Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) repeated a dubious claim this week about January 6, when he claimed that multiple police officers died due to the events at the Capitol that day.
Jeffries received significant public attention last week as the Democratic nominee for Speaker in the process that resulted from Tuesday through late Friday evening. Even though there was never any realistic chance that Jeffires could win the position, he received more votes than Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) did until the last three rounds of voting.
Jeffries was named by his party as the Minority House leader and was very visible as Democrats promoted their continuing narrative about January 6 at last week’s events marking the second anniversary of the disturbance at the Capitol.
As the newly elected House Democratic leader, Jeffries repeated a controversial claim Saturday that multiple police officers died due to the Jan. 6 Capitol protest. This allegation falsely cites suicides and natural deaths as fatalities in connection with the incident.
While @TheDemocrats pontificate January 6, let’s remind them of the months of riots, dozens of deaths, hundreds of fires, and thousands of properties destroyed, that Democrat officials enabled, encouraged, and even funded during the Summer of Love in 2020. pic.twitter.com/ADL2jxgUhM
— Errol Webber (@ErrolWebber) January 6, 2023
In a speech on Friday, Jefferies spoke to honor “the hundreds of officers who defended us at the citadel of Democracy” on January 6.
He also claimed, “As a result of the events on January sixth, the lives of five heroic officers were lost.”
No officers died on January 6.
Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick’s stroke on January 6 caused his death the following day. Democrats have claimed his death was caused by protestors, although the District of Columbia medical examiner classified his death as being from natural causes.
The other four officers, usually claimed by Democrats to be casualties of the Capitol protest, committed suicide in the months after January 6. They include officers Charles Liebengood, Jeffrey Smith, Kyle DeFreytag, and Gunther Hashida.
The Department of Justice classified Liebengood’s death as occurring in the line of duty in November 2022, almost two years after January 6. The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department classified Smith’s death as occurring in the line of duty in March 2021.
