(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Disturbing new body camera video showed in vivid detail some of the chaos that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, under the watch of a police force armed and “ready to rock and roll,” lending more momentum to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s vow to release all J6 video footage.
The new body-camera video showed “how law enforcement’s response to the protest led to rising tension and deadly violence,” with a D.C. police force prepped in “full riot gear” and “ready to rock and roll.”
“And ‘rock and roll’ they did,” reported American Greatness, which obtained the video. “The footage showed a dramatic shift in tone from the massive crowd assembled on the Capitol lawn as jack-booted cops arrived on the scene.”
One D.C. Metropolitan police officer recently testified that the Trump rally “was peaceful heading up to the Capitol.” That changed quickly when law enforcement was encountered in mass formation.
“But chants of ‘U.S.A.! U.S.A!’ quickly dissipated as the crowd grew agitated at the sight of police officers, faces obscured while dressed in military-type gear, forming groups on the upper terrace,” American Greatness reported. “Police continued to douse the crowd with chemical spray even though protesters were not attempting to breach a line of officers down below.”
McCarthy reiterated his vow during a Sunday interview with Fox News to release all of the video footage of J6 security tapes, expounding on what he thought would be the best way to make public the tapes to combat the “politicization” over the event created by ex-speaker Nancy Pelosi’s J6 Inquisition.
“The best way to handle this, I think, is exactly the way Elon Musk [did]: Just put all the information out there and let people see what is truth and what is not,” McCarthy said. “So, the best way to do that is to release the tapes. People can know for themselves instead of picking and choosing what views they want people to see.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., one of McCarthy’s critics and a member of the Republican rebel coalition that negotiated for the release of all J6 video, credited McCarthy for holding true to his promises.
Thank you to the 20 patriots who helped EARN this commitment from the Speaker.
Thank you @SpeakerMcCarthy for affirming this commitment you made.
Keeping promises is how trust is built.
I’m growing more optimistic by the day! https://t.co/uYAaT5sG0f
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) January 12, 2023
Gaetz told CNN that unreleased footage could provide “a lot of exculpatory evidence where people may have been in some sort of technical violation of federal criminal law, but never intended to harm anyone and never intended to breach any type of security barrier.”
“We already know from whistleblower interviews we’ve done that there were federal assets and agents that were on the ground that day,” Gaetz said. “To be able to observe their conduct, their potential coordination with one another, would be of great interest to many of us on the Judiciary Committee and, I think, many people throughout the country.”
