US Capitol Police officers express ‘profound disappointment’ with Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell’s refusal to support January 6 commission
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The US Capitol Police distanced itself Wednesday from an unofficial and anonymous statement reportedly from some officers, saying the agency “does NOT take positions on legislation.”
“A statement is circling on social media, which expresses an opinion about the proposed legislation to create a commission to investigate January 6,” the USCP said in a statement to Insider. “This is NOT an official USCP statement. The Department has no way of confirming it was even authored by USCP personnel.”
The USCP also posted its statement in a tweet.
Earlier Wednesday, some self-proclaimed members of the Capitol Police released a statement slamming House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell over their refusal to support a bipartisan commission examining the January 6 Capitol insurrection and its aftermath.
The statement was signed “Proud Members of the United States Capitol Police,” and sent on the letterhead of the USCP. It’s unclear how many members signed the letter, but the officer who wrote the unofficial statement told CNN’s Jamie Gangel that it represents the views of 40 to 50 officers on the force and that the statement “needed to be out there. It needed to be done.”
“We members of the United States Capitol Police write this letter to express our profound disappointment with the recent comments from both chambers’ minority leaders expressing no need for a January 6th commission,” the letter said. “The brave men and women of the USCP were subjected to hours and hours of physical trauma which has led to months of mental anguish.”
The statement went on to say: “If you look around the Capitol building, you still have doors that are broken, windows still smashed and in some cases missing. Officers are forced to go to work with the daily reminder of what happened that dreadful day.”
It is “inconceivable that some of the Members we protect, would downplay the events of January 6th. Member safety was dependent upon the heroic actions of USCP,” it continued.
The statement also said it is a “privileged assumption” for lawmakers “to have the point of view that ‘It wasn’t that bad.’ That privilege exists because the brave men and women of the USCP protected you, the Members.”
Wednesday’s letter concluded by noting that it “comes to you anonymously because as US Capitol Police Officers, we are expected to remain neutral and do our jobs with honor and integrity. It’s unfortunate that our ‘bosses’ (Congress) are not held to the same standard that we, the USCP are.”
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives is on the brink of passing the bipartisan proposal to investigate the Capitol siege, but McConnell’s announcement that he will oppose the measure could doom its passage in the Senate, in which Democrats hold a slim majority.
The Kentucky lawmaker said the bill in its current form was “slanted and unbalanced,” adding that it’s “not at all clear what new facts or additional investigation yet another commission could lay on top of the existing efforts by law enforcement and Congress.”
McCarthy also voiced opposition to the bill on Tuesday, saying in a statement, “Given the political misdirections that have marred this process, given the now duplicative and potentially counterproductive nature of this effort, and given the speaker’s shortsighted scope that does not examine interrelated forms of political violence in America, I cannot support this legislation.”
McCarthy was presumably referring to what he and other Republicans describe as violence by so-called “antifa” and Black Lives Matters demonstrators, whose actions have nothing to do with the events that catalyzed the January 6 riots at the Capitol.
The siege was largely provoked by former President Donald Trump’s emphatic and sustained lie that the 2020 election was “rigged” and unfairly “stolen” from him, despite zero evidence supporting that claim.
Charles Davis contributed reporting.