“There were police on the ground, they were bleeding, they were vomiting,” Edwards said. “I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in the blood of the people “. Edwards told the committee she lost consciousness during the uprising, but continued to try to hold the line against the rioters when she was attacked with tear gas. “It was a massacre. It was chaos, “he continued. “I never in my wildest dreams thought that as a police officer I would find myself in the middle of a fight.” Edwards said she saw Brian Siknik, a police officer, during the uprising, which was launched by Trump supporters in an effort to block the certification of the Electoral College vote confirming Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. who suffered two strokes and died of a physical condition. provokes a day after confronting troublemakers, who seemed “imaginary pale.” Capitol Officer Caroline Edwards. (Jonathan Ernst / Reuters) In the immediate aftermath of the deadly uprising, which killed five people at the rally or shortly afterwards and injured 138 police officers, many Republicans condemned the violence and seemed to distance themselves from Trump’s continuing bid to win the election. “All I can say is measure me,” said Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina. “That’s enough”. “Our federal government’s first branch has been invaded by criminals who experienced police brutality and used force to prevent Congress from doing its job,” said Kentucky Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a statement issued after the uprising. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas called the uprising a “violent terrorist attack on the Capitol.” Over time, however, the convictions have faded to a large extent and many of the party seemed to downplay the seriousness of the incident or what inspired it to take place. The story goes on “We are not ashamed of anything,” Florida MP Matt Gaetz said in a podcast interview with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon on the one-year anniversary of the uprising. “We are proud of the work we did on January 6 to put forward legitimate arguments about electoral integrity.” Florida lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene, who also appeared on the podcast, targeted Democrats and the FBI for trying to prosecute and punish those who violated the Capitol and forcing lawmakers who challenged the election results to resign. “They are good at regime change, and how do you do it? You lay it out in a perfectly executed design, and they did. “They want to exclude us … they want to use the January 6 commission,” Green said. A video screen shows rioters breaking into the dam, knocking down Capitol Officer Caroline Edwards on January 6, 2021. (Tom LoBianco / Yahoo News) On Wednesday, Washington Governors football coach Jack Del Rio told reporters: “I see the pictures on TV. People’s livelihoods are destroyed, businesses are burned – no problem. “And then we have a dust in the Capitol, nothing burned; and we will make this an important agreement.” Edwards, however, said the country’s cross-party shift took her and other officers at the Capitol by surprise. “They called me a lot of things on January 6, 2021 and the days after. They called me Nancy Pelosi’s dog, they called me incompetent, they called me a hero and a criminal,” he told the committee. “I was called a traitor country, my oath and my Constitution. In fact, I was none of that. I was an American standing face to face with other Americans, asking myself, how many times, many, many times, how did we get here? ; » —Dylan Stableford contributed to the report
