There is a lot of complications about what happened here, what went wrong on january 6th. But i think youll hear questions about whether the fbi should have done more to get inside of these groups. We know that some of the groups are certainly planning a lot of the events, that we know from the Court Documents and the charges that have been brought against 300 people. We know there was some planning involved. Why did the fbi not see that. Why did they miss some of that. And i think youll hear some defense from the director about some of those questions. We just see him seated there, fbi director wray. Evan, thank you very much. Well listen into this as soon as he starts speaking. It looks like an fbi mask there, perhaps. As we wait to hear from him, andrew mccabe, ron brown steen and Josh Campbell here. Quickly, because i expect them to start shortly here, there is a lot of blame to go around. The u. S. Capitol police and the fbi and i was wondering, when everybody is to blame no one is to blame. Who was in charge of security in the capitol on that day . Who bears the most responsibility in your view. Well ultimately, jim, the institution primarily responsible for protecting the capitol is the Capitol Police. So they are definitely on the hot seat. But they do it with the support of the entire community and support from the fbi and others. So i think there are plenny of questions to fire at lots of folks including the fbi director today. I think, josh, jim makes such a good point, when everyone is to blame no one is to blame. The question is not just backward looking about what happened and where was the failure on the 6th, it is forward looking because what we had at pittman last week is theyre planning another attack and planning it for when the president addresses the joint session of congress in the next few months. So Big Questions about security now and ahead, right. There is a lot of ground to cover with this hearing. Lawmakers want to look back to before the attack, to figure out again was anything missed, especially with intelligence reporting. But also as you mentioned looking ahead, what is the current threat land scape and it is interesting to see whether lawmakers drill down to determine from the fbi director whether there is a sea change afoot in the fbi to reprogram resources and put more agents and more analysts on the domestic terrorism threat because we know from government officials that is the most serious domestic threat coming from the extremists. So that is interesting to see. Ill also be looking to see whether or not lawmakers ask about this really serious issue and that is the idea that we have Law Enforcement officers and military members and former Law Enforcement military as part of the capitol insurrectionists. We know that a lot of the extremist groups have talked about trying to recruit people with paramilitary type experience and what is the fbi doing to work with agencies, federally and state and local across the country to ferret out any in their midst. That is what im looking for. Imagine if you had current and former military and Law Enforcement among International Terrorist groups. The threat is real. Ron brownstein, the sad fact is that even what were trying to sort out what went wrong on that day and what needs to be done to prevent the next attack, you have a propaganda under way by republicans and rightwing media to downplay what happened. It was a small number, bad apples, not that big of a deal. How is that impacting this debate and could it hold back the steps necessary to keep the capitol safe . Very much. As ive written, i think extremist wing in the gop has become too big for the party to cou confront. I think you have to see this attack on the capitol as a far end of a continuum of a multiple assaults on a democrat process since the election all roots in the big lie that the election was stolen and predominantly africanamericans cities and you see the way that lie is fuelling not only these attempts to kind of cover the sands over the attack on january 6th, but this Voter Suppression laws that are advancing, it is Georgia State house passed a sweeping restriction with frenchman of Voting Rights yesterday. Probably the most sustained assault on Voting Rights since the jim crow era in the south. So it is not only a question of covering up what happened in the past as poppy said, there are implications going forward. Youre seeing republicans around the country use this argument to suppress and make the case for suppressing the vote. There is a direct correction. So stand by. It looks like theyre showing the director an exhibit. I ended up getting pinned there by the crowd. There is a guy ripping my mask off and able to rip away my baton and beat me with it. He was practically foaming at the mouth. We have dozens of officers down. And you got the nerve to be holding a Blue Lives Matter flag when one of our guys kept walking by, the other one pulled out his badge and said, trust me, i understand, were doing this for you, buddy. And he has a badge. He shows me his badge. Five people lost their lives that day including Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick. They beat Police Officers. They fought us. They had confederate flags in the u. S. Capitol. And i call it a [ bleep ]. A couple of dozen times today. It wasnt just a mob or a bunch of thugs, you know. They were terrorists. They tried to disrupt this countrys democracy. That was their goal. Is this america . Is this america . What the hell just happened . The hate on display that terrible day is not a new phenomenon in our country. Americas first domestic terror organization, the ku klux klan was born in the aftermath of the civil war to terrorize africanamericans. As Merrick Garland noted, the department of justice was founded to secure the civil rights promised by the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. And the first attorney general pointed by president graham led a battle to protect black Voting Rights from the violence of White Supremacists, successfully prosecuting hundreds of cases against members of the ku klux klan. The insurrections who stormed on january 6th did not wear white robes and hoods. They might as well have. They have the latest incarnation of violent white supremacist movements that have terror rised on basis of race, and religion and National Origin for more than 150 years. Let me be clear at the outset, ive said this on many occasions and it bears repeating. I condemn all violence regardless of ideology. I hope my republican colleagues will join me today in acknowledging as department of Homeland Security found last october that violent White Supremacy is the biggest threat in the homeland and joining me in condemning the big lie that the november 3rd election was stolen. A falsehood which the former president continues to spread which helped provoke the january 6th insurrection and threatens to incite future attacks. As the january 6th attack on the capitol demonstrated for too long our federal government has failed to address the growing terrorist men as in our backyard. In 2012 i had held a hearing on this committee on hate crimes and domestic extremism, following the massacre of six worshipers at a seek perpetrated by a white supremacist. In 2017 i introduced the terrorist domestic terror attack to enhance the governments efforts to prevent domestic terrorism. During the Trump Administration i led multiple letters to attorney general barr and to you asking the steps that were taken by the department of justice and the fbi to combat the growing threat of white supremacist violence. I asked why the bureau made the inexplicable decision to stop tracking White Supremacy incidents as a separate category of domestic terrorism and im still awaiting the response. Meanwhile, the threat posed by domestic terrorists and in particular White Supremacists and other farright extremists has only continued to grow. The 2015 mass shooting in charleston, south carolina, where a white supremacist killed nine members of the church, the 2018 has shooting of the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, where they killed 11 members of the jewish congregation. The 2019 mass shooting at walmart in el paso, texas, where a white supremacist killed 23 people and many, many more. Far too Many Americans particularly people of color and religious minorities worry whether theyre community will be next to be devastated by tragedy. Despite the scope of the violent white supremacist former President Trump and his administration unfortunately downplayed the threat posed by White Supremacists. The Trump Administration never set up a task force to combat the numerous incidents of deadly terrorism by White Supremacists and it was only after the black lives matter activists protested last summer against Police Misconduct that the administration found the need to establish a task force to address and i quote, antigovernment extremists. In a recent report in the new york times, details how the Trump Administrations baseless efforts to paint the far left as the real domestic terrorism threat, quote, diverted keep portions of the federal Law Enforcement domestic security agencies at a time when the threat from the far right was building ominously. So to put this challenge in context, even conservative writers believe we are now facing a constitutional crisis. For the first time ever, we have failed to have a peaceful transfer of power and many are questioning the legitimacy of the current administration. The fact that this Divisive Political force is hateful and violent challenges all of us to redouble our efforts. I join my republican colleagues unequivocally in condemning left wing violence but lets stop pretending that the threat of antifa is the equivalent to the White Supremacy threat. Vandalizing a federal courthouse in portland is a crime and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law but it is not equivalent to a violent attempt to over turn the results of elections and nor equivalent to Mass Shootings targeting minority communities. This false equivalency is ann insult to the brave polices who were injured or lost their lives on january 6th and dozens of others murdered in white supremacist attacks. We need to be clear that the white supremacist and other extremists are the most significant domestic terrorism threat facing the United States today. I hope everyone in this room could look at facts and acknowledge this and we could come together on a bipartisan basis to defeat this threat. Now id like to turn to Ranking Member grassley. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And thank you, director wray, for being here as opposed to being virtual like we have some people testifying. We all agree that what happened at the capitol january 6th was a desecration of our shared values. It was an attack on the seat of democracy. Those who engaged in violence disgraced our country and we know the statistics, at least seven people including one u. S. Capitol Police Officer died as a result of that day. Also know that two officers committed suicide and we know that hundreds were injured. And we expected god watches over them and their families. Those who broke the law must be prosecuted and Congress Needs answers, especially about one officer, Brian Sicknick, what happened to him. In pursuit of the facts related to january 6th, senator durbin and i have sent oversight letters to the fbi and other agencies, to date we havent received any productions. It is difficult to hold a hearing today without records. So the fbi must fully respond to congress. However, im pleased to see that many investigative cases are progressing around the country. As ive noted before, the ultimate responsibility for this attack rests on the shoulders of those who unlawfully entering the capitol. Ive also made very clear that everyone involved must take responsibility for their actions that day including our former president , now in the wake of january 6th, we must seriously examine the threats of domestic extremism. But unfortunately this threat isnt limited to the events of that terrible day to fully address it we must examine the forms of domestic extremism that span the ideological spectrum and i hope this doesnt put me opposite senator durbin on those issue and i just heard him and i dont think i have disagreed with anything that he has said but a narrow view of these matters who be intellectually dishonest. Were not serious about tackling domestic extremism, if we tolerate mobs that attack some Police Officers but not all Police Officers. Were not serious about tackling domestic extremism if we care about some government building being attacked but not others. Were not serious about tackling domestic extremism if we only focus on White Supremacy movements which isnt the only ideology that is responsible for murders and violence. Yes, White Supremacy movements may be considered the most dangerous at a given time, but somehow it wasnt last summer or wouldnt be when the next foreign attack is attempted. We must call extremism wherever it happens across the board, left or right, every time. We must focus our resources to try to see as much of it coming as we possibly can, wherever it comes from. It hardly registered in the media when marshals and secret Service Officers defended courthouses and the white house. That is not senator durbins fault, that is the medias fault. They were called stormtroopers like the speaker of the house like they arent even human beings. Vice president harris when she was a senator supported the Minnesota Freedom Fund bailing out violent associates and they boasted on twitter that they donated to the group, according to one news report, the group paid 75,000 to get one man out of jail when he was charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting at a Police Officer during the may protests. One of the most upsetting aspects of the violence this summer has been the targeting of innocent lawmaker officers, just like innocent Law Enforcement officers were targeted during january 6th. We had more than 700 officers being injured between may 27th last year and june 8th last year. Officers have been assaulted, slashed, struck with hammers, baseball bats and blinded by lasers. 67 secret Service Officers were injured during a threeday siege on the white house which caused then President Trump to be brought into a secure bunker. We also remember on television seeing our colleague from kentucky having a hard time getting to the white house when he wanted to go there sometime last summer. We also had the church across the street was lit on fire across the street from the white house, as part of that continued leftwing assault. More than 00 p300 people were charged federally for those roles in the months of violence. Any of those charged related to the use of arson and explosives. At least 14,000 people were arrested in 49 cities. At least 25 people died in violence related to the riots. There has been 280 arrests as a result of the january 6th attack compared to more than 1,000 arrests as a result of riots just in portland last year. It is been estimated that insurance losses of summers civil unrest possibly exceeded 2 billion. Its been a relatively frequent sight at summers violence events to see individuals acting in coordination holding the a symbol for antifa. And as i said before, i dont disagree with anything i heard senator durbin say this morning but we did have an admitted antifa adherence in portland murder a conservative protester. Supporters of that group have been charged federally for promoting riots and using molotov cocktails, even at president bidens electoral victory. And can you believe this, antifa rioters attacked the Oregon Democratic Party headquarters and they did that on inauguration day. You would think that the results of the election ought to satisfy them. If that is what they wanted to accomplish in an antitrump manner of getting rid of President Trump or trump as president. Lets not forget about left wing activists who opened fire on 24 republican congressman and hit a Capitol Police officer, a congressional aide and a lobbyist and representative Steve Scalise at a baseball field in alexandria, virginia. And our colleague on the other side of the aisle had lifethreatening injury at that time. In light of these ever present leftwing threats, im concerned about resource shifting talk among our colleagues across the aisle. Let me say this clearly, we havent going to defund the anarchist extremist program or any other domestic terrorism program. It cant be that the fbi needs a fully funded Art Theft Program but cant afford to fight both rightwing and lef