U.S. Capitol police detail violence at Jan. 6 riot hearing

WASHINGTON, DC — Democrats launched their investigation into the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection Tuesday with a focus on the law enforcement officers who were attacked and beaten as the rioters broke into the building. It's an effort to put a human face on the violence of the day.

The police officers who testified endured some of the worst of the brutality. They were punched, trampled, crushed and sprayed with chemical irritants. They were called racial slurs and threatened with their own weapons as the mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters overwhelmed them, broke through windows and doors and interrupted the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential win.

Testifying were U.S. Capitol Police officers Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell and Metropolitan D.C. Police officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges.

Dunn said that attackers yelled racial slurs and fought him in what resembled hand to hand combat as he held them back. Gonell, an Iraq veteran, detailed surgery on his foot and injuries from which he struggled to recover. Fanone described being dragged down the Capitol steps by rioters who shocked him with a stun gun and beat him. Hodges was beaten and crushed between two doors, and his bloody face and anguished screams were caught on video.

The panel’s first hearing came as partisan tensions have only worsened since the insurrection. Many Republicans have played down or outright denied the violence that occurred and denounced the Democratic-led investigation as politically motivated.

Democrats now launched the probe — and hope to win public support for it — by reminding people how brutal it was, and how the law enforcement officers who were sworn to protect the Capitol suffered grave injuries at the hands of the rioters.

“We’re going to tell this story from the beginning,” said Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who sits on the new House panel that is investigating the attack. “The moral center of gravity is these officers who put their lives on the line for us.”

Here are some key takeaways:

All witnesses feared for their lives during attack

The four officers testifying -- Capitol Police officers Aquilino Gonell and Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Department officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges -- flatly rejected any attempts to rewrite history and downplay the attack as one that shouldn't be investigated further, telling lawmakers they all feared for their lives on Jan. 6.

When Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., asked Gonell to respond to former President Donald Trump's calling the crowd "loving." Gonell placed responsibility on him for sending his supporters to the Capitol.

"It's a pathetic excuse for his behavior for something that he himself helped to create -- this monstrosity," Gonell said. "I'm still recovering from those 'hugs and kisses' that day."

Hodges, who referred to the rioters as "terrorists," detailed the weapons used against officers that day including police shields, batons, hammers, a sledgehammer, flag poles, tasers, pepper spray, bear and wasp spray, copper pipes, rocks, table legs broken down, guardrails, cones and "any items they can get their hands on."

"There were over 9,000 of the terrorists out there with an unknown number of firearms and a couple hundred of us, maybe. So we could not -- if that turned into a firefight, we would have lost," he said. "And this was a fight we couldn't afford to lose."

Hodges, who was crushed in a doorway that day, recalled how he had to wrestle with one rioter who tried to take his baton and how another shouted at him, "'You will die on your knees.'"

Gonell also described the day as a scene "from a medieval battlefield."

"I could feel myself losing oxygen and recall thinking to myself, 'this is how I'm going to die, trampled defending this entrance,'" he said.

But the officers said they didn't think twice about defending the Capitol and democracy, as traumatic as the experience was for them, their colleagues and families.

"Us four officers, we would do Jan. 6 all over again," Dunn said. "We wouldn't stay home because we knew what was going to happen. We would show up. That's courageous. That's heroic. So what I ask from you all, is to get to the bottom of what happened."

The lawmakers choked up at times during the officers' testimony including Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who told them, "You guys may like individually feel a little broken ... but you guys won."

"Democracies are not defined by our bad days. We're defined by how we come back from bad days," he said.

Racial slurs heard at riot haunt hearing room: 'I guess it is America'

Racial slurs haunted the hearing room as officers recounted chants made by the mob, moving some officers to tears and prompting some lawmakers to hang their heads.

Dunn recounted the racist verbal abuse he endured from rioters in emotional testimony and said it was the first time he had been called the n-word in uniform.

"I'm a law enforcement officer and I do my best to keep politics out of my job, but in this circumstance I responded, 'Well, I voted for Joe Biden, does my vote not count? Am I nobody?'" he said he told rioters who falsely shouted at him the election was stolen.

"That prompted a torrent of racial epithets," Dunn said. "One woman in a pink MAGA shirt yelled "You hear that guys, this n***** voted for Joe Biden."

Dunn, who also witnessed a Confederate flag carried through the Capitol, said that other Black officers shared similar stories of racial abuse from the day.

"I sat down on the bench in the Rotunda with a friend of mine, who is also a Black Capitol Police officer and told him about the racial slurs I endured. I became very emotional and began yelling, 'How the blank could something like this happen? Is this America?'" he said. "I began sobbing."

When Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., posed the same question to Dunn later, the officer said, "I guess it is America. It shouldn't be."

Committee looking to subpoena Trump, lawmakers

Cheney, in her opening statement, made clear the committee is open to subpoenaing the former president, White House aides and members of Congress as they create a timeline of the day.

"We must also know what happened every minute of that day in the White House. Every phone call, every conversation, every meeting, leading up to, during, and after the attack. Honorable men and women have an obligation to step forward," she said.

Adding to that pressure, all four witnesses told lawmakers they wanted an investigation into those in power who may have aided and abetted rioters.

Dunn used an analogy with a hitman to describe his expectations, in an apparent nod to the former president, after the witnesses spent three and a half hours recounting chants of "Trump sent us," among others.

"If a hitman is hired and he kills somebody, the hitman goes to jail, but not only does the hitman go to jail but the person who hired them does. There was an attack carried out on Jan. 6 and a hitman sent them," he said. "I want you to get to the bottom of that."

Thompson said at a press conference after the hearing that the committee could be brought back for another hearing during the House's August recess, which starts Friday. The panel said its work is just beginning.

The Department of Justice said in letters to former Trump officials, and provided to congressional committees, that they can participate in the investigations into the Jan. 6 attack, according to sources and letters reviewed by ABC News earlier Tuesday.

Cheney and Kinzinger poke holes in GOP arguments against committee

The two Republicans on the panel spent their questioning time pushing back on some of the most prominent Republican talking points after Jan. 6 -- including that the rioters were not violent and that whatever took place at the Capitol paled in comparison to violence perpetrated by antifa during racial justice protests.

"I condemn those riots and the destruction of property that resulted -- but not once did I ever feel that the future of self-governance was threatened like I did on Jan. 6," Kinzinger said. "There was a difference between breaking the law and rejecting the rule of law, between a crime, even grave crimes and a coup."

Kinzinger also defended his choice to serve on the committee, saying it's "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."

Cheney reminded in her opening statement that she and other lawmakers preferred to establish an independent commission to investigate the attack, but that effort was "defeated by Republicans in the Senate."

"That leaves us where we are today. We cannot leave the violence of Jan. 6 and its causes uninvestigated," she said. "If those responsible are not held accountable, and if Congress does not act responsibly, this will remain a cancer on our constitutional republic."

The former No. 3 House Republican also reminded that her GOP colleagues had "recognized the events that day for what they actually were" in the days after the attack, even if members downplay it now.

Ahead of Tuesday's hearing, Republicans who boycotted the select panel said the hearing should focus on the fact that Capitol Police were unprepared for Jan. 6. But because they gave up their ability to participate in the hearing, they couldn't lead the discussion in their preferred direction -- or challenge Democrats' lines of inquiry the way Cheney and Kinzinger picked apart some of their claims.

Officers, while praised for heroism, blast lawmakers for partisan politics

While the officers were praised throughout the hearing for holding the line on Jan. 6, with lawmakers on the panel thanking them for their protection, the officers didn't hold back when describing their disapproval in how partisan politics has muddied the search for the truth.

Fanone, the Metropolitan Police Department officer who was dragged down the Capitol steps, beaten with a flagpole, tased repeatedly and taunted with chants of "kill him with his own gun," called out lawmakers on Tuesday who have blocked efforts for an investigation.

"The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful," he said, slamming his fist on the witness table. "I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them and the people in this room, but too many are now telling me that hell doesn't exist or that hell actually wasn't that bad."

"Nothing -- truly 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 added.

Gonell said of the former president downplaying the day, "It's insulting, it's demoralizing because everything that we did was to prevent everyone in the Capitol from getting hurt."

Dunn said that the investigation is innately political because of the landscape surrounding the attack, but that it shouldn't stop lawmakers from seeking the truth.

"It's not a secret that it was political. They literally were there to stop the steal. So when people say it shouldn't be political, it is. It was and it is. There's no getting around that," he said.

"Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are being lauded as courageous heroes and while I agree with that notion, why? Because they told the truth? Why is telling the truth hard?" he asked. "I guess in this America, it is."