Protesters clashed with U.S. police outside the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The head of the Capitol Police Department resigned after a violent incident at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday (Jan. 6).
A police spokesman told the news media that Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund’s resignation will take effect Jan. 16.
Sund said he had never experienced a similar incident in his 30-year career in law enforcement.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had called for Sund to step down earlier Thursday.
“There has been poor leadership at the top of the Capitol Police Department,” she told reporters at a news conference. “I don’t think that Mr. Sander even gave us a call after this happened.”
Lawmakers met Wednesday in a joint session at the Capitol to count and certify the Electoral College votes for the 2020 presidential election. At about 2:15 p.m., a small group of people stormed the Capitol and caused injury during a debate in the chamber over whether to reject Arizona’s Electoral College votes. The joint session proceedings were interrupted.
It was not immediately clear who instigated the incident. Officials announced at about 6 p.m. that the Capitol was secured. Early Thursday, Congress certified the Electoral College vote for former Vice President Joe Biden.
Sander said before announcing his resignation Thursday that the rioters attacked police and other law enforcement officers with metal pipes, chemical irritants and copped other weapons to attack other officials on Wednesday.
In brief remarks at the White House, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany condemned Wednesday’s violence.
“The violence we saw in the nation’s capital yesterday was appalling and rightly condemned, and it runs counter to the American way. We condemn it, and the president and this administration condemn it in the strongest possible terms.” “This is unacceptable, and those who broke the law should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” she said at a news conference on Thursday afternoon.
She said Wednesday’s incident was “a group of violent rioters who undermined the legal First Amendment rights of thousands of people who came to speak out peacefully in our nation’s capital.”
“Those who violently besieged our Capitol are antithetical to everything this administration stands for.” She said, “The core values of our government are that all citizens have the right to live in safety, peace and freedom.”
Following the violence at the Capitol, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is seeking the public’s help in identifying those involved; National Guard personnel will be stationed in Washington through the end of the month. Jan. 20 is Inauguration Day, the day Biden is scheduled to be sworn in.
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