A former Capitol Police lieutenant who was present during the January 6, 2021, incident at the Capitol Building and who ordered the House and Senate to be evacuated pushed back hard on critics of then-President Donald Trump and their description of what happened.
In an X post on Thursday, the former officer, Tarik Johnson, noted that he’s been saying publicly that “J6 was not an insurrection, but not many people would listen,” which was a reference to 2024 GOP presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy’s comments during a CNN town hall event in Iowa a day earlier.
“Ironically so, no one would benefit more than I if J6 was an insurrection as I … was the Commander that ordered and led the evacuations of the Senate and the House during the J6 breach after begging former Assistant Chief Yogananda Pittman for permission to do so as she sat comfortably in the Commander Center watching the events unfold on CCTV while Chief Steven A Sund was obtaining National Guard approval and getting assistance from local law enforcement agencies,” his post continued.
“Pittman flat out ignored me so I was forced to forge ahead with the evacuations without obtaining approval from her,” Johnson’s