Washington — Aquilino Gonell, a sergeant at the US Capitol Police Department, testified Tuesday that he was more constitutionally obliged than the interests of his wife and son when he fought. January 6 Riot at US Capitol..
“This is the way I die,” he recalled thinking, “I’m guarding this entrance,” when his body was crushed by a fierce scrum.
Of course, Gonell and other law enforcement officers defended the sacredness of the Republic’s iconic Parliament, the Constitution, and ballots that day. But they also kept the physical security of Congressman, a direct participant in Republican rule, and then Vice President Mike Pence.
It was heartbreaking for Gonnel and many of his colleagues in the Capitol and DC Metro Police to see Congressional Republican leaders pretending they were not under threat.
“Whatever the party, it was devastating and depressing for people to call this attack and keep it to a minimum as if nothing had happened. It was a coup attempt at the Capitol that day. “Gonell said in an emotional testimony given under the question, Congressman Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. Also held back tears.
“We were fighting for our lives — to give you the opportunity to go home and escape to your family. And the same people we helped now, we are them. The same people who borrowed time to go safely to — now they “are attacking our character,” he continued. “That’s a shame.”
To review, Republicans continue to attack the police officers who saved their lives so that they could protect the former president who endangered them.
Those Republicans I wasn’t in the room. House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, Republican leader, and his fellow Republican leaders have decided not to appoint members to a special committee investigating riots. They do not defend or blame the parliamentary riots in the historical records of parliamentary records.
They chose official silence — refusing to defend the defense while signaling implicit and obedient support for former President Donald Trump and the rioters who attacked the Capitol in his name.
Former Republican lawmaker David Jolly, who left the Republican Party in 2018, said Republican leaders are trying to divert public attention from hearings.
“The committee was set up to find out the truth about January 6,” Jolly said. “Republican opposition to the activity is clearly an effort to prevent the truth from reaching voters.”
Nevertheless, Threaten to punish Liz Cheney, a Republican in Wyoming and Kinzinger, told Americans at the House Republican Conference that it was better to support riots than to support Trump.
Choosing not to send Republican allies to the Commission — McCarthy chose to abstain after refusing two of his choices because Chairman Nancy Pelosi lied about the riots — politics It may be a timid act. But that is certainly a political miscalculation.
Now, the faces of the Republican Party on the committee are the faces of Cheney and Kinzinger. It is clear that they are both Republicans who deal most aggressively with reality and that they are an extremely minority of the parties that are still deeply rooted in Trump.
Mr Kinzinger said he accepted Pelosi’s invitation to join the committee “not because he was a Republican, but because of that.” His meaning was clear: he aims to heal both his party and his country by broadcasting every detail of the riot.
Republicans may be able to question their loyalty to the party and Trump. But it will be difficult to attack loyalty to the country. Cheney, the daughter of the former Vice President, worked for the State Department and Parliament. When it comes to defense issues, it’s harder to find a line that’s harder than her. Kinzinger is a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard.
Both noted that they used part of their time at Tuesday’s hearing to oppose the Democratic Party for almost everything except the importance of knowing more about the planning and execution of the riots.
“We may have deep differences on other policy issues, but we are all Americans today,” Kinzinger said.
In particular, the group contained only one other Republican, Cheney.
Several House Republicans, including Matt Gaetz and Republicans, Person under FBI investigationSpent a part of Tuesday Outside the Justice Ministry Protest the treatment of the January 6 riots in prison.
After this week’s visit to the White House, GOP leaders have been so politically twisted that McCarthy called Cheney and Kinsinger “Pelosi Republicans.” Such phrases have long been used to praise those who show wise independence from the faction — think of it as the “Reagan Democratic Party.”
McCarthy, in his actions and words, prioritizes the holiness of the Republic over Trump and his promise to win power in the next election, more for Pelosi, or at least for Biden and former Republicans. It creates a political space.
It’s hard to understand how Republicans claim to support someone else, or something, unless they defend the Capitol, the Constitution, and even themselves. That was the real purpose of the hearing on Tuesday. For Democrats, testified police, and two Republicans who said serving the party and the country was not a mutually exclusive goal.
Faced with a similar choice, McCarthy decided to follow Trump rather than the truth.