Police Chief: Capitol Police were ready for trouble, but not a riot

Yogananda Pittman and the acting House sergeant-at-arms, Timothy Blodgett, faced questions from members of a House subcommittee investigating the riot on Jan. 6, when rioters invaded the Capitol aiming to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's election victory over Trump.

Pittman planned to tell lawmakers that Capitol Police knew there was a possibility that armed extremist poised for violence could be heading to the Capitol that day, but the invasion was worse than expected and law enforcement was unprepared.

The subcommittee chairman, Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, said he wants to know what are the most important ``institutional and cultural reforms'' that Congress can make to keep the Capitol campus as accessible to the public as possible.

The panel's top Republican, Washington Rep. Jaime Herrera-Beutler, said the top Capitol Police officials ``either failed to take seriously the intelligence received or the intelligence failed to reach the right people.''