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House Democrats who furiously condemned attacks on police during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol are also speaking out against police being injured at the anti-Israel protests currently raging at universities across the country.
Fox News Digital reached out to all the remaining members of the now-defunct House select committee on January 6 as well as former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif. – all Democrats who led criticism of how cops were treated in 2021 – to ask whether they would extend the same condemnation to those attacking police on college campuses.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., a member of the committee, told Fox News Digital that she condemned all attacks on law enforcement but panned comparisons to the Capitol riot.
“I condemn attacks on police officers, full stop. At the Capitol and on campuses,” Lofgren said. “It’s worth noting that what is happening on college campuses is not aimed at stopping the peaceful transfer of power or threatening our democratic system of government, so there is not a direct equivalency. Any attempt to sanitize the events on January 6th is a malicious one.”
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House Democratic Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Eric Swalwell and Bennie Thompson are speaking out against attacks on police. (Getty Images)
Swalwell told Fox News Digital, “I condemn all violence against police officers.”
Similarly, a source familiar with the thinking of the former Jan. 6 committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said he also condemns any form of violence.
It comes after reports of police officers being injured during anti-Israel protests at the University of Madison-Wisconsin, the University of Utah, and Emerson College in Boston, as well as violent clashes between students and police at the University of California at Los Angeles.
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Hundreds of students protest outside the Palestine Solidarity Encampment on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)
A report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published last year found that 114 Capitol Police officers were reported injured during the Capitol riot. One officer died on the scene of natural causes, and four more who were at the scene committed suicide in the seven months after the riot.
A spokesperson for Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., would not directly weigh in on whether Schiff condemns the recent attacks against police specifically, but pointed Fox News Digital to earlier statements speaking out against attacks on Jewish students.
“Over the past weeks, from Columbia University to UCLA and far too many campuses in between, many of those demonstrations have turned violent, and created unsafe and wholly unsustainable learning environments for all students. We’ve seen explicit, repeated targeting and intimidation of Jewish students – many of whom have been blocked from entering buildings or called unspeakable things on the basis of their faith and background. This is patently unacceptable and must end,” Schiff said in one of the statements flagged.
More than 100 Capitol Police officers were reported injured on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told Fox News Digital in a statement, “I condemn not only the worst episode of mass anti-police violence in this century and perhaps American history, the insurrectionist mob assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, which injured, wounded and hospitalized nearly 150 Capitol and MPD officers, but any violence against police officers anywhere in the country. [Former President Donald] Trump should stop calling convicted violent felons who assault police officers ‘hostages’ or ‘political prisoners’ because it normalizes, legitimizes and glorifies political violence.”
Pelosi’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment, nor did the office of House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., despite both condemning attacks on police during the Jan. 6 riot.
In an October 2022 Jan. 6 committee hearing, Aguilar accused the pro-Trump protesters of “violently attacking the efforts of the brave men and women in law enforcement trying to resist the mob.”
Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com
