Officials from the U.S. Department of the Interior testified on Tuesday about the failures that led to pro-Hamas protesters tearing down and burning government-owned U.S. flags during a rally near the Capitol on July 24.
Republican lawmakers on the House Natural Resources Committee’s subcommittee on oversight and investigations grilled Charles Cuvelier, associate director for visitor and resource protection at the National Park Service, about why the U.S. Park Police were not better prepared to deal with rioters at the “Arrest Netanyahu: Surround the Capitol” march.
“What you’re doing is a disservice to the United States of America, and it disgraces that uniform you wear, and I wore one for 26 years myself,” said Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), a former Navy SEAL.
In July, the National Park Service granted a demonstration permit to the Answer Coalition, an umbrella organization of anti-Israel and far-left protest groups, to hold a rally and march to “stop the genocide in Gaza” during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
The march portion of the event quickly turned violent, with protesters and police clashing along Constitution Avenue and police firing tear gas into the crowd. The rioters couldn’t access Capitol grounds amid the massive police presence.
At Columbus Circle, in front of Union Station, a major Amtrak and Washington Metro hub, the rioters overwhelmed the smaller contingent of Park Police responsible for that area and defaced monuments, tore down government-owned American flags and burned them and raised Palestinian flags.
Four people were arrested and charged, and three others remain under investigation for the violence and property damage.
The anti-Israel protesters graffitied slogans, including “Hamas is coming” with a red triangle logo, used by the terrorist group in its propaganda videos to indicate a target for an attack.
Rep. Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.) said on Tuesday at the hearing that he gathered a group of lawmakers that night to re-hoist the American flag. “I was looking for veterans and rednecks,” Williams said. “I assembled about eight other members of Congress to come with me, four of them Navy SEALs.”
“What’s important about this event is that standing up to all forms of riot, not just because of whatever political persuasion they are, but standing up to all of it, is significant and meaningful,” he added. “There are many who failed to speak out against this riot, but there were eight of us that went and made it right.”
Many of the congressmen questioned Cuvelier about why the Park Service cannot deny permits to groups that have a history of violating the law and causing violence.
Cuvelier explained that the department is bound to grant permits under statute and in line with U.S. First Amendment case law, which prevents the government from restricting speech except in cases of “clear and present danger.”
“There’s nothing in the regulation that indicates prior conduct would be a cause for future permitted events” to be denied, he said. “When the clear and present danger occurred about 40 minutes into the permitted event, they then revoked the permit.”
Lack of clarity
Mark Lee Greenblatt, the inspector general of the Department of the Interior, testified that one problem with holding violent protest groups accountable is that the Park Service does not pursue damages from permit holders that violate the terms of their permits.
“We found no evidence that the Park Service has ever pursued damages from permit holders,” he said. “The Park Service has not established a process for recovering damages and does not have a system for tracking damages that have occurred on those First Amendment events.”
Under the relevant statute, applications for a protest are “deemed granted” automatically within 24 hours unless denied for specific reasons narrowly described by law.
Cuvelier added that the Park Service does not track groups that have violated past permits. “We don’t retain records,” he said. “We base it upon each applicant as it is submitted.”
Those responses met with exasperation from some lawmakers.
“I just don’t even know what that means,” Rep. Rudy Yakym (R-Ind.) said.
The most heated exchange of the hearing came as Cuvelier declined to affirmatively describe the burning of the flags as a “disgrace,” under questioning from Rep. Pete Stauber (R-Minn.).
“For you not to be able to answer that, sir, it’s very disheartening for me,” Stauber said. “Mr. Chair, I’m disgusted.”
“I love our flag,” Cuvelier said.
The committee was supposed to hear from National Park Service Superintendent Kevin Griess, but the Biden administration prevented him from testifying, according to Stauber.
The ranking member of the subcommittee, Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), who was the only Democrat to speak at the two-hour proceeding, questioned whether her Republican colleagues were sincere about wanting to fully fund the Park Police.
“This is a budgetary matter, as we’ve seen time and time again,” she said. “I will be interested to see if our new administration, which plans to create a new government efficiency agency, which is led by outside billionaires and interests, will cut the Park Police funding even more, leaving our public with even less protection.”
Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) said that the answers from the witnesses, including the lack of clarity about how many police officers were at Columbus Circle during the riot, suggest a deeper problem than lack of funding.
“The man doesn’t even know how many people were on site from the National Park Police during this thing,” he said. “We don’t pursue any violators. There’s no process to recoup damages. But in typical bureaucrat fashion, the answer to all the questions is more money so that we can hire more people to watch what’s going on.”