- you know, they knew about this a couple of weeks before. the fbi knew. why didn't they have the support the needed? why didn't the national guard be

there? they knew it would happen. they should have prepared and planned. there should not be a cover-up by pelosi or whoever else. it is a cover-up they are trying to hold. host: ok, debbie. read fact-checks about this claim that speaker pelosi was asked about the national guard before january 6. i also want to follow-up on what you said about ashli babbitt. if you are interested, go to our website, c-span.org. we interviewed congressman markwayne mullin's, a republican in the chamber that day, who was talking to protesters, ready to fight, he said, and he talked about giving a hug to that law enforcement officer who shot ashli babbitt, and he said he had no choice, that that was the last line of defense and he had no choice but to do that, so if

you are interested, go to our website, c-span.org. you can find the interviews there with the congressman. we interviewed democrats and republicans who were in the chamber on january 6 giving their first-hand account of what happened. in conway, arkansas, democratic caller, good morning to you. caller: good morning. good morning. i just wanted to say that i watched january 6 live while all that was going on and i was in straight shock and utter disbelief at the way things were happening and i watched the hearings yesterday. to hear those cops, those police officers that put their life on the line to protect those people and now to these, you know --

and now, to be, you know, targeted and to be not believed, the whole world saw it, and to know that one officer was actually getting a call while he was testifying threatening his wife, and that is what they are living through today. i just think it is so horrible the way that the republican party is making -- is politicizing this the way they are. facts are facts and the fact is that there was an insurrection on the capitol on january 6 and it was provoked by the former president. that is just the way it is and i think anybody that does not acknowledge that needs to take a seat and figure out exactly what is wrong. host: ok. here is sam in new jersey with the text to us. the attack on the capitol was an attack on the u.s. government. the protests last summer were

not an attack on the government. it is as simple as that. earlier, we told you about news yesterday from the justice department. carrie johnson with mpr covered it on twitter, writing the doj has concluded that participation in the january 6 rally amounted to the camp -- amounted to a campaign event not within the scope of his employment and that instigating an attack on the capitol would not be within the scope of a lawmaker's employment. it plainly falls outside the scope of an officer and employee of the u.s. conspiring to prevent the certification of the 2020 election, injuring members of congress and inciting the riot. the doj does not resolve the question of whether brooks incited the crowd that day, but notes that under district of columbia law, an employee who acts contrary to his employer's

interests acts outside the scope of his employment. mike, we go to you. your turn. hi, mike, in los angeles. good morning to you. we have lost him. john in louisiana, a republican. hi, john. caller: on the ashli babbitt shooting, i was astounded when the representative said that. there are videos of that. not many around, but i downloaded several edits stepped through the may step at a time, a frame at a time, and you can see it as a series of doors. there is barricades on both sides. there are not only the rioters, but the law enforcement on the outside, you can see a single window has been removed in that series of doors that are all barricaded shut.

you can see her start to climb through an open window into that area. you can also see several law enforcement individuals in that area too. what you see is a hand with the gun from the left side. it is about six feet, i measured just looking at the doors, so she was shot at point-blank range from a position of concealment and killed. now, she was unarmed. she didn't even have anything in her hand. she didn't have a weapon. she didn't have a stick. she didn't have anything. so the idea that that individual was threatened by her when, actually, all they had to do was, if he had just gone down the hall about 25 feet, he would have been with a group of about six law enforcement officers. you can see this in the video. i stepped through it a frame at a time. i spent hours doing this. host: john, did you watch the

interview with congressman mullens? caller: i did. host: what he said, i am paraphrasing, is that if she and the others had gotten through, they would have come into direct contact with the members on the floor at the time. caller: i heard that and they would've had to get by. i counted six or seven law enforcement officers on the inside. she was the only one and had not gotten through. the fact is that if you are going to use deadly force, it has to be a threat to your life or injury. well, there were -- that was not the case at the point where she was shot. host: when your job is to protect lawmakers, isn't that different? caller: yes, but the situation there, those were not lawmakers that were standing at the under end of the hallway, which is a

pretty long hallway, at least 50, 60 feet. host: you have been in the capitol. you have seen this part of the capitol? caller: yeah. i recognized it. it was interesting, i have to say, but the point is one individual -- also, on the side that she came from, there were more law enforcement officers on that side of the barricade then there were protesters -- barricaded than there were protesters. caller: because i counted -- host: how do you know? caller: because i counted them. you can just look and say here is a helmeted officer. you cannot just watch it once and say that's it. i spent hours. you can step through a frame at a time. you can count people. you can determine who is there. host: so for others who have not seen the interview with congressman mullins, you can find it on our website.

he talks about, from his perspective, the danger that those protesters at that door presented to the lawmakers in the chamber at that time and why he believes that the officer who shot ashli babbitt had no choice. linda in tampa, florida, democratic caller, we will go to you. caller: hi. how are you doing? first of all, i would like to thank god for giving those officers the strength to hold that line, to hold it. host: ok. and what did you learn yesterday, linda, from them that you didn't know before? caller: i learned a lot. those officers have mental problems. everybody has seen. your eyes are not fooling you. your ears are not fooling you. those republicans, i don't know what they think, but election

time, all they are doing is bringing a lot of people out, because it just seems like america has become unreal, no heart, no nothing, and i don't hear that word treason. all the people who crossed that line could do people. they committed treason. host: linda, i will get ty in kansas city, an independent. good morning. caller: it is unbelievable. what we saw on january 6 was nothing but a terrorist act and insurrection. how can they try to bring black lives matter, antifa, for something they knew they were going to do, but trump told him

to go down there? they were going to have something. there was no hugging, no kissing, and i appreciate the fact. i know every blacktop in america probably realizes what these people -- every black cop in america probably realizes what these people really think about them. it all comes out because that is what they think about them no matter what they say. they showed them, no matter what or how you act, you can even be trying to protect the capitol of the united states, you still are what they called you, and i think god for those officers. i respect those guys. i have always been a top fan of law enforcement, so when you are a good police officer doing your

job, i will stand with you all the way to the end. god bless america. have a good day. host: all right. the house is about to gavel in for their morning legislative session. we will bring you to the house floor when they do that live. coverage here on c-span. gavel-to-gavel, of course. we want to thank you for calling in this morning, giving your perspective. this the first day of the january 6 select committee hearing. if you missed any of it, go to our website, c-span.org. you can find the hearing. you can find the other news conferences taking place by republicans since the select committee. let's go to the floor now. thank you all for watching.

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