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"Attackers chanted 'hang the vice president'": Pelosi rips GOP members for downplaying Jan. 6

13 May 2021
 Dan Ackermann

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday tore into Republican members of Congress who downplayed the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot during a House hearing on Wednesday, telling reporters: "I don't know of a normal day around here when people are threatening to hang the vice president."

Why it matters: House lawmakers are currently in negotiations over forming a bipartisan Jan. 6 commission to examine the attack and the events that led up to it.

  • An agreement has been delayed in part because Republicans have pushed to expand the scope of the commission to far-left violence during protests last summer.
  • At a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday, multiple GOP lawmakers characterized the rioters as law-abiding "patriots" and attempted to cast doubt on whether they were even Trump supporters.

What they're saying: At Thursday's briefing, Pelosi specifically focused on comments by Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), who claimed that footage from the attack would look like a "normal tourist visit" of the Capitol building if a viewer didn't know it was from Jan. 6.

  • "Well, I don't know [of] a normal day around here when people are threatening to hang the vice president of the United States or shoot the speaker in the forehead or disrupt and injure so many police officers," Pelosi said.
  • "I don't consider that normal. Multiple people were killed. Over 140 police officers were [injured]. Gallows were put up. Attackers chanted, 'Hang the vice president.' Normal?" she asked.

The big picture: New body camera footage aired on CNN Wednesday showed the moment DC Metropolitan police officer Michael Fanone was brutally attacked by Trump supporters during the riot, underscoring the violence of the siege.

  • The officer was swarmed, beaten and tased by pro-Trump rioters. He suffered a mild heart attack and concussion during the attack, and is still dealing with a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder from the event.

Go deeper:Former Pentagon chief blames media "hysteria" for lack of troops on Jan. 6

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.