Former McCarthy staffer: Brooks "cheering on" from inside the Capitol on Jan. 6

former top aide to U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that Congressman Mo Brooks was cheering on the attack from inside a secure location.

Ryan O’Toole, who served as McCarthy’s cloakroom director at the time of the Jan. 6 attack, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday that there was a range of emotions from those in Congress as the attack was underway.

“Members were fearful for their lives. Republican members themselves, men crying in the cloakroom for their safety,” O’Toole said. “And so as we escaped the chamber, to what sounded like gunshots, to the secure location, I think people were still scared.”

“Members and staff were still scared and not sure what was happening, and so you did have some members express a different view. One member, Mo Brooks, for example, was glad. He was cheering on the fact that the 117th Congress had started this way, and that was much to the dismay of others in the room and certainly, I think does not carry the sentiment that the day has today,” O’Toole said.

Read more: https://www.alreporter.com/2022/01/06/former-mccarthy-staffer-mo-brooks-cheered-from-inside-during-jan-6-capitol-attackers/
(Alabama Political Reporter)