Rep. Moulton Has 'No Confidence' In Capitol Police: 'They Were Not Up To The Task At Hand'

Rep. Seth Moulton was in his office across the street from the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, preparing to vote with his colleagues on the House floor to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the Electoral College, when a violent mob breached barriers, shattered windows and streamed into the halls of Congress. Moulton said his office building was left with almost no police presence as Capitol Police were called to the scene.

Eventually, Moulton said, he heard loud banging and shouting outside his office door.

“I didn’t know when I opened the door whether it [would be] police or protestors,” Moulton told GBH Morning Edition Host Joe Mathieu Thursday, though it turned out to be police. “I knew that our offices were totally vulnerable."

Moulton, who represents Massachusetts' 6th Congressional District, said the Capitol Police were under-resourced, improperly trained and “certainly not up to the task” of keeping rioters at bay and securing the compromised building. He told Mathieu that he has never had full confidence in the Capitol Police, and their “incompetent” operation yesterday was unacceptable.

“At the end of the day, they allowed the U.S. Capitol to be breached for the first time since 1812,” Moulton said. “So don’t tell me they handled it well.”

Moulton, a combat veteran who served four tours in Iraq, said he never imagined he would see that kind of violence unfold at the epicenter of American politics.

“This kind of assault on our democracy is something that I expected as a United States Marine in Iraq, trying to bring democracy to a country that didn’t have it,” he said. “I never imagined it would happen right here in Washington, DC.”

As the events were still unfolding, Moulton called for the removal of the president, tweeting, “Trump is directly responsible for this insurrection and violence” and calling for Vice President Pence and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment and begin drawing up articles of impeachment.

“It’s never too late to do the right thing or to follow the law,” he said about Trump’s final days in office. “Maybe [Pence] will finally see that loyalty to this criminal means nothing.”

Moulton pointed to the contrast between yesterday's violence and the peaceful Black Lives Matter protests this summer, saying that authorities should have seen the right-wing violence coming.

“The security situation that unfolded yesterday afternoon will continue for the coming weeks and months as we try to understand what information was compromised,” he said. He also implored incoming President Biden to pass a universal background check law to prevent future gun violence and raised the possibility that foreign agents may have taken part in yesterday's melee.

“[Trump] is truly dangerous to our system of government,” Moulton said. “That’s why we have to hold him accountable. Lawlessness will not be tolerated in a country of laws, especially when it comes from the president of the United States.”