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    Andrew Harnik/GettyNearly seven weeks after the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the people tasked with protecting the building on Jan. 6 testified for the first time about the failures that allowed a pro-Trump mob to overrun the seat of American government in an unprecedented disruption of democracy.But nearly every answer they gave about what happened that day just raised more questions.Over the course of four hours, the former chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, and the former security heads of the House and Senate, largely pointed the finger at each other—or blamed others not present at the hearing—and, above all, minimized their own failures.Senators, meanwhile, struggled to make use of a golden opportunity for fact-finding, arriving at key questions late and leaving others untouched, while several—including those who amplified the election fraud claims that brought rioters to the Capitol to begin with—partook in the time-honored tradition of committee-room grandstanding. One, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), used the bulk of his time to read an account of Jan. 6 from a right-wing conspiracist that raised the discredited theory that Trump supporters were not responsible for the violence.By the end of the hearing, the Democrats running the show proclaimed it had been a “constructive” exercise that “shed new light” on what happened on Jan. 6.Some genuinely new information did surface: For example, Steven Sund, the former Capitol Police chief, said he had just learned that on Jan. 5, the force was sent an FBI report warning of violence around Trump’s rally—but that the report “didn’t make it” to his desk. Asked how authorities missed the other signs of brewing violence, authorities simply testified that the intelligence community hadn’t sufficiently warned them about it.If nothing else, the first marquee hearing probing the Capitol attack made clear that obtaining the full picture of how and why Jan. 6 happened the way it did will be a difficult task. But the futility of questioning this particular set of witnesses—all seeking to protect their reputations and deflect blame—became clear early in Tuesday’s hearing, as senators sought to establish a timeline for who requested help and when on Jan. 6.As the mob began breaching the Capitol perimeter, Sund said that he called Paul Irving, then the House sergeant-at-arms, at 1:09 p.m. to request they call in the National Guard. He alleged Irving told him that he was concerned about the “optics” of having Guard troops present and rebuffed him.Irving countered by saying he had no recollection of Sund calling him at that time, saying he was on the House floor overseeing the Electoral College certification process. He added it was “categorically false” that he would mention optics concerns in determining safety protocol at the Capitol.Under oath, both men stuck to their stories. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) attempted to sort it out but concluded, “Whatever happened here doesn't seem to me to be in agreement with various timeframes.” Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) then asked that they both turn over their call records for investigation.Johnson Pushes Deranged ‘Fake Trump Supporters’ Theory During Capitol Riot HearingThe witnesses could agree, however, that they all were not put in a position to succeed on Jan. 6 by intelligence agencies—who they alleged underestimated the threat, despite the open-source evidence and news reporting that strongly indicated that right-wing extremists were planning ambitious and violent acts in Washington on Jan. 6.“Although it appears that there were numerous participants from multiple states planning this attack, the entire intelligence community seems to have missed it,” claimed Sund. “Without the intelligence to properly prepare, the USCP was significantly outnumbered and left to defend the Capitol against an extremely violent mob.”Robert Contee, the acting chief of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and the fourth witness, also said that the FBI memo was sent out on Jan. 5 “in the form of an email.”The witnesses also expressed frustration that the National Guard was so slow to mobilize. Contee, whose officers arrived at an overrun Capitol to support the separate Capitol Police force, repeatedly said he was shocked at the Pentagon’s reluctance to mobilize the National Guard. When he asked, recalled Contee, “in response there was not an immediate yes,” and said Army officials countered by asking him about the “optics” of the situation.“I was able to quickly deploy MPD and issue directives to them while they were in the field, and I was honestly shocked that the National Guard could not—or would not—do the same,” Contee added.The back-and-forth between Sund and Irving revealed, at the very least, the complicated process in place for requesting military assistance at the Capitol. No one person is responsible for security at the complex; instead, a secretive four-person board is, and its very existence slowed down the response on Jan. 6. Blunt called the structure “totally unworkable” for crises like the Capitol insurrection.The agencies blamed by the witnesses will get a chance to offer their version of events next week, when the FBI and the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security have been invited to testify in front of the same joint panel of the Senate Rules and Homeland Security Committees.But on Tuesday, senators largely shied from questions that the then-chiefs of the Capitol Police and D.C. Police would have been well-positioned to answer. Only Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) noted, late in the proceeding, that only 52 rioters were immediately arrested out of the hundreds who breached the Capitol, attacked police officers and media, and vandalized the complex. He drew a comparison to the militarized posture of the complex during the Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020. “Can you tell us how the Capitol preparations on January 6 differ from the protests over the summer?” Padilla asked Sund.“It doesn't matter the message of the person,” responded Sund. “We develop our information, we develop our intel and we base a response plan on that.” He added that USCP officers only arrested six Black Lives Matter protesters, but many more were arrested around the city.Top Capitol Riot Police Throw Each Other Under the Bus Over Botched Jan. 6 ResponseNo senator asked witnesses about another critical matter: the extent to which law enforcement, if at all, aided any of the insurrectionists. A USCP spokesperson said last week that six officers on the force have been suspended with pay due to their actions on Jan. 6, and another 29 are under investigation. Lawmakers, such as Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), have said they witnessed police officers taking selfies with rioters and giving them directions.Those questions are likely to become fodder for an investigative body sketched out by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), modeled after the 9/11 Commission, to investigate the insurrection. That effort might also be best-suited to ultimately confirm the disputed timeline of Jan. 6 and fully reveal the failures.For the time being, however, the three Capitol Hill authorities—all of whom resigned after Jan. 6— seemed to caution lawmakers not to overreact too much by proposing reforms to the Capitol’s security protocol following the deadly riot. The very brief opening statement from Michael Stenger, the former Senate sergeant-at-arms, said “we have to be careful of returning to a time when possibility rather than probability drives security planning."In his written opening statement, Sund said “the USCP did not fail” and that the force “accomplished its mission” on Jan. 6, placing the responsibility for the carnage on the alleged intelligence failures.Under questioning from Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Sund’s defiance wilted somewhat. Klobuchar noted that the authorities had enough intelligence to know they had to make additional preparations for Jan. 6. “If the information was enough to get you to do that, why didn't we take some additional steps?” she asked. “Why didn't you and others involved be better prepared to confront the violence?”Sund responded with the repeated declaration that they “expanded the perimeter” of the building—the one that was quickly breached by the mob. When Klobuchar pointed out that clearly was not enough, Sund said, “that is now hindsight being what it is.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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  • Postmaster General Taunts Dems: You’re Stuck With Me for Good

    Jim Watson./GettyLouis DeJoy had a defiant message on Wednesday for those craving to see him ousted as U.S. Postmaster General: “Get used to me.”The comment came after Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) asked the embattled U.S. Postal Service chief how long he would remain as Postmaster General—“long time,” DeJoy spat back—during a Wednesday hearing in the House Oversight Committee.That exchange was indicative of the entire proceeding, which was frequently chippy, combative, and fueled by Democratic lawmakers’ outrage over DeJoy’s handling of the USPS at a time of worsening mail delays and difficult questions about the service’s long-term viability.DeJoy’s crack to Cooper made Democrats’ blood boil even more. But he may have a point, at least for now: because the postmaster general is installed by the service’s board of governors—and not by the president—it means that President Joe Biden, or Congress, cannot fire DeJoy even if they wanted to.His removal would only be possible when Biden fills Democratic vacancies on the USPS Board of Governors, which has the authority to hire and fire postmasters general. Confirming those spots in the Senate will take time, though the Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Biden has identified three nominees to move forward.In the meantime, though, Democratic lawmakers are working with DeJoy on urgent legislation to reform the agency’s finances and employee pension burden, even while many publicly call for his resignation.To many Democrats, DeJoy’s performance on Wednesday on Capitol Hill may make that balancing act harder: they found much to dislike not only in what the postmaster general said, but how he said it.“I gotta say—I just don’t think the postmaster gets it,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), a member of the Oversight Committee who questioned DeJoy on Wednesday about the agency’s delivery standards. “I think it’s time for him to go.”“I thought he approached a lot of our questions with that exact same attitude, which was one of sneering condescension,” Krishnamoorthi told The Daily Beast after the hearing, invoking DeJoy’s response to Cooper. “That’s not gonna fly, man. Not gonna fly.”Wednesday’s hearing was the second time in DeJoy’s short tenure that he has been subjected to a high-profile grilling in the House Oversight Committee. Shortly after taking the USPS’ top job in June 2020, delays and irregularities quickly began to mount—a particularly alarming development for lawmakers on the eve of an election in which more voters than ever planned to vote by mail.Biden to Nominate 3 New USPS Board Members, Opening Path to Oust DeJoyIn a contentious August 2020 hearing, Democrats interrogated the former logistics executive and GOP mega-donor on everything from cuts in overtime hours to the price of a stamp. Questioning from Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) produced a memorable DeJoy response: “I will submit that I know very little about postage and stamps.”By the time House Democrats called DeJoy back to Capitol Hill this week, their worst fears about the USPS delays’ impact on the voting system had failed to materialize. But they still had plenty of questions about DeJoy’s stewardship of the USPS: in October, the USPS inspector general issued a report finding that the changes DeJoy made to delivery schedules and protocol led to the worsening delays. Already battered by the pandemic, the USPS limped into a busy holiday season, and is now providing the poorest service that many longtime observers of the agency have ever seen.Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-MI), a member of the Oversight panel, was a 29-year veteran of the USPS before she came to Congress. She told The Daily Beast after the hearing that she has never seen the service in such dire straits as it is now: “I don’t think we’ve ever confronted this,” she said.The unprecedented delays are happening around the country. In Washington, D.C., just 40 percent of all first-class mail arrived on time by the end of December 2020—compared to nearly 90 percent the same time the year before. Chicago residents are receiving holiday packages a month-and-a-half late. Lawmakers are inundated with calls and emails from frustrated constituents looking for answers; this week, 33 senators signed a letter to DeJoy asking him to explain the recent delays.DeJoy apologized for those delays at the top of Wednesday’s hearing. “We must acknowledge that during this peak season we fell far short of meeting our service goals,” he said. “I apologize to those customers who felt the impact of our delays"But Lawrence expressed concern about DeJoy’s forthcoming “strategic plan” to get the USPS through this difficult stretch. Though the postmaster general has not revealed specifics, he testified on Wednesday that he will propose cuts to delivery standards, including the standard that local mail be delivered within two days. Democrats believe that would be a disastrous move at a time when the USPS is struggling to compete with private-sector competitors, particularly if it is coupled with consumer cost increases, which DeJoy has suggested.“To say that’s what’s bold and needed… that’s not leadership,” said Lawrence. “He has to prove himself. He heard us loud and clear, that he needs to prove himself.”The Michigan Democrat stopped short of saying that DeJoy deserved removal, and told The Daily Beast that she and other Democrats are working with the USPS on postal reform legislation. On Wednesday, CNN reported that Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) was supportive of working with DeJoy to pass reforms.In the wake of the new political reality in Washington, the postmaster general has begun to attempt outreach to Democratic lawmakers. Lawrence said that during the last administration, DeJoy did not take her calls or respond to her—but after the 2020 election, they had a “cordial” call.Other Democrats see any charm offensive as too little, too late. Krishnamoorthi said he is supportive of working with whatever USPS leadership is in office in order to pass reforms, but argued that DeJoy should go as soon as is possible.Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), a senior member of the Oversight Committee, issued a statement after DeJoy’s hearing hailing Biden’s nomination of three appointees to the USPS Board of Governors—and explicitly stated his hope they would remove DeJoy. “These nominations are an important first step toward reforming the Postal Service,” said Connolly. “My hope is the newly constituted Board will do the right thing and bring in a new, qualified Postmaster General.”A majority of the nine-member board would be required to support DeJoy’s removal. Currently, there are four Republican appointees, and two Democratic appointees. If all Biden’s choices are confirmed, Democrats would hold a majority on the board.The Republicans on the Oversight Committee had questions for DeJoy about mail delays, but largely cast him as a victim in an anti-Trump Democratic crusade. Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the top Republican on the panel, compared the party’s concerns about USPS delays—and Trump’s potential role in those delays—to the Trump impeachment investigation he said was predicated on “baseless conspiracies.”Far-right Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), meanwhile, suggested that the root cause of USPS delays was actually the Black Lives Matter protests that took place over the summer, and read articles from fringe outlets like the Gateway Pundit to prove his point. And Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) raised the unfounded belief in widespread conspiracies about election fraud while saying it was not time to get into “specifics.”At one point, tempers flared when Connolly said that Republicans who voted to object to the Electoral College certification on Jan. 6 had “no right to lecture” anyone on the dangers of partisanship.Democrats left more concerned about the fate of the USPS, however, than the state of things in Congress. “It’s not some theoretical concept,” said Krishnamoorthi. “It’s not some abstract issue, it’s real for every single one of us… I’ve gotta tell you, people are starting to work around the mail, which is a scary concept.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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