>> our coverage of the january 6 joint session and the congressional hearings examining what happened at the capital that day can be found at our website, c-span.org. stay with >> thank you all for coming. i first want to start by expressing my condolences to deputy philip campos, an officer who was selflessly serving his

community who was killed in the line of duty on sunday. he is a father, a husband, sheriff officer and former marine. three others were shot in the standoff as well. our prayers are with his family and those who were wounded as they continue to break through this. each of us are indebted to our brave capitol police officers who come every day to this house prepared to defend us. on gender six these brave officers were put into a vulnerable, and possible position because of the leadership at the top failed. december 14, the leadership knew there was a problem. even prior to that inspector general report told us there was failed leadership at the top of

the police with the training. rodney davis will speak in a moment of the bill that he had to make sure the structure of the capitol police would change. we had many failures within the leadership. you had a chair of house administration whose responsibilities that come to the capital for more than six months. first time showing back up on january 3 to vote for the speaker. no hearing was about the ig report. no movement of rodney davis is bill. there's questions into the leadership within the structure of the speaker's office where they denied the ability to bring the national guard here. we now have a committee that all of america wants to know the answers to. why were we prepared for that day attack we make sure that it

will never happen again? but, unfortunately, speaker pelosi will only pick on people, onto the committee, that will ask the questions she wants asked here that becomes a failed committee and a failed report, a sham that no one can believe. if you want the true answers do not be afraid of the questions that will get asked. and dry the evidence to wherever it comes forward. we owe it to the officers, we owe it to the nation to have an open and fair debate with all questions being asked. i again, republicans want to participate with the republicans that are able to be on the committee that have jurisdiction, have knowledge and the ability to ask the tough questions that can get the right answers. it's unfortunate we start with a committee chair who will tell you everything is on the table except the speaker's office. how can you ever get to the

bottom of the questions? how can you ever get to the solutions to make sure the capital is never put in this position again? from december 14 they knew. the last time there was a break in the language during the kavanaugh hearing here why were changes made then? why what actions taken after the ig report? a lot of questions that could get asked today to make sure these officers will never be put in this position. january 6th should have never happened. we should have prepared and be prepared for the officers to make sure they had the training and equipment that they needed. with that i i would like to cl up our with steve scalise. >> thank you kevin, and i share those same sentiments. our prayers go out to so many law enforcement officers who lost their lives in the last year, and every day we thank those capitol police officers

who risk their lives to keep us safe and to keep this capital opening, hopefully open again to tourists who can come to the capital to see their government in action. but what we're here to talk about today is speaker pelosi's constant attempt to cover up facts that she doesn't want out there. you know, for weeks now jim jordan and jim banks have been raising some very tough questions, questions that need to be answered about why speaker pelosi didn't make sure that capitol police had all the tools they needed to be prepared for that day. now maybe because they were raising those questions they got canceled by this new cancel culture that we see moving throughout the country, led by speaker pelosi and a lot her socialist allies in congress where the want to shut out voices that race tough questions that they don't want to be asked or answered.

and yet they were starting to raise those questions about why they capitol police didn't have the tools they needed. what kind of intelligence did speaker pelosi get early on, weeks in advance and leader mccarthy talked about, they gave telltale signals that could have prevented what happened on january 6th? speaker pelosi said she doesn't want those questions asked so she kicked them off the committee. she took an unprecedented step of refusing to allow members to be appointed by the minority leader to a select committee, and that never before happen in the history of congress. and so as we see these kind of actions taken by speaker pelosi to cover up the facts that she doesn't want out there. it is completely debased the legitimacy of this commission because clearly they are not searching for the truth. they are searching to get a narrative out the speaker pelosi has already written.

anybody who's been as questions that go against that she just has been removed so that they can't bring those questions up. that's not an investigative panel. people know that. we've seen other bodies, the set has been some investigative work, the department of justice has done some investigative work, and it should be about following the facts, not about trying to cover up facts that tell a story differently than the ones she maybe has already had written and she just wants to now get others to back it up. so it's unfortunate that she's done it. this clearly can't be about people who voted against certifying electors, because she appointed members herself who voted against certifying electors on january 6th against them on january 6th of 2005. some of her own members who objected on january 6th of 2017. so clearly that's not what it's about. it's probably more about some of the tough questions that were already being raised by jim

jordan and jim banks, and that's a shame because those questions need to be asked and answered as well, and now they are not because of the cover-up that speaker pelosi continues to do. we see this with code. she would hold a hearing on the ordinance of covid. too often we seen this pattern by speaker pelosi tried to cover up a a narrative that she doet want out there when we should be trying to get all of the facts. now to come up next is our conference chair elise stefanik. >> there is a reason that nancy pelosi is the most disliked elected official in america and she always puts her own partisan politics over what's best for the american people. she is an authoritarian who has broken the people's house. she is a lame-duck speaker, and everyone knows it. the reason why nancy pelosi is refusing to see accomplished and well-respected hard-working republicans like jim jordan and jim banks is because she doesn't want the american people to know the truth or learn the facts.

she doesn't want a fair or bipartisan investigation. she wants a political one. it is a fact that on that in december of 2020 nancy pelosi was made aware of potential security threats to the capital, and she failed to act. it is a fact that the u.s. capitol police raised concerns and rather than providing them with the support and resources they needed and they deserve, she prioritized her partisan political optics over their safety. the american people deserve to know the truth, that nancy pelosi bears responsibility as speaker of the house for the tragedy that occurred on january 6th. and it was only after republicans started asking these important questions that she refused to seat them. house republicans will continue to follow the truth and the facts and support our law enforcement officers to make sure this never happens again in

the u.s. capitol, the people's house. and i'm proud to turn over to my colleague, very well respected member jim banks. >> today we will hear tragic stories by capitol police officers, tragic events that should of never happened at this capitol building on january 6th. tragic events that happened on speaker nancy pelosi's watch. it's clear at this point nancy pelosi has cherry picked the members to serve on this committee. she has prewritten a narrative only numbers who will stick to her talking points are allowed to serve on this committee. if this is truly a fact-finding mission to make sure january 6th never happens again, this isn't what that looks like. today i want to repeat a call that i made last week to the chairman of this committee to bring before this committee today on this panel the head of the capitol police union who

told many of us last week and has said publicly and privately that on january 6th the rank-and-file members of the capitol police department, the heroes that make up the many women, the heroes that make up the capitol police department, they were not prepared for what happened on january 6th in spite of intelligence reports that date back three weeks before that date, they weren't equipped on january 6th with the proper equipment that they needed to handle what happened that day and they weren't trained for what was going to happen that day. as the senate investigation report, a bipartisan report, already identified there was a systemic breakdown of security, a lack of leadership at the very top of the united states capitol police, who report a nancy pelosi is ultimately responsible for that lack of leadership, that's where this committee should go if it's serious of making sure something like this never happens again. bring the head of the united states capitol police union to

sit on the panel today to provide a different perspective than the cherry picked narrative that nancy pelosi wants the american people to view. i repeat that call and hope the democrats will think better of what they already, they've already rejected ahead of the capitol police union. i hope they think better of it, bring him before the panel today, give them a chance to testify before the american people. thank you. i will defer to representative jordan. >> why don't the democrats want to get to the truth? why don't they want to answer the fundamental question, which is why wasn't there a better security posture on that day? let me read from a news account from february bishopric pelosi's office at previous impressed upon the sergeant at arms poke think that the national guard was to remain off capitol grounds. he told house administration the discussion centered around the quote optics. why would the democrats are concerned about the optics? why were they so concerned about how it would look?

because what happened last summer. it's all driven by what happened last summer where democrats normalized anarchy, , normalized political violence, raised mailed money for the very rioters and looters who destroyed small business, attacked innocent civilians and maybe most overtly attacked police officers. when you spend that you're talking about defining the police and actually defund the police it's kind of hard to up more police here on january 6th like they should have done. that's the fundamental question, that's what this thing is turned into such a political charade. the police officers who will testify today and, frankly, all capitol hill police officers deserve to have more help that day, but the democrats couldn't do it because of the political decision they had taken all throughout last year. that's the fundamental question that will be answered. the recor

ensuring free and fair elections. >> election officials have faced threats and harassment after they were unfairly blamed for election results in the 2020 election that certain politicians and voters did not like. they do not want to accept. last year, threats for some election workers were so bad that they had temporarily abandoned their homes, spent their money on increased home security, or even secure around-the-clock police surveillance. election