It is a locus of people gathering and an opportunity to talk to legislators and to be in DC and try to understand for someone like me, that doesn't work in politics, who is not involved in policy work and organizing what is the texture of this stuff here?
That incident, in which the 55-year-old assailant was arrested and later charged with third degree assault, illustrates the day-to-day threat environment member of Congress face. Omar wasn't even the only one attacked in the past week: Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) got punched in the face at the Sundance Film Festival just days earlier. By the numbers: The Capitol Police opened 14,938 cases into "concerning statements, behaviors, and communications" directed at congressional offices and family members in 2025, the department said in a press release.
NPR Investigations correspondent Tom Dreisbach sat down with two officers who defended the Capitol Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges to watch their police body camera footage from Jan. 6. Both were subjected to some of the most brutal violence of the day, inside a tunnel where police were outnumbered by rioters armed with flagpoles, stun guns, crutches, stolen police shields and chemical sprays. Fanone, Hodges and other officers say that Trump's mass pardon of Jan. 6 rioters has exacerbated the trauma of that day.
