Representative Brad Schneider, a Democrat from Illinois, was among the members forced to take shelter while protesters occupied the Capitol on Wednesday.
He told CNN that he is extremely frustrated by the lack of information from the Capitol Police about what went wrong and what changes will be made as a result of the insurrection.
“I’m frustrated, extremely frustrated that we didn’t have these briefings, not just us, but for the American people. What happened, where it broke, what we know, what we are learning from it, you get more briefings, from a local theft than what we have in this, “said Schneider.
“I participated in conversations and reports within the Democratic caucus. We did not have a complete briefing. We cannot have a classified briefing, at least I am not, I do not have the technology to be part of a classified briefing, so I was not part of that,” he added .
Schneider expressed admiration for Capitol Police officers, who he believed did the best they could in difficult circumstances, but he was quick to point out that it was a position they did not need to be in.
“What happened on Wednesday was preventable. It was predictable first. There were reports, you just have to look on social media. I saw a report today that the FBI was concerned with effectively citing, citing a war on the Capitol. It was preventable. There were steps that I believe the Capitol Police, others could have taken to keep the crowd at bay, and have positions of retreat, so that even if they broke the first barrier, they could have stopped it at the secondary or even the third, and it should have been handled much better. We are hearing more and more reports about slow response and poor communication, “he said.
Schneider is not alone in his concern. Many members believe they are not getting the level of information they need from the Capitol Police, and, according to a senior Democratic aide, frustration is growing.
“For every suspicious package in Hill, I get 10 emails in real time. So when it comes to the biggest security breach in recent times, we hear very little,” said the aide.
Specifically, the complaint is that there is little real-time information being shared by the Capitol Police and this team member doesn’t feel that there is a level of coordination when it comes to updates and alerts – it’s basically radio silence. In addition to a briefing that was hastily arranged on Monday night, there was no briefing by the Capitol Police chief of staff for members.
Schneider also expressed concern that some Capitol police officers may have been involved in or helped the protesters. He said that radicalization in the ranks of the military and law enforcement has been a problem for some time and needs to be resolved.
“I have heard of this and, yes, I have long been concerned with radicalization in our security forces and even in our military,” said Schneider. He pointed to the legislation he introduced in the past to address the problem.
“We need to understand the risk and then develop the plans and implement those plans to address and eliminate that risk. My hope is that in this new Congress, we can do that,” he added.