Capitol defenders blame missed intelligence for deadly Jan. 6 breach
In Senate testimony, security officials blame other federal agencies – and each other – for their failure to defend the building as supporters of then-President Trump overwhelmed security barriers.
By Mike DeBonis and Karoun DemirjianThe Washington Post
Share
Former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund testifies before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs & Senate Rules and Administration joint hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday to examine the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Andrew Harnik/Associated Press
WASHINGTON Top officials responsible for security at the Capitol on Jan. 6 as it was overrun by a mob backing Donald Trump blamed wide-ranging intelligence failures for the deadly attack at a Senate hearing Tuesday, pointing to lapses that included a missed email warning of violence and a larger inability to recognize the threat posed by domestic right-wing extremism.
Capitol security flaws probed by lawmakers after deadly riot
Billy House, Bloomberg
FacebookTwitterEmail
Demonstrators steal a Metropolitan Police riot shield outside the U.S. Capitol building during a protest in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.Bloomberg photo by Eric Lee.
Three former top U.S. Capitol security officials are facing aggressive questions from two Senate panels digging into the lapses that allowed a mob of Donald Trump s supporters to overwhelm police officers and ransack the building as Congress was certifying the presidential election results.
The joint hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Rules and Administration Committees on Tuesday is the first in a series of lawmaker inquiries into the origins of the Jan. 6 insurrection and the failure of the Capitol s security forces to anticipate and then quell the riot, which left five people dead.
As Trump Leaves Office, Duke Experts Warn of White Supremacists Lasting Threat
A promotion for one of two recent panel discussions
In response to a coup attempt on behalf of Donald Trump, Duke University experts have participated in a series of virtual discussions about the threats of white supremacy, threat of insurrection, and domestic terrorism.
âAnytime you have a mob willing to overpower and injure people to get inside the Capitol to overwhelm and harm Congressional representatives, American democracy has a problem,â said Duke historian Adriane Lentz-Smith, who participated in the January 13 discussion entitled âInsurrection, Policing and Democracy.â
Noting reports of ongoing investigations to determine if members of Congressâalong with retired and active police and military officersâmay have had a hand in the violence âis incredibly worrying,â she added.
rhetoric is infuszed with notions of violence and dehumanization. the messages are not lost on people like the el paso shooter. your president shares your view that immigrants and racial minorities are a scourge on america. they are not deserving of the privileges of citizenship and must be denied political power at all costs. they are animals anyway, so the use of violence is permissible. we remain 15 months from the 2020 election. it s staggering to imagine how much more violence this president may motivate if he continues down this deeply disturbing path. joining our discussion now is professor david schanzer. he is the director of duke university s center on terrorism and homeland security. professor, establish for us what you see as the link between donald trump s rhetoric, donald trump s hate speech, and what happened in el paso. you know, lawrence, the way
and go see, fast & furious presents, hobbs & shaw. now playing. in an essay for the guardian entielted we must call the el paso shooting what it is, trump inspired terrorism, professor david schanzer writes while trump does not overtly call for his supporters to use violence to further his agenda, his