This morning on CBS This Morning, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, joined Senators Gary Peters (D-MI), Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ranking Member and Chairwoman of the Committee on Rules and Administration, to discuss their new, bipartisan report on the security, planning, and response failures related to the violent and unprecedented attack on the Capitol on January 6th. Portman highlighted the bipartisan nature of the report and how it demonstrates that Congress is able to work together on a bipartisan basis to find solutions to ensure that an attack like January 6th never happens again.
The report also includes a series of recommendations for the Capitol Police Board, United States Capitol Police (USCP), federal intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense (DOD), and other Capital region law enforcement agencies.
Excerpts of the interview can be found below and a video can be found here.
PORTMAN ON NEED FOR BETTER TRAINING AND EQUIPMENT FOR U.S. CAPITOL POLICE OFFICERS:
“These police officers were put, as I said, in an impossible position. They didn’t have adequate training. They did have adequate equipment. They didn’t have adequate barriers. They didn’t have adequate communication. They didn’t have the intelligence to know what was coming, and yet, they valiantly supported the effort to protect the Capitol, protecting the Vice President, protecting all the members of Congress, protecting democracy.”
PORTMAN ON REPORT’S PURPOSE TO ENSURE ATTACKS ON U.S. CAPITOL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN:
“Our job was not to go back and talk about what happened in terms of the motivation, it was about, okay, once it happened, you know, what did we do here in the Capitol? And how could this have happened? And how can we ensure it never happens again.”
PORTMAN ON IMPORTANCE OF BIPARTISAN EFFORT TO CREATE REPORT:
“Part of the message here is we can figure this out together.”
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