At this Tuesday’s hearing of the House committee investigating the deadly riot at the Capitol, Sgt. Aquilino Gonell of the U.S. Capitol Police — one of the witnesses, and one of the scores of officers who participated in the defense of the Capitol on January 6 — laid out the case against the attempts by some Republicans to whitewash what happened on that day. Certain Republican leaders have tried to gloss over or outright ignore the reality of what took place, but Gonell explained just how out of line that these attempts at whitewashing really are. As Gonell put it, what took place was “an attack on our democracy by violent domestic extremists.”
Gonell commented as follows:
‘It is imperative that the events of January 6 are fully investigated in the Congress, and [that] the American people know the truth of what actively occurred, and that all those responsible are held accountable, particularly to ensure the horrific and shameful event in our history never repeats itself… Even though there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary, including hours and hours of videos, and photographic coverage, there’s a continued shocking attempt to ignore or try to destroy the truth of what truly happened that day, and to whitewash the facts into something other than what they unmistakably reveal: an attack on our democracy by violent domestic extremists, and a stain on our history and our moral standing, here at home and abroad.’
Watch some of Gonell’s comments below:
Sgt. Gonell gets emotional recalling how when he returned home early on the morning on Jan 7, he had to push his wife away because of all the chemicals he had on his clothes pic.twitter.com/91LBpd1LVi
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 27, 2021
Alongside Gonell, D.C. police officer Michael Fanone also spoke at Tuesday’s hearing. During the riot, Fanone was among those who were violently assaulted by rioters. He was dragged down a set of stairs at the Capitol, beaten, and repeatedly tased on his head, suffering a heart attack amid the devastating violence. Fanone, with fitting passion, insisted that the “indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful,” going after the Republicans who have deceptively downplayed what took place.
As he put it:
‘What I witnessed and experienced on January 6, 2021, was unlike anything I had ever seen, anything I had ever experienced or could have imagined in my country. On that day, I participated in the defense of the United States Capitol from an armed mob — an armed mob — of thousands determined to get inside.’
Fanone added as follows:
‘What makes the struggle harder and more painful is to know so many of my fellow citizens, including so many of the people I put my life at risk to defend, are downplaying or outright denying what happened… The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful!.. Nothing, truly noting 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.’
Check out some of Fanone’s remarks below:
Fanone pounds the table as he says, "the indifference shown to 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, 2021
Former President Trump himself has characterized what took place at the Capitol on that fateful day as a “lovefest,” while other Republicans have similarly tried to downplay what happened. The reality, however, is that an openly murderous mob of supporters of the then-president of the United States violently assaulted the U.S. Capitol in hopes of stopping the peaceful transfer of power. The assault constituted an attack against the democratic process as it stands in the United States. In the process, numerous officers were violently assaulted by the Trump supporters who’d gathered there that day. Gonell, who is also a veteran, said during Tuesday’s hearing (according to his prepared remarks) that “on January 6, for the first time, I was more afraid working at the Capitol than during my entire Army deployment to Iraq.”
The full hearing can be found at the link below:
