During a House Appropriations Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) questioned J. Thomas Manger, the Chief of the United States Capitol Police, about the impact of presidential pardons for Jan. 6 rioters on morale of Capitol officers.
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00:00Mr. Quigley, you're recognized for five minutes. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you,
00:04Chief, for being here and for your service. I want to follow up on that line
00:11of question, if I may. Giving them every opportunity to succeed, I would imagine
00:17that some of that would include feedback on what they're thinking. Is there an
00:24official process for an officer to give a feedback on a process or how to improve
00:31things or how they're feeling about something that's taken place? There is.
00:36Does everyone take advantage of it? No. There's still folks,
00:42unfortunately, that feel like, well, I'm not gonna open my mouth because I might
00:46get retaliated against or might piss this person off or whatever. The fact of the
00:49matter is, we just finished a department-wide climate survey where it
00:54was, you know, dozens and dozens of questions about what goes on in the
00:58department and how people feel about different things. You know, we, I meet
01:05with the, and my leadership team meets with the FOP regularly and we get
01:11feedback. Let me ask, let me just ask about two things that might have been on
01:17their minds. You were here. I wasn't pulled out of the chambers right away. We're,
01:25we're upstairs and got stuck for a while. I tell everyone I wouldn't be here
01:30without the courage of the DC and the Capitol Police on that day. The fact that,
01:38as the ranking member referenced, you know, we, we actually passed legislation
01:43commemorating the heroism that took place that day and asked that a plaque be put
01:51up. That still hasn't happened. However anybody feels about that, has there been
01:59feedback, some sense of how that might have impacted the morale of the rank and file?
02:04I definitely think it impacts morale. I mean, look, the, the, um, the fact that, um, you know,
02:10January 6th was a, was a pretty traumatic day for this, for this campus. And certainly,
02:14how many officers were injured that day? Uh, at least 140, I believe. And, and those that passed,
02:20uh, on the, in the coming days? Say again? Police officers who we lost in the coming days,
02:26immediately thereafter? We, we lost a couple of them. Yes. Yeah. But, but this, look, um, there's,
02:34there's a wide divergence of opinions about what occurred on January 6th. And, um, but I will tell
02:41you, I know what my cops, you know, how they feel. And, uh, I've spent the last, um, four years trying
02:47to make sure that they know that their service was respected and, and, um, that what they did was,
02:52was honorable. And, um, but look, well, like with any, you have some officers that feel, um, you know,
02:59feel okay about everything that has occurred. You've got others that look at, look at the pardons
03:04and look at a bunch of other things and say, um, that, that, um, you know, well, I guess people
03:09didn't care about us. The, the opinions run the gamut. Was there any attempt at checking morale as it
03:17affected, was affected by the plaque or specifically the pardons? Um, well, I would tell you. I can't
03:25believe it was split 50-50, but you tell me how people reacted. Um, you might, um, there, no one
03:32asked those specific questions, but I will tell you that I got an earful, um, with regard to the pardons.
03:36And I made a statement to my officers and, um, and made, uh, a couple of public statements about the fact
03:43that, um, any time, it doesn't, it doesn't matter who the president is, what party it is, anything.
03:49Any time a police officer who is assaulted, um, someone who assaults a police officer gets pardoned,
03:54I think that cops all over this country would look at that and say, you know, why are we doing what we're doing?
04:05Yeah, there's more things I want to talk about, but I, I, Chairman, I don't want to break it up
04:11and, uh, get into that. Uh, I just want to know that, um, I appreciate
04:17what the officers did that day. Um, I had a firsthand view of it. Uh, I want to thank them
04:25every day for that because I, I think they say more than, uh, our lives, but, uh, where our
04:32republic was at the time and, uh, we should put the plaque up. Um, we're seeing now that those
04:39pardoned, many of them have been arrested since then. And, uh, I, I believe all that
04:45is done is encouraged others to act in a similar way in the future. So, uh, thank you again
04:50for your service and for being here today.
04:55Mr. Strong, your five minutes.
04:57Chief Manager, I want to thank you for your service to our nation for over 45 years and
05:03congratulate you on your upcoming retirement. I also want to extend my graduate, uh, my gratitude
05:08ормs.