Amy Klobuchar

This was a coordinated effort that was led by the Proud Boys extremist group.

I hope that as we think about that here in this Committee we will be able to take that holistic approach.

I think it was Mitch McConnell who called President Trump`s actions that day disgraceful and a dereliction of duty.

Anyone that heard that, Republican, Democrat, anyone watching knows we have to change that process.

Why did the National Guard take so long, will be our number one question at the Department of Defense at our hearing next week.

The bottom line here is that this is not a system set up to anticipate and handle a crisis.

Despite Ron Johnson’s craziness and despite his literally refusal to believe what everyone knows, that there was an armed insurrection at the Capitol, most of the senators treated the witnesses with respect.

You can just throw popcorn at the screen all you want at these hearings, but if we don’t get solutions out of it, we really haven’t accomplished anything.

As our hearing concludes, I want to make one thing clear: provocateurs did not storm the Capitol. They were not fake Trump protesters. The mood on January 6th was not festive. That is disinformation.

The FBI's Norfolk field office issued a threat report on January 5th that details specific calls for violence online in connection with January 6th, including that protesters, quote, be ready to fight, end quote and, quote, go there ready…

I personally think with everything that went on in the last year, there was some underestimation of the potential violence of these particular groups.

I personally think that it has been very difficult during the pandemic for people to meet like they used to meet when they were planning ahead.

I also think we know that, as we learned after 9/11, you can learn from horrible, horrific events and then do better with sharing intelligence.

They were intent not just on destroying the physical building that we work in, but also our democracy that brought us to that moment.

This is a political environment enough without politicizing this, and we have tried our best to be constructive.

I could have gotten them on those buses and ready to go.

I needed to be ready to get them there as quick as possible.

I understand--and correct me if I am wrong--that with the National Guard it is much better to prepare them and call them into action and have a plan.

I do know, however, it was not a success, and we will do everything we can to make sure that what we know is better distributed and understood by our partners.

We learned that Capitol Police officers were not prepared to respond to an attack like the one we experienced on January 6.

You believe that would have made a difference to have them at the perimeter at a sooner point.

There were breakdowns in communication on January 6 and in the days leading up to it.

I agree with what Senator Klobuchar just said, that it was a constructive first hearing.

The January 6 attack on the citadel of our democracy remains a dark stain on our Nation's history.

Thank you for your emphasis on the FBI report and the issues that everyone here seems to acknowledge with getting that, that it did not go at the right place, and just putting 'Send' is not enough for a report like that.