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Security officials to answer for failures during US Capitol riot

Three of the four people scheduled to testify before two Senate committees have already resigned.

CONGRESS IS SET to hear from former US Capitol security officials for the first time about the massive law enforcement failures on 6 January, the day a violent mob laid siege to the building and interrupted the presidential electoral count.

Three of the four people scheduled to testify today before two Senate committees resigned under pressure immediately after the deadly attack, including the former head of the Capitol Police.

Much remains unknown about what happened before and during the assault, and lawmakers are expected to aggressively question the former officials about what went wrong.

The rioters easily smashed through security barriers on the outside of the Capitol, engaged in hand-to-hand combat with police officers, injuring dozens of them, and broke through multiple windows and doors, sending lawmakers fleeing from the House and Senate chambers and interrupting the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

Five people died as a result of the violence, including a Capitol Police officer and a woman who was shot by police as she tried to break through the doors of the House chamber with lawmakers still inside.

Former Senate sergeant-at-arms Michael Stenger and former House sergeant-at-arms Paul Irving will speak publicly for the first time since their resignations at the hearing, which is part of a joint investigation by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Rules Committee.

They will be joined by former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and Robert Contee, the acting chief of police for the Metropolitan Police Department, who sent additional officers to the scene after the rioting began.

The hearing is expected to be the first of many examinations of what happened on that day, coming almost seven weeks after the attack and more than one week after the Senate voted to acquit former President Donald Trump of inciting the insurrection by telling his supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn his election defeat.

Thousands of National Guard troops still surround the Capitol in a wide perimeter, cutting off streets and sidewalks that are normally full of cars, pedestrians and tourists.

u-s-washington-senate-panel-ag-nominee-confirmation-hearing Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland being sworn in during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill, Monday. Xinhua News Agency / PA Images Xinhua News Agency / PA Images / PA Images

Congress is also considering a bipartisan, independent commission to review the missteps, and multiple congressional committees have said they will look at different aspects of the siege.

Federal law enforcement have arrested more than 230 people who were accused of being involved in the attack, and President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, Judge Merrick Garland, said in his confirmation hearing on Monday that investigating the riots would be a top priority.

Congress needs to know, quickly, how failed security preparations and delays in the response led to “a mad, angry mob invading this temple of our democracy,” Senate Rules Committee chairwoman Amy Klobuchar said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Klobuchar said senators will be especially focused on the timing of the deployment of the National Guard, which eventually arrived to help the overwhelmed police, how security agencies shared information ahead of the attack and if the command structure of the Capitol Police Board, which includes the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms, contributed to the failures.

She said there may be legislation to address any inadequacies.

“We are on a fast track here simply because decisions have to be made about the Capitol,” she said.

Klobuchar added today’s hearing will be the first of at least two public examinations of what went wrong that day as the Senate panels undertake a joint investigation into the security failures.

A second hearing, expected to be held in the next few weeks, will examine the response of the Defence Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI

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    Mute #1 Fifthwheel
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 8:44 AM

    And the one that instigated the riots in the first place hasn’t been arrested??
    AHH, we’ll blame the security officials instead.

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    Mute Tony Ernesto Emanual Smith
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 8:11 AM

    If it were BLM, it would have been a blood bath!!!

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    Mute flexfinn
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 8:13 AM

    @Tony Ernesto Emanual Smith: it was a blood bath ,5 ppl died

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 8:43 AM

    @Tony Ernesto Emanual Smith: Funny how the Trumpets brazenly walk around with their Klan masks off these days

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    Mute james s
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 12:23 PM

    @flexfinn: can you give some details on the 5. Or did you just hear the number and went with it?

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    Mute David A. Murray
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 2:48 PM

    @james s: So…..either you are trying to deny the seriousness of what happened on January 6th (claiming misinformation or political partisanship by the media?), or you have no idea what happened on January 6th and believe that someone else should inform you of what happened on January 6th. Can you clarify which it is? Or is it just trolling?

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    Mute james s
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 5:40 PM

    @David A. Murray: it was a simple question, if the number was five which is very small amount you should have the details. I know of two deaths ,one protester and one cop. The female protester was shot in the face with a rubber bullet and the police officer sicknick was reportedly hit by a fire extinguisher. People shouldn’t go around using peoples deaths to prove your point if you don’t have the facts to back it up. And calling somebody who has a different opinion than you a troll, says a lot about you.

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 6:09 PM

    @james s: Did you just say 5 deaths, stemming from a concerted effort to block the official declaration of the clear winner of an election, is a very small number?
    Did you also ask if he was just repeating what he heard? As opposed to what? Witnessing each death and discussing them with coroners??
    If you’re not a troll, you’re just a Trumpet, which is much worse.

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 6:11 PM

    I suppose whatever the coroners say is just hearsay too so, really, unless you performed the autopsy yourself, you’re just “sheeple” for believing the “lamestream media”

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    Mute james s
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 7:48 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: first of all I did not use the deaths of five people to further my argument, FlexFinn did. So I challenged him to give details of their deaths, so out of respect for the dead he should’ve answered my question. The reason I said 5 was a small number is it should be easy to fact check. Obviously one death is 1 too many in this criminal act and everyone involved should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The two victims I know are, Ashli E. Babbitt the female protester shot in the face with a rubber bullet and officer Brian sicknick, who it was widely reported as dying from his injuries from being hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, the coroner ruled it was the result of a stroke, not blunt force trauma. 3 more? And stop calling people names,it’s not helpful.

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 8:28 PM

    @james s: You say you don’t believe that those 5 people did not die as reported but that someone else just said they did, purely for political reasons. And you say FlexFinn (who replied to the OP’s overlooking of the reported deaths just to cast aspersions on the Black Lives Matter movement) is the one not respecting the dead?

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 8:29 PM

    *died (not ‘did not die’) apologies

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    Mute james s
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 9:01 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: they may have been using the evidence of last summers ‘peaceful protests’ that cost billions in damage and killed over 30 people when they were thinking of a bloodbath.
    . If you go back to my comments I never said I didn’t believe there were 5 dead, but I only know of 2. So can YOU tell me who the other 3 where, and how they died?
    .By the way you never contradicted any of my facts.

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 9:15 PM

    @james s: No I can’t. I do gather from every one of your comments that you’re firm in your anti-BLM beliefs though. Personally, I believe there were a lot of other instigators in those riots, diluting and complicating the situation. You’ve just laid it all at the feet of what you derisively call the “‘peaceful protests’”. Literally no consideration given to the presence of white supremacists and state-sponsored provocateurs. But you just carry on there with all your righteousness. Good lad.

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    Mute james s
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 9:57 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: it’s just like arguing with a teenager, you flip-flop and won’t stay on subject, the 5 deaths. I mentioned BLM once. I believe every black life matters, but the BLM movement, well I have my doubts considering the leaders are self-proclaimed trained Marxist and want to destroy the nuclear family among other things. But back to the original point can you give me the names of the other 3 people that died.

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 10:30 PM

    @james s: For the love of. The first thing I said in my last comment was “No I can’t” and you just asked me again because it’s the only thing you can say. Good luck to ya.

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 10:32 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: My bad… you slightly reworded. Before you ask your next question, no I don’t know their parents’ names or where they went to school either.
    I’d expect better from a teenager, frankly. Good luck to ya.

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    Mute Niall O
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 10:34 PM

    @james s: There was a Trump supporter who died of a stroke, Benjamin Phillips; another who died of a heart attack allegedly “during the excitement”, Kevin Greason; and a woman who died from what was originally reported as an undisclosed medical emergency but it appears she may have died from crush injuries in the crowd, Meghan Packer.

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    Mute james s
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 11:01 PM

    @Niall O: so it was less of a bloodbath, as the MSM would have you believe and more a case of old geezers dying of natural causes.

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 11:28 PM

    @james s: Great respect for the dead. Some man.

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    Feb 24th 2021, 9:34 AM

    @JusticeForJoe: now you talk about respect for the dead, when you couldn’t even bother doing any research, just using the deaths of 5 people to further your narrative.

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Feb 24th 2021, 9:44 AM

    @james s: What narrative of mine am I trying to further, exactly? You’re the one here relentlessly insisting that the “narrative” in the media is wrong because you don’t know all the details. You and your ilk are shameless.

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    Mute james s
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    Feb 24th 2021, 1:11 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: blah blah blah blah blah blah no facts, you’re funny.

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Feb 24th 2021, 3:00 PM

    @james s: You’re terrible at this

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    Mute james s
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    Feb 24th 2021, 5:53 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: Yes I suppose using facts over feelings, probably is terrible when all you have are feelings.

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Feb 24th 2021, 7:54 PM

    @james s: You’re focusing on disputing one fact. One. And your whole argument is you don’t know enough, about the people who died as a result of the events of 6th Jan, to really believe they died as a result of them. And you’re attacking people for going with what they “hear”, reminiscent of so much we hear from the Trumpets about the “lamestream” media. The original post was bad enough and you’re jumping in to support it by blatantly disrespecting the dead (while accusing others of doing same). It’s all deflection and whatboutery to distract from the issue at hand, which is the orange one’s deserved demise.

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Feb 24th 2021, 7:59 PM

    By the way, I still haven’t tried to research them because i suppose there’s the possibility that some of their families would rather they weren’t publicly identified, rightly or wrongly, or for all that much information to be out there, while they’re grieving.

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    Mute james s
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    Feb 25th 2021, 3:39 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: well considering the whole point of this discussion is about the violence in the capital on January 6, so if you don’t mind I probably will try and stay on the 1 subject, the deaths. There was a memorial for officer sicknick, before the results of the post-mortem came out and now his family have come out to say he died of natural causes not blunt force trauma as the media reported.The names of all the others are out there as well but it doesn’t suit the media now so it’s buried. But you go ahead and get all your information from the mainstream media and don’t question it whatever you do, as it might upset you to know there may be a different side to the story. Don’t forget Trump is gone but they can’t let him go. Why?

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    Mute Stephen Deegan
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    Feb 23rd 2021, 12:16 PM

    The blame game begins, while the main instigator is above the law.

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