Skip to main content

New top story from Time: The Start of the Jan. 6 Insurrection Inquiry Shows Its Stakes—And Its Shortcoming

https://ift.tt/3j0uAZ4

When police officers put their lives on the line to protect the U.S. Capitol from a violent mob on Jan. 6, most congressional Republicans scrambled to hide from the invaders.

When some of those same officers testified Tuesday in front of a House select committee charged with investigating the Capitol attack, most of those Republicans spent the day attempting to downplay the incident, discredit the probe or spin false narratives that Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was somehow responsible for the insurrection.

The committee’s first public hearing was a clear illustration of why the investigation is necessary—and why it may fail to achieve the unifying consensus it seeks.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

While Republicans deflected, four officers who defended the Capitol during the riot painted a gripping portrait of an all-out physical attack on the seat of American democracy, intended to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power that has defined the republic for more than two centuries. Metropolitan police officer Michael Fanone recounted pleading with a mob that threatened to kill him with his own weapon, yelling that “I have kids.” Metropolitan police officer Daniel Hodges said one of the “terrorists” had attempted to gouge out his eye. Capitol police officer Harry Dunn said the crowd had chanted the n-word at him, while his colleague Aquilino Gonell said the fighting was worse than anything he’d seen in Iraq.

US House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol hearing "The Law Enforcement Experience", Washington, District of Columbia, USA - 27 Jul 2021
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS—AFP/Getty ImagesU.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn speaks during the Select Committee investigation of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, in Washington, D.C. on July 27, 2021.

Throughout the testimony, both the officers and the members of the committee sought to describe their response to the riot as a patriotic duty outside the realm of partisan politics. “At no point that day did I ever think about the politics of that crowd,” said Fanone. “But what did resonate was the fact that thousands of Americans were attacking police officers who were simply there doing their job.”

But throughout the hearings, it was impossible to ignore that a number of Republicans were not in the hearing room doing theirs. After Pelosi nixed House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s selection of two Trump loyalists to the committee, McCarthy pulled the rest and decided to boycott the panel, which the GOP has sought to undermine nearly from the start. Just two Republicans are sitting on the committee, Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. Both were tapped by Pelosi.

Both Cheney and Kinzinger gave strong opening statements about the importance of the committee’s work. “Will we preserve the peaceful transition of power, or will be so blinded by partisanship that we throw away the miracle of America?” asked Cheney, a Wyoming conservative who has emerged as one of the few Republicans willing to acknowledge Trump’s lies about the election—and who lost her position in GOP House leadership as a result. “Do we hate our political adversaries more than we love and our country and revere our Constitution?”

Kinzinger echoed those themes. “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,” he said, growing emotional. “I’m here to investigate Jan. 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.”

The insurrection was an act of political violence that grew from the conspiracy theories and lies promoted by the Trump campaign about the election outcome. “It’s not a secret that it was political. They literally were there to ‘stop the steal,’” said Officer Dunn. “When people say it shouldn’t be political, it was, and it is. There’s no getting around that.”

“Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are being lauded as courageous heroes,” Dunn said. “Why, because they told the truth? Why is telling the truth hard? I guess in this America it is.”

Outside the room, the GOP was proving Dunn’s point. In a press conference organized by GOP House leadership, Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, who replaced Cheney in that role thanks to her embrace of Trump’s election fictions, promoted a bizarre claim “that Nancy Pelosi bears responsibility, as Speaker of the House, for the tragedy that occurred on January 6.” This is false: the Speaker does not control Capitol security, and it was Trump, not Pelosi, who exhorted the mob to march on the building.

Other Republicans spun different delusions. As the officers testified in Congress, GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Louie Gohmert and Paul Gosar held a competing press conference outside the Justice Department, demanding updates on so-called “political prisoners” arrested in the aftermath of the Capitol siege.

It’s all part of a broader Republican lie that the attack was more like a peaceful protest. One House Republican attempted to whitewash the violent insurrection as a “normal tourist visit,” while Trump himself told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that the violent insurrectionists were “zero threat,” and were “hugging and kissing the police and the guards, you know?”

Which was news to the officers who held the line to protect the lives of these members. “If that was ‘hugs and kisses,’ then we should all go to his house and do the same to him,” said Gonell. “Instead of sending the military, instead of sending the support or telling his supporters to stop this nonsense, he egged them on to continue fighting,” he said. “All of them were telling us, ‘Trump sent us.'”

But Gonell was speaking to a committee with just two Republicans, both of whom have been ostracized by their peers for acknowledging these facts. And without bipartisan buy-in, it’s hard to image that the committee’s hearings, no matter how powerful, will result in a sense of shared accountability and national catharsis.

“Telling the truth shouldn’t be hard,” Officer Dunn said. “Everything is different, but nothing has changed.”

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New top story from Time: House Passes President Biden’s $1.9 Trillion COVID-19 Relief Bill

https://ift.tt/2ZVMCSX WASHINGTON — The House approved a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill in a win for President Joe Biden, even as top Democrats tried assuring agitated progressives that they’d revive their derailed drive to boost the minimum wage. The new president’s vision for flushing cash to individuals, businesses, states and cities battered by COVID-19 passed on a near party-line 219-212 vote early Saturday. That ships the massive measure to the Senate, where Democrats seem bent on resuscitating their minimum wage push and fights could erupt over state aid and other issues. Democrats said the still-faltering economy and the half-million American lives lost demanded quick, decisive action. GOP lawmakers, they said, were out of step with a public that polling shows largely views the bill favorably. “I am a happy camper tonight,” Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said Friday. “This is what America needs. Republicans, you ought to be a part of this. But if you’re not,

New top story from Time: Latest Tests Bring Israel a Step Closer to Commercial Drones

https://ift.tt/3lyZxGe TEL AVIV, Israel — Dozens of drones floated through the skies of Tel Aviv on Monday, ferrying cartons of ice cream and sushi across the city in an experiment that officials hope provided a glimpse of the not-too-distant future. Israel’s National Drone Initiative, a government program, carried out the drill to prepare for a world in which large quantities of commercial deliveries will be made by drones to take pressure off highly congested urban roads. The two-year program aims to apply the capabilities of Israeli drone companies to establish a nationwide network where customers can order goods and have them delivered to pick up spots. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The project, now in the third of eight stages, is still in its infancy and faces many questions about security and logistics. “We had 700 test flights at the start of this year and now we are close to 9,000 flights,” said Daniella Partem, from Israel Innovation Authority, a partner in th

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J सिद्धार्थ रॉय कपूर फिल्म्स कि अगली सीरीज़ विलियम डेलरिम्पल कि बेस्टसेलर, 'द एनार्की: पर आधारित होगी

सिद्धार्थ रॉय कपूर के प्रोडक्शन 'रॉय कपूर फिल्म्स' ने हालही में अवार्ड विनिंग इतिहासकार और लेखक विलियम डेलरिम्पल की बेस्ट सेलिंग हिस्टोरिकल बुक ‘द अनार्की: द रिलेंटलेस राइज़ ऑफ़ द ईस्ट इंडिया कंपनी' के आधिकारिक राइट्स हासिल कर इसे सीरीज़ के from टेलीविजन की खबरें | Television News in Hindi | TV Serials Update in Hindi – FilmiBeat Hindi http:/hindi.filmibeat.com/television/siddharth-roy-kapoor-next-web-series-will-be-based-on-anarchy-090499.html?utm_source=/rss/filmibeat-hindi-television-fb.xml&utm_medium=23.11.231.156&utm_campaign=client-rss

New top story from Time: Japan’s Prime Minister Abe Reportedly Stepping Down Over Health Concerns

https://ift.tt/32yNoGh (TOKYO) — Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has expressed his intention to step down due to his declining health, according to reports Friday by NHK and other Japanese media. The Prime Minister’s Office said the report could not be immediately confirmed, but that Abe was believed to be meeting top ruling officials at the party headquarters. The Liberal Democratic Party spokesman did not answer the phone. Concerns about Abe’s chronic health issues, simmering since earlier this summer, intensified this month when he visited a Tokyo hospital two weeks in a row for unspecified health checkups. Abe, whose term ends in September 2021, is expected to stay on until a new party leader is elected and formally approved by the parliament. He had abruptly resigned from his first stint in office in 2007 due to his health, which was fueling concerns about his recent condition. Abe on Monday became Japan’s longest serving prime minister by consecutive days in of

New top story from Time: Justice Department Charges 8 in Chinese Harassment Plot in U.S.

https://ift.tt/37P9856 (WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department has charged eight people with working on behalf of the Chinese government in a pressure campaign aimed at coercing a New Jersey man who was wanted by Beijing into returning to China to face charges, officials said Wednesday. The prosecution, which Justice Department officials said was the first of its kind, accuses the defendants of participating in a Chinese government operation known as “Fox Hunt” that was ostensibly created to help Beijing locate fugitives abroad but that U.S. officials say in practice relied on intimidation and bullying to go after dissidents and political opponents. Five of the eight, including an American private investigator who was hired as part of the effort, were arrested Wednesday. The other three are believed to be in China. All eight were charged with conspiring to act as illegal agents for China in a case filed in federal court in Brooklyn. “Without coordination with our governmen

New top story from Time: The Reopening of Springsteen on Broadway Brought Broadway Out of Hibernation—and One Packed Theater Into a Brighter Future

https://ift.tt/3A6wS0a The city that never sleeps is still a little sleepy, unsure of how to move its joints and muscles as it awakens from its forced hibernation . Although Times Square is now almost as brightly lit as ever, it’s remarkably hard to find a bar that will serve a drink after 11 p.m. On a late-June Saturday night, Eighth Ave. around 42nd Street was vibrating with young people: guys imported from the outer boroughs and beyond in their baggy, rumpled shorts, young women in elastic spangled mini-dresses making their first outing after a year lying in a drawer, men in mardi gras beads and the tiniest of tank tops ready to make the most of the final days of Pride month . Yet it was hard to know exactly what all these people were doing there, other than taking their place in a kind of Brownian-movement minuet under the cheerfully garish lights. Because Times Square cannot be itself while Broadway—meaning not the actual street but the constellation of live shows around

More 20 MPH Streets Coming Soon Near You

More 20 MPH Streets Coming Soon Near You By Christine Osorio Last October when California Assembly Bill 43 (Friedman) was signed into law, we posted a blog about which gave cities new flexibility in setting speed limits—specifically reducing them. “Speed Management,” a reference that is still in development, focused on reducing speed limits in key business activity districts where at least 50% are dining or retail. Since the bill went into effect last month, we’ve already started lowering speed limits by 5 MPH (from 25 MPH to 20 MPH) in the first phase of approved corridors, four of which have been implemented:  San Bruno Avenue, from Silver to Paul avenues (Completed January 2022)  Polk Street, from Filbert to Sutter streets (Completed January 2022)  Haight Street, from Stanyan Street to Central Avenue and from Webster to Steiner streets (Completed February 2022)  24th Street, from Diamond to Chattanooga streets and from Valencia Street to San Bruno Avenue (Completed

New top story from Time: Department of Homeland Security Warns of Politically Motivated Violence

https://ift.tt/2NINiIA WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security issued a national terrorism bulletin Wednesday warning of the lingering potential for violence from people motivated by antigovernment sentiment after President Joe Biden’s election, suggesting the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol may embolden extremists and set the stage for additional attacks. The department did not cite any specific plots, but pointed to “a heightened threat environment across the United States” that it believes “will persist” for weeks after Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration. It is not uncommon for the federal government to warn local law enforcement through bulletins about the prospect for violence tied to a particular event or date, such as July 4. But this particular bulletin, issued through the department’s National Terrorism Advisory System, is notable because it effectively places the Biden administration into the politically charged debate over how to describe or characterize acts

In-Person Pride Parade & Celebrations Return This Month!

In-Person Pride Parade & Celebrations Return This Month! By Pamela Johnson The SFMTA is happy to join San Francisco Pride celebrations when they return to in-person events this month as the city continues its recovery from the pandemic. This year’s theme is “Love will Keep Us Together.” The Trans March is happening on Friday, June 24 and the Pride Parade is on Sunday, June 26. SFMTA staff are, of course, an important part of the LGBTQIA+ community that keeps SF moving with Pride. Pride is an opportunity for us to demonstrate our continued support of the LGBTQIA+ community, promoting our core values of respect, inclusivity and integrity.  History/Background of SF Pride   San Francisco had its first Pride celebration in 1970. For more than three decades the LGBTQIA+ community and their allies have been moving San Francisco forward to become a better, safer, and more equitable world for the LGBTQIA+ community and the city a better place for people to live, work and enjoy.    His

New top story from Time: ‘Do Not Hold Grudges.’ Joe Biden’s Notes Reveal Talking Points About Kamala Harris

https://ift.tt/2X4natB (WILMINGTON, Del.) — Joe Biden was uncharacteristically tight-lipped on Tuesday about the final stretch of his search for a vice president. But the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee seemed prepared to talk about at least one leading contender: California Sen. Kamala Harris. As he took questions from reporters on Tuesday, Biden held notes that were captured by an Associated Press photographer. Harris’ name was scrawled across the top, followed by five talking points. “Do not hold grudges.” “Campaigned with me & Jill.” “Talented.” “Great help to campaign.” “Great respect for her.” Those are all observations Biden has made about Harris before. But they take on new significance following a recent Politico report that one of Biden’s closest friends and a co-chair of his vice presidential vetting committee, former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, still harbors concerns about Harris’ tough debate stage performance and that she hasn’t expressed reg