Capitol Hill Assistant Chief of Police Sean Gallagher told lawmakers Tuesday that the chaos of Jan. 6, 2021, impacted law enforcement's response to the presence of pipe bombs, but added that the riots happening at the Capitol took precedence in real time.
Gallagher made the comments during a hearing titled, "Three Years Later: Assessing the Law Enforcement Response to Multiple Pipe Bombs on January 6, 2021."
The hearing is part of a series of actions by Subcommittee on Oversight, Committee on House Administration Chair Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., to discredit and diminish Democrats over their Jan. 6 Select Committee, which placed blame for the riots at the feet of former President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, Loudermilk orchestrated a deep dive on the pipe bombs, which earned just five "passing" references in the Democrats' 845-page report on Jan. 6, he said in his own report released Monday. Republicans devoted more than 90 minutes to the pipe bombs on Tuesday.
No one was arrested for the multiple pipe bombs that were left outside of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters on Jan. 5, the day before the riots. The bombs never went off.
Gallagher reiterated his confession regarding the myriad failures of the U.S. Capitol Hill Police on Jan. 6 but said the root cause could directly be blamed on lack of officers.
"I want to be upfront and honest. The U.S. Capitol Police haven't shied away from the failures of that day, and those failures result in the leadership of Capitol Police, not the police officers that were outnumbered," Gallagher told lawmakers.
Further, even if he had more officers, Gallagher said he would have directed them toward the riots instead of the pipe bombs. More than 80 officers were injured that day and "two of our heroes" later died by suicide in the aftermath.
"I would gladly give up a perimeter not being perfect to be able to get officers responding to help their brothers or sisters who were calling for help at the U.S. Capitol," Gallagher said. "It was a chaotic day. We did not have enough police officers."
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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