The first hearing of the House select committee that was investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection took place on Tuesday. Four officers from the police were attacked that day and acted as opening witnesses. Their testimony was so compelling that even Republican critics had to admit that it was powerful and heart-wrenching.The committee was able to hear extraordinary details about the Capitol Police and D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officers who were at the frontlines of that assault. They also saw first-person footage of the almost-murderous violence they endured. In his remarkable opening statement, Metro Police Officer Michael Fanone stated that he was overpowered by Jan. 6 rioters. He was also repeatedly electrocuted using Tasers. After hearing the chants of "kill him with your own gun!" he believed he would be killed.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFanone: "I considered using my firearm... But I knew that if I did, they would quickly overwhelm me and have the justification to kill me. Instead, I appealed to their humanity. I said as loud as I could, 'I've got kids'" pic.twitter.com/8xpq6cfOWB Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 27, 2021A Capitol Police Sergeant was also presented to the committee. Aquilino Gnell testified about his near-death experience.AdvertisementCapitol Police Sergeant. Aquilino Gonell weeps as he testifies about being attacked on January 6 by rioters and suffering injuries that he still has today"I could feel myself losing oxygen and recall thinking to myself, 'This is how I'm going to die, defending this entrance'" pic.twitter.com/INLg6sgj8p CBS News (@CBSNews) July 27, 2021It was heard that Daniel Hodges from Metro Police described being crushed by terrorists as he tried to gain entry to the Capitol on January 6.AdvertisementOfficer Hodges explains why Capitol rioters are "terrorists" by reading the U.S. Code definition.His response to Republicans comparing them to tourists: "If that's what American tourists are like, I can see why foreign countries don't like American tourists" pic.twitter.com/uBkQTK7c3k CBS News (@CBSNews) July 27, 2021It heard Harry Dunn, Capitol Police Officer, testifying about the racial abuse he received during the attack. This was the first time that anyone has used the N-word towards him while he was wearing uniform.AdvertisementHarry Dunn, Capitol Police Officer, testifies that rioters used N-words against him and other Black officers in the attack on January 6.He says "no one had ever, ever" called him that "while wearing the uniform of a Capitol Police officer" (WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE) pic.twitter.com/Kk7CFT7eUH CBS News (@CBSNews) July 27, 2021AdvertisementThe testimony was punctuated with sober, sometimes incisive questions from committee members, including Republican Reps. Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and Adam Jordan, who are the only GOP members. After Jim Jordan and Jim Banks were rejected by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader, declined to place others because of their past statements that underminingly reflected the severity of the attack. One couldn't help but wonder what the other members of the committee who were rejected might have said to counter the brutal testimony by the officers during the hearing. Despite not being present, everyone was able to concentrate on the horrendous stories Dunn, Hodges and Gonell were telling. Every five minutes, there was no deranged counternarrative.AdvertisementAfter covering Democratic oversight efforts for 3 years since Democrats regained control of the House majority in 2019, I can confidently say that this hearing into Trump's misconduct was the first and only one I have ever witnessed. It was also the only hearing that remained objectively real throughout the entire process. While the House Intelligence Committee hearings on Donald Trump's first impeachment were powerful and illuminating, they were constantly hampered by partisan nonsense.Subscribe to the Slatest Newsletter Get a daily email update with the latest stories. Signing you up was not possible due to an error Please try again. To use this form, please enable jаvascript. Email address: I would like to receive updates on Slate special offers. You agree to our Privacy Policy & Terms by signing up. Thank you for signing up! You can cancel your subscription at any time.Instead of the usual circus, Tuesday's hearing consisted of four hours of fact-finding and emotional constructive first-person witnessing the horrors of January 6. This was possible because Jordan, and to a lesser degree Banks, were kept out of the panel. Jordan was previously an outstanding oversight arsonist on both the House Judiciary Committee (House Oversight Committee) and the House Intelligence Committee in impeachment. Jordan's participation in a press conference on Tuesday with the Republican House leadership at the Capitol steps would have prevented any fact-finding efforts into Jan. 6.AdvertisementJordan stated that he didn't care about who incited the violence and who had organized it. He also did not want to know if the former president was responsible for failing to issue a timely National Guard response. Jordan said that Jan. 6 was not about whether Democratic leadership was able to adequately prepare for that unprecedented attack on Capitol. This was because of what happened last summer, when Democrats normalized violence and raised bail money for rioters and looters. He also stated that he wouldn't have made the false equivalence of violence from last summer's Black Lives Matter protests and attempted overthrow of U.S. government. At previous oversight hearings, Jordan has repeated this exact line. This is just one example of many.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementJordan invited Andy Ngo, a conservative journalist, to testify at the House Judiciary Committee's February 24 hearing on the Rise of Domestic Terrorism. He spent the entire time blaming Democrats for not condemning the violence in Portland and other large cities.Jordan suggested that the March 11 hearing concerning House member conduct was not about Jan. 6 House member actions, but rather about cancel culture or the border crisis. He said that it was time for the Judiciary Committee to do its job and concentrate on issues that matter to Americans like the border crisis or the cancel culture attack against the First Amendment.AdvertisementJordan was most vocal when he complained about the June 15 House Oversight Committee hearing in which he was to interview FBI Director Christopher Wray regarding the Jan 6 attack and demanded that a hearing on border crisis be held instead. Jordan was disgusted by the panel's revelations about Trump White House aides trying to press the Department of Justice into reversing the election. This could be another topic of inquiry for Jan. 6 commission. Wow. He said that the taxpayers would love the work he was going to do, in typicalally dramatic fashion.Tuesday's hearing was a marked departure from previous attempts to examine Jan. 6. Instead of being interrupted and misdirected, victims of Jan. 6 attacked were able talk about their desperate need to see accountability for perpetrators and those who, to paraphrase Gonell, encouraged them. Fanone was furious at members of the government who continue to deny what happened that day and, in so doing, betrayed their oaths of office.AdvertisementFanone stomps on the table and says, "The indifference shown my colleagues is disgraceful!""Nothing has prepared me to address those elected members of our government who continue to deny the events of that day and in doing so betray their oath of office," he adds pic.twitter.com/LrJOxT0ueh Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 27, 2021Dunn came up with a powerful metaphor, which demonstrated the need to hold those responsible for Jan. 6 not only for the perpetrators, but also for those who pointed them at the Capitol.AdvertisementAdvertisement"If a hitman has been hired and kills someone, he goes to jail." Officer Dunn explains that not only does the hitman go into jail but so does the person who hired him.""There was an attack on Jan. 6th, and a hitman sent them." pic.twitter.com/LHE8N7w4Gl MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 27, 2021After Jordan's rejection, McCarthy did not have to give up his seats on this commission. McCarthy did it to paint the select committee as a political endeavor, even though Republicans rejected a nonpartisan panel and there are two Republicans on the panel. The result is that House Democrats now have their first chance to conduct a fact-finding operation to discover the truth about one the most serious high crimes committed by Donald Trump.AdvertisementIt was reported that the committee seemed ready to make the most of the opportunity after the hearing. Chairman Bennie Thompson said he wouldn't request testimony from potential combative witnesses but would instead subpoena them. The Department of Justice made it easy for Congress on Tuesday. If Democrats do indeed issue subpoenas to the figures at the heart of the White House storm, as Republican Liz Cheney requested, it will mark the first time Democrats have been able to obtain new testimony from Trump's abuses from the recalcitrant members his own government. This gift is Kevin McCarthy's.
