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This is VOA News. Via remote, I'm Marissa Melton.
Four U.S. police officers told the congressional investigating committee on Tuesday in gripping detail how an angry mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump broke into the U.S. Capitol building on January 6th in an attempt to block certification of Joe Biden's win in the November presidential election.
The officers said they feared for their lives as about 800 rioters stormed past outmanned law enforcement authorities. They testified that the rioters taunted them with racial and political epithets, sprayed chemical irritants at them and engaged in hand-to-hand combat.
This was the first day of public hearings on the deadly mayhem more than six months ago, the worst attack in more than two centuries on the U.S. Capitol building.
The select committee listening to the testimony is made up of seven Democratic members of the House of Representatives and two Republicans.
The hearing Tuesday was broadcast live on television and the internet.
In the effort to defend former President Trump from accusations he incited the violence at the Capitol, numerous Republicans have minimized the event. One lawmaker compared the rioters to tourists. Others voted against a measure honoring police for protecting the Capitol.
Republican leaders have argued that the latest investigation is simply a political exercise designed to cast the Republican Party in a poor light ahead of mid-term elections next year.
The U.S. government has suspended cooperation with Guatemala's attorney general's office in response to the firing of its top anti-corruption prosecutors. The United States said it has "lost confidence" in the Central American country's willingness to fight corruption.
The U.S. State Department deputy spokeswoman, Jalina Porter, told reporters in Washington Tuesday the decision by Guatemala's attorney general to fire the Guatemalan special prosecutor against impunity "fits a pattern of behavior that indicates a lack of commitment to the rule of law."
This is VOA News.
