January 6 Committee Holds First Primetime Hearing. A Capitol Police Officer Describes The ‘Carnage’

The January 6 Committee claimed primetime TV viewing Thursday evening for the first hearing to present its findings to the American people into the insurrection at the Capitol in 2020.

Former Attorney General William Barr and Ivanka Trump were two of the most powerful witnesses, explaining how they told President Donald Trump there was not a stolen election in November 2020.

Barr, who Trump wanted to investigate the results of the November 2020 election, testified that he “did not agree” that the election had been stolen. In his videotaped testimony, Barr said he told the President it was “bulls***” and he didn’t want “to be a part of it.” Barr said it was part of the reason he resigned his post.

Trump’s daughter said Barr’s testimony “affected my perspective. I respected Attorney Barr, so I accepted what was said.”

The Committee charged with investigating the insurrection also used a videotape containing comments from rioters who said they traveled to Washington, D.C. because “President Trump told me to.”

A documentarian embedded with the Proud Boys told the committee he was surprised by the “aggressive chanting” from the anti-government group. The Justice Department has investigated the group. Its leader, Enrique Tarrio, and four other leaders have been changed with seditious conspiracy in connection with the January 6 attack.

Capitol police officer Caroline Edwards testified that her worst memory of the fight she and fellow officers waged on the steps of the Capitol seemed like a scene from a movie.

Edwards recalled “I can just remember my breath catching in my throat,” she said. “What I saw was a war scene … it was something like out of the movies. Officers were on the ground, they were bleeding, they were throwing up. I was slipping people’s blood. I was catching people as they fell. It was carnage, it was chaos. I can’t even describe what I saw. Never in my wildest dreams that as a police officer did I think I would find myself in the middle of a battle. I’m trained to handle a couple of subjects … but I’m not combat trained.”

Committee Chairman Congressmen Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, stated, “It’s unfortunate you had to defend the Capitol from other Americans.”

He added, “If you and your fellow officers had not held the line … we could only imagine what would have occurred.”

Five officers died in the insurrection and the days that followed. Two Washington, D.C. police officers who also participated in protecting the Capitol died by suicide in the months after the insurrection.