Newly released security video shows a sprinting Ofc. Goodman directing Sen. Romney to turn around and run away from rioters on Jan. 6. pic.twitter.com/reuL58nAQr
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) February 10, 2021
Video shown for the first time on Wednesday during the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump shows just how close rioters got to encountering Trump nemesis Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah). As depicted on footage, Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman—who has been lauded as a hero for something that happened later on that day–crossed paths with the senator.
Impeachment manager, Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands), described footage as showing the officer telling Romney to turn around in order to get to safety. This happened as Goodman was running to respond to the initial breach of the Capitol Building, Plaskett said.
This is the second day of the impeachment trial. Democrats and 10 Republicans in the House impeached Trump, taking him to task for inciting supporters to raid the Capitol Building on Jan. 6. Rioters postponed but did not prevent Congress from counting Electoral College votes weighing in favor of actual 2020 presidential election winner Joe Biden. Impeachment managers are making the case that Trump started priming his supporters to believe the election would be stolen some six months before Election Day. The now-former president relentlessly continued attacking the legitimacy of the results. Lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) cited Trump telling his supporters to “fight like hell” in a speech before the siege.
The danger was real on Jan. 6, and five people lost their lives as a result: four Trump supporters and one Capitol police officer. Charging documents in the siege show that at least some people allegedly voiced a desire to kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and then-Vice President Mike Pence. Trump had thrown the latter under the bus by falsely telling his supporters that the VP had a secret constitutional power to unilaterally reject Electoral College in the interest of his own reelection. As seen on video, some Trump supporters were chanting, “Hang Mike Pence.”
You can certainly add Romney to the former president’s list of enemies. The Utah senator was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump of abusing his power at the first impeachment trial. Footage from the day before the siege showed hecklers smack-talking Romney at an airport. A woman grilled him for not supporting Trump. He faced chants of “traitor” by Trump supporters on the flight.
It is worth noting that Romney hardly looked pleased when Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) continued to question election results hours after the siege.
Today we learned that Hawley nearly got Romney killed, if not for the heroics of Eugene Goodman. https://t.co/G40hf0NABe
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) February 10, 2021
As for Goodman, much has been made about previously reported video showing him serving as a decoy in order to guide rioters away from the unsealed Senate Chambers. Rioters might have run into at least a half-dozen armed officers had they entered the chamber, according to the findings of a Washington Post report.
Impeachment managers aired footage showing that dicey confrontation from another angle. Plaskett said that one of the rioters had a baseball bat.
New security footage shows Officer Goodman provoking the rioters to draw them from the door of the Senate chamber and toward the other officers.
“The rioter seen carrying a baseball bat in this video is the same one we saw moments ago breaching the window,” Plaskett noted. pic.twitter.com/MilIqL0Lzb
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) February 10, 2021
[Screengrab via MSNBC]
