Officers give emotional testimony at Capitol riot select committee hearing
CBSN
The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot held its first hearing on Tuesday, with emotional testimony from four law enforcement officers who defended the building that day. The officers spoke — at times angrily — about the physical and psychological injuries they sustained and gave a rare, first-hand look at the types of attacks they and their fellow officers suffered.
The officers are among the few who have told their stories in the press, and Tuesday marked the first time they appeared together to give official testimony. Representative Bennie Thompson, the committee's chairman, played footage of the attack at the start of the hearing, noting that while it may not be easy for officers to revisit the events of that day, "history will remember your names and your actions."Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.