but i have faith because of folks like you. and i didn't expect this -- i'm so grateful to all of you and with that, mr. chairman, i the chair recognizes the gentleman from arizona. lick my colleagues i want to extend my gratitude and appreciation for your service. i was in the house floor like m colleagues on the sixth and i was told that somebody had breached the capital and becaus of your service you and your colleagues that we are here today. you are the last line of

physical defense laying your life on the line for democracy. my time is limited some going t ask questions of the sergeant primarily about weapons and how they were used. officer you or any unique position because you were close to the white house as you indicated in your testimony. during the morning and early afternoon on the sixth with to do here specifically about explosives that had been discovered by your fellow officers? >> i was listening to the cover unit on the radio working the crowd. we usually wait for the crowd t disperse but they may have identified people of interest

that they never had a chance to address and they were working the crowd to try and figure out their ports the firearm on different people. and 42 we had our own objective in our own mission. the people in the hall conceal the weapons. on a big avenue it's difficult to detect a threat and there's not much you can do. we continued to scan the crowd of mostly it was up to our unit

make those discoveries. >> you talk about this in the gear of individuals that they were wearing. combined with what you saw and what you heard that all lead yo to give cause over the next few hours correct? once we got to the capital we got up there and never fighting i was wondering how many more bombs are other. my question was how many guns are there in this crowd. if we were to fire them is that a signal for them to break out

their firearms and shoot back? that's the reason why not shoot at anybody. as i said before it was over 9,000 people up there with an unknown number of firearms and only a few hundred of us may be. if that turned into a firefight we would have lost. and that's a fight we could not afford to lose. >> asked that you'll pay attention to the weapons the writers were using. you could hear somebody yelled get your machete.

in the video we saw somebody throw a large speaker that came norway. >> i was further inside. when they to the speaker was

actually inside the tunnel. >> what types of weapons to choose c used against fellow officers? >> police shields police baton. a sledgehammer you saw on the video. pepper spray and bear spray. pvc pipes. rocks. table legs. furniture broken down. guardrails any weapons and any items they could get their hand on.

>> you were further down the corridor door but a speaker was thrown at you at your foot is the correct? it was thrown highway. it hit somebody else before hitting my foot. and this is a photo of your foo would like to show. you mentioned in your statement about your continued physical therapy related to that somehow you are doing? >> i had several conditions one is a fusion on a broken bone in my foot. there was a hammertoe as a result of the.

they had to correct the big toe to save my life. is very painful. i've gone through a lot of patience and determination but i'm still having sleep problems in terms of pain. the doctor told me i'm going to his surgery on my shoulder because were having issues that have not healed of six months later. my rotator cuff is also going t need some work we are talking about a year of physical treatment and rehab. >> you are an immigrant from th

dominican republic and naturalized us citizen. you mentioned how they had zeroed in on your race. you tell me how that made you feel? >> before and right after you saw the fluorescent bike unit they could see my skin color through my last. regardless of whether i was in the military which they did not know. they are saying all of these things to me. when i heard this i wasn't even thinking about racial stuff.

it takes time for you to proces this. you only realized what had happened after you go back and you see it. of only seen the videos recently. for me i wasn't even thinking about that. i just wanted to stop them. wasn't thinking about what they were yelling about my skin colo or my race. i know i'm an american a former soldier and police officer. i took that into count those defending all of you. you've characterize this as a white nationalist movement. can you describe how you lead

yourself to describe the attack that way? >> the crowd was overwhelmingly white males. usually middle-aged a bit older but some younger. i think the entire time i was there i saw two females and two asian males. everybody else was white males. they did not say anything especially xena phobic to be. but to my black colleagues and anybody that was not white and some of them would try to recruit me one of them said are you my brother. there are many known organizations that had a presence there.

everybody people that associate with donald trump. therefore more likely to subscribe to that belief system. >> i want to thank the for view for kicking a bit difficult steps of sharing your stories and recollections of the threat of violence and things that no patient had to experience what you went through. this committee will continue it work to give an accurate accounting of what happened. thank you for being here. >> think you can the witnesses for your testimony today.

for your bravery on january 6th and for your service to our country. and all of you endured a great deal on january 6th. i know we've watched a lot of difficult video in relation to this so far but i want to show brief video of what officer hodges experienced.

officer hodges that must've bee difficult but i think it's important for the american people to see this. this is the accountability we need in order for us to do something moving forward as a country. january 6th was an attack on our democracy. it was an attack on the peacefu

transfer of power it was also a attack on you. multiple thoughtless and i don' think even you know this but your actions had a profound impact on the. at 3:00 p.m. on january 6th what you are holding back up mo i was held up with kathleen ric in a small office about 70 pace from the tunnel that you were in. from that office in close proximity where you all held th line i listened to you struggle i listened to you yelling out t one another. listened to you care for one another directing people back t the makeshift eyewash station a the end of the hall. and then i listened to people

coughing and having difficulty breathing but i watched you entered you all get back into the fight. i think congressman rice and i were the only ones that were down there on the floor with th terrorists. we had taken refuge in that office because we thought being in the basement was the safest spot we could be. it turns out we ended up at the center of the storm. you had said that you were 200 feet off the tunnel and you were certain they were going to kill you. i know you both did not realize other parts of the capital had been breached but you felt like two or the last line of defense.

i'm telling you that you are th last line of defense. during that time where you are sacrificing your body to hold the door it gave us and the officers who have been sent tha hallway to escape down to the other end of the hallway i shudder to think about what would've happened had you not tell blind. i have two young children ten -year-old son in there the ligh of my life. the reason i was able to hunt them again is because of the courage that you and your fello officers shared. just too really tell you that this is a heartfelt thank you and i think it's important for everybody to remember the main

reason these rioters did not come within any members of congress is because they couldn't find any members of congress. and they didn't find us because law enforcement officers did their job that day. i think without you would have been a terrible and tragic day we have been even more tragic s thank you to all of you. now they did talk a little bit about that video you talked about this in your opening statement but can you walk us through it's happening in that scene. the body camera as well as the video that's corrected beginnin you can see me walking in the capital.

>> then you see me spit on the floor unfortunately. was trying to clear my lungs an you see me putting my gas mask on and that was the entryway to the tunnel where it was wall-to-wall people packed fighting with everything they had. i believe the thickest smoke wa from a fire extinguisher with the residue. it's like i said before. they outnumbered us 50-1. so it did not matter how many w defeated. we just had to hold on. we couldn't let anybody get through.

they always had essentially an infant number of professors. they said we need fresh patriot appear. and there'd be more. we just had to hold until somebody came to help. like i said it when they got to the front i didn't want any mor pressure on the officers behind. i tried to put myself where i could use the door for them to brace push forward. unfortunately that backfired once we lost ground i was unabl to retreat i was crushed agains the doorframe. the man in front of me took advantage and eat in the head.

took off my gas mask straining my next. split my lip open. everything he could. at that point i recognized if i stayed there i was going to pas out for lack of oxygen or get dragged into the crowd and who knows. i called for help. i tried to make it clear that m position was in good and i had the fullback and thankfully the other officers were able to get me out of there. it's clear that he suffered immense pain from the assault i appears you are outnumbered but

you still got back out there again. what is worth all of that pain? what were you fighting for that day? >> democracy. you are 40 feet away especially with the margins on democrats and republicans if any single one person was to be attacked o killed which i have no doubt in my mind what they intended it that would the outcome of legislation and all of your duties for years to come. that's just one person what if more than one person had fallen the difference would be even greater than what it should be and will be. obviously for each other.

your immediate concern is the well-being of your colleagues and the other officers that wer there fighting beside me. i can speak for everybody when say we worry about each other more than ourselves. that's just in our nature. when he said he wanted to find out who would be help and nobod would volunteer that is the mindset we have. it was for democracy it was for the men and ladies of the house and senate it was for each othe and for the future of the country. thank you all for defending democracy i appreciate the testimony and you continued service.

you were great for officers you are great public servant you adhere to public servants acros the country you are great and heroes to all-america. one after you're gone you will be remembered as heroes to your country along with your fellow officers and those who attacked you are fastest traders to the country and are going to be remembered forever as the fascist traders. you are the pride of maryland today because of the way you stood up. you said something fascinating your testimony. you've never cemented the physically assaulted a single

officer before in your 13 years on the force much less thousand of people attacking00s of officers. how did you experience that whe it first happened? to clarify its never been an assault on a skill like seem like that before i just want to clarify that can your feet the question? this actually leads my next one. even interesting point saint you've seen protest for many years. you've seen civil disobedience for many years. we can't portray these events like some sort of resurrection both the march on washington.

i've seen a lot of protests her as well. i've seen the market for our lives of young people dead abou gun violence. i've seen marching arguing for the rates to representation in congress and i've seen people that civil disobedience. was this like anything you've ever seen? the process you are talking about i'm going to go a bit further and possible for one's that were potentially not so peaceful. anniversary of this rally there was a lot of opposition. we have the clan that can appear. everybody has the potential to be violent and quite deadly. but they were not.

this wasn't the first time if i can use the quote that these people can look to the capital before. there were some skirmishes but they never attempted to overthrow democracy like this. but the second or third time they had come up on january 6th even then as belligerent as they were i did not know they were going to be violent. difference i see in that is tha when people feel emboldened the assume that they are correct. one of the scariest things abou january 6th is that the people that were there even to this da think they were right.

and this makes for a scary recipe for the future of the country. i think that's why it's important that you all take thi seriously and get to the bottom of why this happened. >> i think you've given the committee the marching orders today. that is to hold the line. you held the line and now we have two. i want to thank you for that if we show a fraction of the courage and the valor that you will demonstrated on january 6th that we will hold the line in this committee. but i want to ask you about holding the line. i want to go back to the question of weapons so we can clear this up because some people are still saying that they were unarmed. i wonder what your reaction is to that? we've heard about rampant baseball bats lead pipes.

confederate battle flags and so on. about the question of firearms? what is your reaction generally to the proposition that they were unarmed? >> first and foremost i would say what you just described those were most certainly weapons in regards to firearms knew in the days immediately before the january 6th insurrection and january 6th itself firearms were recovered by law enforcement from individuals in washington dc that were believed to have been participants were it least of those who were planning to participate in the january 6th insurrection. yes those are firearms handguns and such. >> forgive me for these

questions but i have to ask you. apparently in some regions of the internet it seems that you may have been mistaken for nt for and that's why you were nearly beat to death is there any way you think your mistaken for that? >> i was in full uniform. i was like i said wearing my uniform shirt and my police department's patch somebody are my badge off my chest i don't believe i was mistaken for anything. >> mentioned there are some people that would prefer that all of this go away if and that we not have an investigation. you seem pretty determined to get the country to focus on this. why is it so important? >> first and foremost because o the actions of the officers tha

responded that. is typically for my department but also from the police and th surrounding jurisdictions. dumpling event of that day is also dumpling the response. like we said some of these officers part of the healing process recovering from a traumatic events of that day is having the nation except the fact that this day happened. some people are saying that as public servants none of you should be speaking else. you should just serve the publi but don't speak out. what do you think about that? >> i disagree. have spoken throughout my caree as an undercover officer and narcotics officer.

however this event is something we have enough experience in ou lifetimes. >> average of testimony and i hope every american does so two. you referred to terrorists for terrorism to describe the peopl that were assaulting officers and dragging them through the crowd. stealing their weapons couching their eyes and so on. some of our colleagues been calling this not terrorists but tourists. what you call the attackers terrorists and what you think about the colleagues who think we should tourists. >> the foot american tourists are like i can see why foreign

countries don't like us. but i can see why somebody woul take issue with the title of terrorists. they've gained a lot of notoriety in our vocabulary the last few decades. we would like to believe that that could not happen here. we don't have domestic terrorism. but they came prepared. us code title 18 part one chapter 1133 section 2331. the term domestic terrorism means activities that involves acts dangerous to human life that are in violation of the la of the united states or any state. and if you're to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or to influence the policy of the government by

intimidation or coercion or to affect the conduct of the government by mass instruction assassination were kidnapping i primarily with the jurisdiction of the us. i've got one final question before my time is up. are there questions you hope we can answer as a committee about the causes of the attacks and what happened in the weeks prio to january 6 i think in my opinion we need to get to the bottom of who brought those people here. why they were led to believe

that the process was rigged along those lines. for going back to what he said. have had my 15 years of service. had given tours to thousands of people. had no point in time was i ever attacked. i don't know how youth you see my hand leading getting concussions maimed getting fingers shattered. getting our eyes gouged. indescribable it's demoralizing

for the future recruits what yo think people considering becoming montfort officers thin when they seek elected leaders dumpling this when i risked my life and they don't even care. they don't care what happens to the public the don't care what happens to the officers. they only care about their jobs and their position. if they don't have the courage to put their job on the line because they want to feed somebody's ego that's not put country first. >> we are willing to risk our

lives we've done this whether you're a republican or a democrat we don't care. we respond to the radio calls w don't ask by the way before i take care of it is this a republican or democrat? we don't ask that we just respond. normally under any other circumstances we don't talk about politics we don't talk about what happens to us. this is bigger than that. dumpling the event that happene to the country itself to democracy and the rule of law w are talking about people claiming they are pro- law enforcement and pro- police probe law and order if it's a chance and opportunity to do

something about this and hold people accountable. they've passed the bucket like nothing happened. when it comes to recruiting yes we need bodies right now. especially when we are trying t attract the talent we need and people that are willing to risk their lives to protect you guys. >> thank you very much for chairman the question was asked is this america? i think these gentlemen embodie spirit of america thank you mr. chairman. i want to say to the officers here today that we are grateful for your service you sharing th

stories and the willingness to speak to the members of this committee and to the american people both the horrific things that you experienced on january 6 truly experiencing in defense of the democracy. sergeant we spoke earlier and you mentioned them many times you took the oath. became a naturalized citizen joining the army and a service officer of the capitol police force. officer hodges mentioned in national guardsmen as a police officer myself something i can share with you is a horrific experience that you have that they. all of us having taken this oat i took it when i was 17 and joined the navy and over to decades when you mentioned can compare this earlier today

experiences you had overseas. in a war zone you didn't feel a bad as he felt this day can you share that in a little more detail was going on at and the thoughts about what you have experience defending the nation on foreign soil and now when th heart of the nation and the capital being assaulted the way that you were. it was very disappointing. i saw many officers fighting fo their lives. again if people in these writer our very own citizens. bullet had the thin blue line o the chest. another writer would be wearing a marine hat and any other type

of military paraphernalia. they're accusing us does when i was in iraq the sense of karami he did this whether you are white black it doesn't matter what color you are. we all knew what we were fighting for. my experience here is that ther were times i was afraid of goin on convoys were doing my supply mission because i knew there wa a chance could possibly be ambushed or get shot at. we knew the risks but this woul happen over and over.

we were defending the very institution they said they were trying to save. >> it's difficult as we watch these images from the capital but i did want to share one mor video but this time i would ask that you close your eyes and just listen. don't watch just listen to what is being said as these brave me were being overrun.

and when you are the rioters chanting things in this video saying that you can't even call yourself americans you are on the wrong side of freedom. can you share how that makes yo feel? >> again my response that day

and at no point in that they di i ever think about the politics of that crowd but even as thing are being said in the midst of the chaos that would did resonate where the fact that thousands of americans were attacking police officers that were simply they're doing their job. they were there to disrupt the members of congress that were just doing their job. in retrospect about those event and the things that were said it's disgraceful that the numbers of our government that believe were responsible for

inciting this behavior amid continuing to propagate the statements things like this was 1776 or that police officers have fought and risk their live were redcoats and traders. to me those individuals are representative of the worst tha america has to offer. >> think you and thinking about the events that happened on

january 6th inking about what led up to that day i was reminded of a quote the quote that i frequently heard used from having way. it asks how these things happen. how do things like this happen? the quote is very short it just says gradually and then suddenly. i think the founders understood the republic was fragile and that could be tested. it was tested here on january 6th. unit 20 years i don't want to look back on these moments and we saw the signs coming gradually. these were signs that we ignore and find people thought were isolated incidents or signs of things we thought could never happen. i don't want to say to my daughter or to somebody's son i

don't want any of us to say thi happened gradually and then suddenly. some people were just too worried about winning the next election to do something about this. this is the task before this committee. i'm sure we are going to be attacked by cowards and those i the arena and those only in the stands we will be attacked by people that are more concerned about there own power than abou the good of the country. my oath your oath and all of ou votes here today protect and defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. is going to be our guiding ligh throughout this investigation and does this officer said earlier you said it we can neve

again allow the democracy to be put imperial. i will say that we will persevere and do what is right our nation is truly grateful to you that opaline your actions i january 6th could have been was saved our democracy. the gentleman from maryland pas questions in terms of what you may expect this committee to do in our body of work. we didn't give the other three members and opportunity to answer the question and to tell

us based on the last to hundred days of your lives would you cast this committee with for work what would you like to see us do? the way i understand this there have been investigations into the events of january 6th my understanding is that these hav addressed the micro level concerns being the immediate securing of the capital buildin itself also the forced mobilization of everybody that they the planning and preparation the training and equipment concerns. a lot of the events of january 6th in the days preceding i guess it is

interesting from my love for some perspective as a police officer a lot of these events happened in plain sight but we had violent political rhetoric and we had the organization of rally in the title was stop the steal. this rally occurred on january 6th which i don't believe was a coincidence that on january 6 members of congres that are here in the room today were charged with tallying the electoral votes in certifying the election of our president. in the academy we learn about time place and circumstance whe it comes to investigating a potential crime.

the time place and circumstance of this rally in that rhetoric if you ask me this leads in the direction of our president and other members only of congress and the senate but this is what i'm looking for is an investigation. i think you hit the nail on the head. has a patrol officer can only deal with the crimes that happened on the street.

you are the only people we have to deal with and the crimes tha occur above us. i need you to address if anybod in power had a role in this if anybody empower coordinated or aided or abetted or tried to downplay try to prevent the investigation of this terrorist attack. we can't do it we aren't allowe to. i think the majority of americans are looking forward t this as well.

>> there is a sentiment going around this is her but he is trying january 6th political. it's no secret that it was not political they were there to stop the steal. some people say it shouldn't be political but it is. it was and is. there is no getting around it. telling the truth should not be difficult. butting in january 6th was difficult when it comes to january 7 that was hard. all the way up until today that was difficult. that was hard when the fence came down but still nothing has changed.

everything is different but nothing has changed. these two are being lauded as courageous heroes while i agree with the notion why? as they told the truth? why is telling the truth so difficult? i think in this america it is. if we were the officers we woul do it all over again. we would show up as courageous and that's heroic. what i ask all of you is to get to the bottom of what happened and that includes all the other officers sitting here i use an analogy to describe what i want as a hitman.

a hitman hires and kills somebody and the hitman goes to jail. not only does the hitman go to jail but the person that higher than. there was an attack carried out on january 6 i want you to get to the bottom of this thank you. >> very powerful. i would also like for you to give us the tools and things we need to continue to protecting you. i think it's essential for you to provide us with what we need perhaps fortifying the capital.

i know we were desperate if we had something to help us that could have made a huge difference on january 6th. people want to keep this place open to the public as much as possible. and there are things we can do to reinforce entrances. it's difficult but i can see th capital had regulations that th time has passed. we still have security measures from 20 years ago that need to go.

we are still operating with certain things we could adjust things we were doing back in th 90s could happen. even after the attack on the capital. again i think all of you for your testing of phony. will help preserve this democracy. the time and you for

reinforcement made the difference. for that we thank you. we on this committee have a dut to get to the bottom of what happened that they. we can't allow it happened ther too ever happen again. we owe this to you and your colleagues and we are not going to fail. thank you again to the witnesses. without objection you'll be committed ten business days to submit statements to the record

including opening remarks and additional questions for witnesses. >> you've been watching coverag of the democratic led the selec committee hearing on the events of january the sixth. we've heard from a few officers who responded to the right of the capital. i'm john roberts in washington. >> this all began about 9:30:00 a.m. eastern time. going to the 1:00 hour obviousl we've heard some very compellin testimony from many of the officers that are on duty at th capital that they.