A discharged Capitol Police officer who assisted in the evacuation of the Capitol during the January 6 riots said his superiors went radio silent and told Tucker Carlson how he wore a red MAGA cap to navigate a hostile mass of demonstrators.
In an interview aired Tuesday, Tarik Johnson told Fox News presenter Chris Wallace that his employers were unprepared for the incident. When the gathering got increasingly angry, he attempted to leave the Senate side of the building but received no response, much alone authority.
Johnson explained that he reached out his supervisors many times over the radio, asking for permission to begin evacuating the Senate side of the building since he had a clear line of sight to a safe departure path but then stated that “The person that I thought was going to authorize the evacuation … didn’t do it,”
He said dispatchers also aided in asking for an evacuation, but no reaction from supervisors arrived, and Johnson finally began guiding the senators to safety on his own. At one point, he was informed that fellow police needed assistance.
Johnson, who claimed he was dismissed after being seen wearing the pro-Trump cap, said it was placed on his head by someone in the crowd, and when the individual requested for it back, Johnson retained it as an act of self-preservation while rushing to the help of his coworkers.
“I figured if I had the hat on, it’d be easier for me to navigate my way through the crowd,” he said. “It was basically self-preservation and de-escalation. And I needed to get up those steps. I couldn’t say what would have happened walking through that crowd without it.”
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Johnson, who stated that he supported for Joseph Biden in the contentious 2020 race, stated that his primary concern was to get “the members of Congress and their staff to safety.”
Carlson stated that the footage seemed to back up Johnson’s description of what occurred.
The conversation came after Carlson presented some of the more than 40,000 hours of previously undisclosed surveillance video that his crew was allowed access to on Monday’s show.
According to the footage, authorities appeared to adopt a passive stance toward several of the people who entered the premises at various moments during the event. The video also indicated that most of the accused rioters appeared to go through the facility in a courteous and orderly manner in several occasions. Yet, the only video footage that was released before, mostly by Democratic Party officials was the one that showed many people shattering windows, scaling fences, and struggling with police outside the Capitol building.
This story is developing.
Independent Writer. Marketing and communications strategist for politicians, artists, public figures & corporate brands for more than 10 years. Contact: @alejandrosbasso (Twitter)
Escritor independiente. Consultor en marketing y comunicaciones de políticos, artistas, figuras públicas y marcas por más de 10 años. Contacto: @alejandrosbasso (Twitter)