'The physical violence we experienced was horrific and devastating': Officers recount harrowing events of Capitol insurrection

The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol kicked off its first high-profile hearing Tuesday with harrowing testimony from officers who experienced firsthand the violent events of that day at the hands of a pro-Trump mob.

The vivid testimony puts witness accounts on the record and a national spotlight on the insurrection, once again forcing a reckoning over the tragic events of January 6 for lawmakers on Capitol Hill as well as the American public. Regardless of the testimony's raw power, entrenched partisan battle lines in the months following the attack and during the shaping of the select committee have ensured that few minds are likely to be changed. Democrats have denounced the Capitol riot as an attack on democracy, while Republicans have almost uniformly downplayed and dismissed the insurrection's implications, especially former President Donald Trump's incitement of it. The committee heard gripping and emotional accounts from four officers -- DC Metropolitan Police Officers Daniel Hodges and Michael Fanone and Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell -- and will use the testimony as a jumping-off point for embarking on a probe that could lead to seeking testimony and documents from the former President, his aides and even Republican members of Congress.