Officer defends calling pro-Trump rioters 'terrorists'
Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges, who referred to the pro-Trump mob as "terrorists" or "terrorism" at least 15 times in his opening testimony, defended using the term.
"Why do you call the attackers terrorists? And what do you think of our colleagues who call them tourists?" asked Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., referring to a comment by a GOP Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia referring to the scenes of rioters as looking like a "normal tourist visit."
"Well, if that's what American tourists are like, I can see why foreign countries don't like American tourists," Hodges said to laughter in the room.
“But I can see why someone would take issue with the title of terrorist," he continued. "It's gained a lot of notoriety in our vocabulary in the last couple of decades. We like to think that couldn't happen here. No domestic terrorism, no homegrown threats but I came prepared."
He then recited the U.S. code defining domestic terrorism as "activities that involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws in the United States or any state. And B, to be intended too, intimidate or course a civilian population or influence policies by intimidation or coercion or to effect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping," Hodges read.