Capitol Police Chief: It Was 'De-escalation Tactics' Not 'Tour Guides'

Current Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, who did not serve in the role until seven months after Jan. 6, 2021, sent a memo to staff Tuesday, according to The Washington Post, claiming the video released Monday night was "filled with offensive and misleading conclusions."

The video showed Capitol Police officers, instead of stopping horned-hat-wearing Jacob Chansley, actually walking him to the Senate chamber, including leading him through halls and opening doors for him.

But the chief, who was installed in July 2021, says those interpreting the leading of the protesters through to the Senate as "tour guides" to be "outrageous and false."

The video clips suggests Manger objects to were released under the leadership of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to Fox News' Tucker Carlson.

Manger's interpretation of the event is the officers were using "de-escalation tactics," and not leading him to commit more crime.

"Those officers did their best to use de-escalation tactics to try to talk rioters into getting each other to leave the building," Manger's memo read, the Post reported.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is siding with Democrats and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's chief Manger.

"With regard to the presentation on Fox News last night, I want to associate myself entirely with the opinion of the chief of the Capitol Police about what happened on Jan. 6," McConnell told reporters Tuesday.

Chansley, who legal experts argue was ineffectively defended by his lawyer, submitted a guilty plea for obstruction of an official proceeding, getting 41 months in prison.

The Post reported the average sentence for those guilty of obstructing an official proceeding have gotten 41.7 months in prison.

The lawyer under fire for ineffectively representing Chansley, Albert Watkins, claimed Tuesday he has not seen the video of Chansley being ushered through the Capitol by officers — despite a number of eyewitnesses having said that was what actually was happening Jan. 6.

"What's deeply troubling is the fact that I have to watch Tucker Carlson to find video footage which the government has, but chose not to disclose, despite the absolute duty to do so — despite being requested in writing to do so, multiple times," Watkins told the Post amid the criticism for his weak defense.

Watkins is no longer Chansley's attorney.

Manger's memo also expressed concern the video shown by Fox News "conveniently cherry-picked from the calmer moments of our 41,000 hours of video," but most of the other video showing the violence outside the Capitol has been replayed frequently in the media.

"The commentary fails to provide context about the chaos and violence that happened before or during these less tense moments," Manger's memo added.

Carlson's report also showed Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick walking through the Capitol and waving protesters along inside the Capitol after a violent exchange with protesters outside.

The Carlson narrative counters the Democrats' argument that protesters killed Sicknick, who died the next day of a stroke.

"The most disturbing accusation from last night was that our late friend and colleague Brian D. Sicknick's death had nothing to do with his heroic actions on Jan. 6," Manger wrote, the Post reported.

"The department maintains, as anyone with common sense would, that had Officer Sicknick not fought valiantly for hours on the day he was violently assaulted, Officer Sicknick would not have died the next day."

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