because of folks like you, and i didn't expect this, leader, but it must be a thing today, but i am so grateful to all of you and with that, mr. chairman, i yield back. >> the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. aguilar. >> thank you. like my colleagues i want to extend my gratitude and appreciation for your service on january 6th and since then what you had to go through. i was on the floor on january 6th when i was told a violent mob had breached the capitol and it was because of your service. it was because of you and your colleagues that we are here today because you were literally the last line of physical defense, laying your life on the

line for democracy. my time will be limited so i'll be asking questions of officer hodges and sergeant gonell primarily about the weapons that you observed and how they were used. officer hodges, you were in a unique position because you were down constitution. you were closer to the white house to start as you indicated in your testimony. during the morning in the early afternoon on the 6th, what did you hear specifically about guns and explosives that had been discovered by our fellow officers? >> i -- i was listening on the radio to our undercover unit working the crowd. what we usually try to do is wait for the crowd to disperse before making arrests that way we don't set off the crowd and set off a riot. so i think they might have identified people of interest that they never got a chance to

address, and they were working the crowd to try and confirm reports of firearms on certain people, but it is also difficult to do given the nature of the crowd and how many there were. when i heard or r.o.d. confirm the existence of a device there was only one thing it could be, you know, explosives, and -- but we in 42 we had our own objective, our own mission. we scanned the crowd, but these people, they know how to conceal their weapons. so on a big avenue like constitution, you can't really -- it's difficult to detect the print or if it's in a backpack there's not much you can do, but we continue to scan the crowd and find when we could, but mostly it was up to our other units to make those

discoveries. >> you talked about in response to representative cheney. you talked about the gear that the individuals were wearing. so combined with what you saw visually with what you had heard on the radio about guns, that all kind of led you to give pause about the next few hours, correct? >> absolutely. you know, once we got to the capitol and we were fighting, i was -- i was wondering, you know, how many more bombs are there. what's the trigger? is it going to be a cell phone? is it on a timer? how many guns are there in this crowd? if we start firing, is that the signal to them to set off the explosives however many there are in the city, is that the signal for them to break out their firearms and shoot back? so that's the reason, you know,

why i didn't shoot anyone and why i imagine why many others didn't because, like i said before there were over 9,000 of the terrorists out there with an unknown number of firearms and a couple hundred of us maybe. so we could not -- if that turned into a fire fight we would have lost and this was a fight we couldn't afford to lose. >> i want to play a video, and i'd ask that everyone watching pay attention specifically to the weapons the rioters were using. you can hear someone yell get your machete. you can see officers being attacked with flag poles, flares and gas canisters. if we can roll the video. >> we're still taking rocks, bottles, and pieces of flag and metal pole. cruiser pooh, the crowd is using munitions against us. they have bear spray in the crowd! bear spray in the crowd! >> let's go get them!

>> get your machete! get your machete! >> get it now! [ indiscernible ] >> go! [ screaming ] >> sergeant gonell, in the video we just saw someone throw a large speaker. that was directed your way? >> i was further inside. that was after ward, toward the end, before they got cleared when they threw the speaker at me, and i was further inside the

tunnel. >> what types of weapons did you see used against your fellow officers? >> police shields, police baton, a hammer, sledgehammer that you saw on that video, flag poles, tasers, pepper spray, bear spray, rebar, hacks, pvc pipes, copper pipes, rocks, table legs broken down, guardrails for the inauguration stage, cones, 4x4, any weapons, any items that they could get their hands on. >> you were further down the corridor, but a speaker was

thrown at you and it hit your foot, is that correct? >> correct, sir. >> we have a photo -- >> it was thrown my way it hit somebody else and it hit my foot. >> we have a photo of your foot here that we'd like to show. that is correct. >> can you tell me how you're doing? you mentioned in your opening statement about your continued physical therapy related to the foot. can you tell me how you're doing? >> the foot -- i had several conditions that were -- one is a fusion on the number one metatarsal -- metatarsal, and then it was a hammer toe as a result of the hit and then the second and third digit also were damaged. in order to fix one they needed to correct the big toe to

stabilize, if not i would later on in the future i would have the same problem returning. it is very painful. it is, with patience and determination, i still have the same problems in terms of pain and stiffness, but the doctor last week on tuesday told me that i'm going to need surgery on my shoulder because i have a labrum tear that has not healed even six months later and possibly my rotator cuff also is going need some work. so you're talking about eight months to a year more of physical treatment and rehab. >> sergeant, you're an immigrant from the dominican republic and

naturalized u.s. citizen and you mentioned how individuals had zeroed in on your race that day. >> yes, sir. >> can you tell me how that made you feel? >> when we were -- before or right after mpd had arrived with the fluorescent mountain bike unit, they got there i was on the front line and they -- apparently they had seen even through my mask they saw my skin color and they said you're not even an american regardless of whether i was in the military, they don't know that, but they're yelling and saying all these things to me. i mean, when i heard that i wasn't even thinking about any racial stuff. i was, like, you don't know that for a fact, and i'm not even

entertaining that, but it's like officer harry dunn, it takes time for you to process that and you only realize what happened after you go back and see it from a different point in time because i only saw that recently, but for me i wasn't even thinking of that. i'm there to stop them regardless. not thinking what they were yelling in terms of my skin color or my race, and i know an american soldier and former soldier and a police officer, i didn't take that into could when i was defending all of you guys. >> officer hodges, you characterize the attack on the capitol and the insurrection, can you tell us what there was

that way? >> the crowd was overwhelmingly males, usually middle aged and older, but some younger. i think out of the entire time i was there i saw just two women and two asian males. everyone else was white males. their -- they didn't say anything especially xenophobic to me, but to my black colleagues and anyone who is not white, and they would -- some of them would try to recruit me. one of them came up to me and said "are you my brother?" there were many known organizations that ties to white supremacy who had a presence there, like three percenters,

oathkeepers and that kind of thing. everyone i've ever -- people who associate with donald trump are found more likely to subscribe to that kind of belief system. i want to thank the four of you for taking the very difficult step of sharing your stories and your recollections of the threats and the violence that you endured. no one should have to experience what you went through. in this committee, it will continue its work to give a complete accounting of what happened to protect further officers and to amplify the stories that you shared today. thank you so much for being here. i yield back, mr. chairman. >> the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentle lady from florida, miss murphy for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you to the witnesses for your testimony today, for your bravery on january 6th and for your service to our country.

i know all of you endured a great deal on january 6th, and i know we've watched a lot of difficult video in this testimony so far, but i hope it's okay with you if i show a brief video of what officer hodges experienced that day. can you please cue the video? [ coughing ] [ indiscernible ] >> help me! >> hold it baby, hold it baby!

>> hold it! >> hold it baby! >> back up! back up! >> hold it! [ screaming ] [ expletive ] [ indiscernible ] >> interlock the shields! interlock shields! watch out! watch out! >> interlock the shields! shields! >> now! [ screaming ] >> no! [ screaming ]

>> no! no! [ screaming ] >> heave! ho! heave! ho! [ screaming ] ow! >> let him out! [ screaming ] >> officer hodges, i know that must have been difficult to watch, but i really think it's important for the american people to see that because that's the beginning of the kind of accountability that this committee is committed to in order for us to do what you said moving forward as a country. you know, january 6th was an attack on our democracy, it was an attack on the peaceful transfer of power and it was an attack on this capitol building, but it was also an attack on

real people, and most people don't know this, and i don't think even you know this, but your actions had a profound impact on me. so at 3:00 p.m. on january 6th while you were holding back the mob at the lower west terrace entrance i was holed up with congresswoman kathleen rice in a small office about 40 paces from the tunnel that you all were in. that's about from the distance where i'm sitting here on the deus to that back wall. in that office in close proximity to where you all held the line i listened to you struggle. i listened to you yelling out to one another. i listened to you care for one another directing people back to the makeshift eye wash station that was at the end of our hall and then i listened to people coughing, having difficulty

breathing, but i watched you and heard you all get back into the fight, and i think congresswoman rice and i were the only members of congress to be down there on that lower west terrace. you know, we had taken refuge in that office because we thought for sure being in the basement at the heart of the capitol was the safest place we could be, and it turned out we ended up at the center of the storm, and officer fanone, you had said you were 250 feet off of that tunnel, and you felt certain that they were going to kill you. imagine if they had caught the two members of congress that were just 40 feet from where you all were, and i know sergeant gonell and officer hodges you both said that you didn't realize that other parts of the capitol had been breached, but you really felt like you were the last line of defense. well, i'm telling you that you

were our last line of defense, and during the exact period of time, officer hodges, in that video where you were sacrificing your body to hold that door, it gave congresswoman rice and i and the capitol police officers who had been sent to extract us the freedom of movement on that hallway to escape down the other end of that hallway, and i -- i shudder to think what would have happened had you not held that line. you know, i have two young children. i have a 10-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter, and they're the light of my life, and the reason i was able to hug them again was because of the courage that you and your fellow officers showed that day and so just to really heartfelt thank you. i think it is important for everybody, though, to remember that the main reason rioters

didn't harm any members of congress was because they didn't encounter any members of congress, and they didn't encounter any members of congress because law enforcement officers did your jobs that day, and you did it well i think without you what was a terrible and tragic day would have been even more terrible and more tragic, so i'm very grateful for all of you and now i'd like to talk a little bit about that video. you talked about it in your opening statement, but can you walk us through what is happening in that scene? my understanding is that that is a mix of your body camera as well as video from other vantage points. >> that's correct. at the beginning you see me walking into the capitol and that was after we were driven off of the west terrace. you see me spit on the floor,

unfortunately, trying to clear my lungs and mouth of all of the cs and oc. you see me preparing my gas mask, donning it, ready to go back out there, and i followed the noise to the tunnel where it was just, you know, wall to wall people, packed, fighting with everything they had. it was full of oc and cs gas at the time, and i think the smoke was from a fire extinguisher and you can see from the fire extinguisher on the officers that were there, and it's like i said before, they outnumbered us 50-something to one, so it didn't matter how many we defeated, we just had to -- we had to hold on. we couldn't let anyone through, and they always had a

relative -- essentially an infinite number of replacements and we needed fresh patriots up here and there would be more, so we just had to hold until someone came to help and like i said, once i got to the front, i didn't want on i didn't want any more pressure on the officers behind me so i tried to insert myself to where i could use the door frame and brace myself and push forward so we could take back more territory. unfortunately, that backfired, so once we lost ground i was crushed up against the door frame, and in one of those vulnerable moments, the man in front of me took advantage and

beat me in the head and ripped off my gas mask and hit me skull, and split my lip open and just everything he could and at that point i recognized that if i stayed there then i was going to pass out from lack of oxygen or get dragged out in the crowd and end up like fanone. so i called for help. i tried to make it clear that, you know, my position was untenable, i had to fall back and thankfully the other officers were able to get me out of there and to the back where i recuperated as best i could before i got back out there again. >> it's clear that you suffered immense pain from the assault. it's clear that you were outnumbered and you just said you got back out there again.

tell me what's worth all of that pain? what were you fighting for that day? >> democracy. you were 40 feet away or yards -- whatever. if -- especially with the razor thin margins on democrats and republicans in the house and senate, if any single one person was kidnapped or killed which is no doubt in my mind is what they intended that would affect the outcome of legislation and all your duties for years to come. and just one person, more than one person the difference would be even greater than what should be and will be. and for, obviously, for each other. your immediate concern is the well-being of your colleagues.

the other officers who were therefore fighting beside me. i think i can speak for everyone when i say we worry about each other more than ourselves. that's just in our nature. it's part of why you become a police officer. when fanone said he was trying to find out who needs help, no one would volunteer. that's just an example of that kind of mindset that we have. it was for democracy. it was for men and women of the house and senate, it was for each other and it was for the future of the country. >> thank you, officer hodges, and thank you all for defending democracy and i appreciate your testimony, and i appreciate your continued service. with that, i yield back. >> gentle lady yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. >> thank you, mr. chairman.

officer gonell, officer fanone, officer hodges, officer dunn, you are great law enforcement officers and a hero to law enforcement officers across the country, you are hero public servants across the country and you are great americans and heroes to all of america, and long after you are gone, you will be remembered as heroes to our country along with your fellow officers and those who attacked you and those who beat you are fascist traitors to our country and will be remembered forever as fascist traitors. now officer dunn, i've got to start with you because you're my constituent and you are the pride of maryland today because of the way you stood up for the capitol and for the congress and for our democracy, but you said something fascinating in your testimony. you said you've never seen anybody assault a single officer before in your 13 years on the

force much less thousands and thousands of people attacking hundreds of officers. so how did you experience that when it first happened? >> so with regard to the videos of the officers being attacked and people resisting arrest, it's never been the assault on the scale that we have seen like that before. i just wanted to clear phi that. could you repeat the question? it leads to my next one. you made an interesting point. you said you'd seen protests for many, many years. you've seen civil disobedience for many years. there was an effort today portraying the events of january 6th like some kind of resurrection of dr. king's march on washington in 1963, you know, and i've seen a lot of protests here, too. i've seen the march for our

lives that the young people did about gun violence. i see people marching for d.c. statehood, arguing for their rights and civil disobedience. but was this like any of those rallies, marches or demonstrations that you've seen and what was different about it? >> the protests that you specifically talked about, and i'll go a step further and talk about the not so -- the ones that had the potential to be not so peaceful. you had the million man naturally, the 20th anniversary of it. there was a lot of opposition to that. you had the klan that came up here. you had people that were pro-guns that wanted to come up here. so all of those had the potential to be very violent and frankly, quite deadly, but they did not.

this wasn't the first time that -- if i can use this quote the maga people came up to the capitol before. they were in d.c. before. there were some skirmishes, but never an attempt to overthrow democracy. they came up, i think it was the second or third time they'd come up on january 6th and even then as belligerent as they were, and they didn't account to this violence and the only difference that i see in that is that they had marching orders, when people feel emboldened by people in power, they assume that they're right and one of the scariest things about january 6 suggest the that the people that were there, even to this day they think that they were right. they think that they were right and that makes for a scary recipe for the future of this

country. so i think that's why it is very important that you all take this committee seriously and get to the bottom of why this happened and let's make it never happen again. >> thank you. officer fanone, i think you've given our committee our marching orders today which is to hold the line. you held the line and now we've got to hold the line and i want to thank you for that. if we show a fraction of the valor that you did on january 6th then we will hold the line in this committee. i do want to ask you about holding the line. i want to go back to this question of weapons so we can clear this up because there are still people saying that the insurrectionists were unarmed. i wonder what your reaction is to that because we've heard about -- first of all, rampant baseball bats, lead pipes, confederate battle flags and so

on, and what about the question of firearms? so what is your reaction, generally to this proposition that they weren't armed? >> first and foremost, i would say that the implements that you just described are most certainly weapons. with regards to firearms, i know that in the days immediately before the january 6th insurrection and january 6th itself, firearms were recovered by law enforcement from individuals in washington, d.c., who were believed to have been participants or at least those who were planning to participate in the january 6th insurrection, and yes, those were firearms and guns and such. >> forgive me for these questions, but i've got to ask you, apparently in some nether

regions of the internet it's being said that you, officer fanone were mistaken for antifa and that's why you were nearly beaten to death that day and carried into the crowd. is there any way that you were mistaken for antifa? >> well, i was in full uniform. i was -- like i said, wearing my uniform shirt adorned with the metropolitan police department's patch, i had my badge on until someone ripped it off my chest. i do not believe i was mistaken for a member of antifa. >> you mentioned in your testimony that there are some people who would prefer that all of this go away, that we not have an investigation. let's let bygone, be bygones, but you seem pretty determined to get the country to focus on this. why is that so important to you? >> well, first and foremost because of the actions of officers who responded that day,

specifically from my department and the u.s. capitol police and some of the surrounding jurisdictions. downplaying the events of that day, is downplaying those officers' response and like sergeant gonell said, some of the officers -- part of the healing process from recovering from the traumatic events of that day is having the nation accept the fact that that day happened. >> some people are saying that as public servants you all should not be speaking out that cops, firefighters, teachers, should just serve the public, but should not speak out as citizens. what do you think about that, officer fanone? >> i disagree. i've been outspoken throughout my career, never to this magnitude, as an undercover officer and a narcotics officer i preferred obscurity in the public eye.

however, this event is something that we have not experienced in our lifetimes. >> officer hodges, i read your testimony carefully. i hope every american reads your testimony, but i noted that you referred to terrorists or terrorism 15 different times to describe the people who were assaulting officers, dragging them through the crowd, stealing their weapons, smashing them over the head and gouging eyes and so on. however, our colleagues have been calling the violent insurrectionists not terrorists, but tourists. why do you call the attackers terrorists and what do you think about our colleagues who think we should call them tourists? >> well f that's what american tourists are like i can see why foreign countries don't like american tourists. [ laughter ]

>> i can see why someone would take issue with the title of terrorist. it's gained a lot of notoriety in our vocabulary in the past few decades, and we'd like to believe that no, that couldn't happen here. no domestic terrorism. no homegrown threats, but i came prepared. u.s. code title 18 part 1, chapter 113b as in brown, section 2331, the term domestic terrorism means activities that involve acts dangerous to human life that are a vileation of the criminal laws of the united states or any state and b, appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion or to

affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping and occur primarily during the territorial jurisdiction of the united states. >> thank you for that, and i had one final question for sergeant gonell, but it looks like my time is up, so i yield back to you. >> the chair will give the gentleman the opportunity -- >> thank you for your indulgence, mr. chairman. are there questions, sergeant gonell that you hope we can answer as a committee about the causes of the attack, the nature of the attack and what happened in the weeks prior to january 6th, as we develop our work plan moving forward? >> i think, in my opinion, we do need to get to the bottom of who incited, who brought those people here, why the people were made to believe that the process

was along those lines, and going back to what hodges said, i had in my 15 years of service i've given thousands of -- i had given a tour to thousands of people at the capitol, as an officer and as a sergeant and even plain-clothes uniform. at no point in time did i ever get attacked. i don't know how would you call an attack on police officers a tour when you see me bleeding on my hand, and you see other officers getting concussions, getting maimed, getting fingers shattered. i got gouged. it's indescribable.

you're defending the indefensible. it demoralized not only the rank and file, but the future recruits that we are trying to get. what do you think people considering becoming law enforcement officers think when they see elected leaders downplaying this and why would i risk my life for them when they don't even care? they don't care what happened to the public. they don't care what happened to the officers and all they care about their job, their position. if they don't have the courage to put their job on the line because they want to feed some lies and to feed somebody's ego, that's not putting the country first. we are willing to risk our life

to at least make it worth it. we do that regardless whether you are a republican, democrat, independent. we don't care. when this call, when this radio call or dispatch sends a call, we don't ask, hey, before i treat you are you a republican, democrat or independent? we don't. we just respond. normally, under any other circumstances we stay shut. we don't talk about politics. we don't talk about what happened to us, but this is bigger than that. you are downplaying an event that happened to the country itself, to democracy, to the rule of law. you are talking about people who claim they are pro-law enforcement, pro-police, pro-law and order and yet when they have the chance and the opportunity to do something about it, to hold people accountable, you

don't. you pass the buck like nothing happened and it is devastating for recruiting. yes, we need bodies right now, but this makes it harder especially when you are trying to attract the talent that we need, people who are willing to risk their lives to protect you guys. >> thank you very much, sergeant gonell and mr. chairman, the question was asked by officer dunn, is this america, i think the gentlemen embodied the spirit of america and we must do justice to the sacrifice and the work of their committee. i yield back. >> no question about it. the chair recognizes the gentle lady from virginia, ms. luria. >> thank you, mr. chair. i want to say to the four officers that i am grateful for your service, for you sharing your stories and your

willingness to speak to the members of this committee and to the american people about the horrific things that you experienced on january 6th, truly experienced in defense of our democracy. sergeant gonell, and you mentioned many times that you took the oath to become a naturalized citizen, to join the army, to serve as an officer of the capitol police force, and officer hodges, you mentioned as well as a national guardsman, and as a police officer and myself, something i can't share with you the horrific experiences that you had that day, but all of us having taken that oath and i took it when i was 17 and joined the navy and over two decades, sergeant gonell, when you mentioned and compared this earlier to the experiences that you had in iraq

that in a war zone you didn't feel like you felt that day, can you share with us in dedale what was going through your head, your thoughts about what you had experienced defending our nation on foreign soil and then being here in the heart of our nation, in the capitol and being assaulted the way that you were? it is very disappointing when you see -- when i was in the lower west terrace, and i saw many officers fighting for their lives against people, rioters, our own citizens coming against us. people who had the thin blue line on their chest or a -- another rioter with a marine hat this says veteran or any other type of military paraphernalia

and what not, and then, they're accusing us of betraying the oath when they're the ones betraying the oath. when i was in iraq the sense of camaraderie, it didn't matter whether you were white, black, spanish, middle eastern, we all knew what we were fighting for, and my experience there was there were times that yes, i was scared of going on convoys or doing my supply mission to local iraqi population because at any points we were possibly ambushed or getting shot at. we knew the risk, but here it was simultaneously over and over and over, our own citizens while they were attacking us because

we were protecting the very institution they were trying to save. >> thank you for sharing that. it's very difficult as we watch those images from the capitol, but i did want to share one more video, but this time i would ask people, you could even close your eyes and listen without watching, just listen to what is being said as they are being overrun. >> traitors, how do you live with yourselves? die traitors! >> you should be mad, too! >> you're on the wrong side of freedom! you're on the wrong side! [ expletive ] the blue! [ expletive ] you guys!

you can't even call yourselves american! you broke your [ expletive ] oath today! 1776! >> traitor! traitor! traitor! >> so officer fanone, i wanted to turn to you, and when you hear the rioters chanting things in this video, things like "f" the blue. you can't even call yourself an american, you're on the wrong side of freedom, can you share how that makes you feel? >> again, when i -- my response that day and at no point that

day did i ever think about the politics of that crowd and even the things that were being said did not resonate in the midst of that chaos, but what did resonate was the fact that thousands of americans were attacking police officers who were simply there doing their job and that they were there to disrupt members of congress who were doing their job. in retrospect now, thinking about those events and the things that were said, it's disgraceful that members of our government i believe were responsible for inciting that behavior and then continue to

propagate those statements. things like this was 1776 or that police officers who fought risked their lives and some even gave theirs were red coats and traitors. to me, those are a representative of the worst america has to offer. >> thank you. in thinking about the event of

january 6th and in thinking of the events what led to that day i think of a quote from hemingway that asks how do things like this happen? how do things like this happen? and that quote is very short. it says gradually and then suddenly, and i think that our founders understood that our republic was very fragile and it would be tested and it was tested here on january 6th. in 20 years i don't want to look back on this moment and think that we saw these signs coming gradually, that these were signs that i ignored and signs that were isolated incidents or signs that never thought could ever happen and i don't want to say to my daughter or sargence

gonell to your son or any of us to say that this happened gradually and then suddenly. and that some were just too worried about winning the next election to do something about it or too cowardly to seek the truth. that's the task before this committee. i am sure that we'll be attacked by cowards, by those in the arena, those only in the stands and that we'll be attacked by people more concerned by their own power than about the good of this country, but my oath, your oath, all of our oaths here today to protect and defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, will be our guiding light for this investigation, and as officer dunn said earlier, you said we can never again allow our democracy to be put in

peril. i will say that we will persevere, we will do what is right and our nation is truly ever grateful to you who held that line. your actions on january 6th could very well have been what saved our democracy and we thank you. mr. chair, i yield back. >> thank you. the gentleman from maryland asked a question in terms of what you would expect this committee to do in our body of work. sergeant gonell responded, but we didn't give the other three members an opportunity to kind of tell us based on the last 202

days of your life, what would you task this committee in its body of work, what would you like to see us do? officers fanone, i'll start with you. >> yes, sir. i understand that fanone. >> i understand there have been fegsz into -- investigations into the events of january 6th. they addressed some of the micro level concerns, that being the immediate security of the capitol building itself, also the forced mobilization of officers that day, planning and preparation and training and equipment concerns. a lot of events of january 6th and the days preceding, i guess

it is interesting from a law enforcement viewpoint. we had violent political rhetoric. we had the organization of a rally whose title was stop the steal, and that that rally occurred on january 6th which i don't believe was a coincidence that on january 6th members of congress and you here in the room today were charged with tallying the electoral votes and certifying the election of our president. and in the academy, we learn about time, place, circumstance in investigating potential crimes and those who may have committed them. so the time, the place and circumstances of that rally,

that rhetoric, and those events to me leads in the direction of our president and other members not only of congress and the senate but that is what i am looking for is an investigation into those actions and activities which may have resulted in the events of january 6th and also whether or not there was collaboration between those members, their staff, and these terrorists. >> thank you very much. officer hodges? >> i think fanone hit the nail on the head there. as patrol officers, we can only, you know, deal with crimes that happen on the streets,

misdemeanors and occasionally violent felonies, but you guys are the only ones we've got to deal with crimes that occur above us. i need you guys to address if anyone in power had a role in this, if anyone in power coordinated or aided or abetted or tried to down play, tried to prevent the investigation of this terrorist attack because we can't do it, we're not allowed to. i think the majority of americans are looking forward to that as well. >> thank you. officer dunn? >> thank you, chairman.

there's a sentiment going around that says everybody is trying to make january 6th political. well, it is not a secret it was political. they literally were there to stop the steal, so when people say it shouldn't be political. it is, it was, and it is. there's no getting around that. telling the truth shouldn't be hard. fighting on january 6th, that was hard. showing up january 7th, that was hard. the 8th, the 9th, the 10th, all the way 'til today, it was hard. when the fence came down, that was hard. we lost our layer of protection that we had. and the fenlt came down, still nothing has changed. everything is different, but nothing has changed.

liz cheney and adam kinzinger are being lauded as courageous heroes. 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 6th all over again. we wouldn't stay home because we knew it was going to happen. that's courageous. that's heroic. so what i ask from you all is to get to the bottom of what happened and that includes like i echo 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. not only does the hitman go to

jail but the person that hired them does. there was an attack carried out on january 6th and a hitman sent them. i want you to get to the bottom of that. thank you. >> well, thank you. very powerful comments, by the way. chairman thompson. >> yes. >> if i may, i also would like to also for you guys to give us the tools or at least the things we need to succeed, continue to protecting you guys. i think that's essential for you guys to provide us what we need, financially, i don't know, i am not part of the innuendo about how the process works, but perhaps fortifying the capitol,

that will help. i know we were literally desperate. if we had that, that would have made a big difference on january 6th. i know people want to keep this place open to the public as much as possible. but there are things we could do to remediate that, and also to reinforce entrances. it is hard but it takes will. i know the time had passed. we still had security measures from 20 years ago. they have to go. we need to re-invent the wheel and change that. only you guys have the power to authorize that. they won't do it unless you guys, saying the only thing is we are still operating, certain

things we could adjust, things we were doing back when 9/11 happened, we're still doing it today, even six months after the attack on the capitol. but only you perhaps with the chief of police, new chief of police with scenes resetd, perhaps that will change. we too, like officer don said, we still doing things that prior to january 6th we were doing and still doing today. that should change. thank you. >> well, again, thank you all for the testimony. the opinion helps preserve the democracy. time you gave reinforcements to finally get to the capitol made

the difference. so for that, we thank you. but you carried out your duties at tremendous risk. now we on this committee have a duty, however far less dangerous one but essential one to get to the bottom of what happened that day. we cannot allow what happened on january 6th to ever happen again. we owe it to the american people. we owe it to you and your colleagues. and we will not fail, i assure you, of that responsibility. thank you again to our witnesses as well as our distinguished colleagues of the committee. any closing remarks? without objections, members will be permitted ten business days to submit statements for the record, including opening remarks and additional questions

for witnesses, to appropriate staff, at all meetings of the select committee. without objection, the committee stands adjourned. there you go. welcome to "mtp daily." the emotional, disturbing first hearing by the house select committee. four officers gave firsthand accounts what it was really like to battle an insurrection as we all saw. before i play you testimony, we're about to show some graphic, disturbing images and some offensive language. apologies for that. >> more afraid to