  Federal authorities have arrested Matthew Beddingfield for his role in the Capitol insurrection, which he attended with his father while out on bail for a first-degree attempted murder charge.
Beddingfield, who was arrested on Tuesday, was caught on camera brawling with police and entering the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6. He could also be seen jabbing at cops with a flagpole, and later was spotted inside the building. In addition to several misdemeanors, he faces felony charges of assaulting officers, impeding officers during a civil disorder, and carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon on restricted Capitol grounds, as first reported by NBC News.
HuffPost revealed Beddingfield’s identity more than 10 months ago, on March 26, in a story that built off the work of a network of citizen-sleuths. They used facial recognition software to match footage of Beddingfield at the Capitol to his publicly available mug shot from a 2019 arrest for attempted murder.
In December 2019, Beddingfield ― then 19 ― allegedly shot another teenager in the head in the parking lot of a North Carolina Walmart before fleeing the scene in a Dodge Charger. He was held in jail on a $1 million bond, then was released a few weeks later when it was lowered to $100,000. He has since pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.
Beddingfield’s case highlights the growing role of facial recognition in criminal investigations. Facial recognition tools can misidentify Black and Asian people at alarming rates, and their widespread use would have serious implications for privacy and civil liberties. The Jan. 6 attack, however, was carried out by an overwhelmingly white crowd. In the Capitol attack investigation, facial recognition has given investigators ― both in law enforcement and in the general public ― promising leads that can then be confirmed through other methods. In Beddingfield’s case, it was his father’s public Facebook posts that helped online sleuths confirm his identity.
 Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday rebuked the Republican National Committee over its censure of Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) last week. “The issue is whether or not the RNC should be sort of singling out members of our party who may have different views from the majority. That’s not the job of the RNC,” McConnell said at a weekly press conference. “Traditionally the view of the national party committee is, we support all members of our party, regardless of their positions on some issues,” he added. McConnell also told reporters that the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol was a “violent insurrection” meant to stop the peaceful transition of presidential power. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said podcast star Joe Rogan “shouldn’t have apologized” for repeatedly using a racist slur, comparing a Black neighborhood to “Planet of the Apes” and spreading coronavirus misinformation on his show “The Joe Rogan Experience.” DeSantis, weighing in on the controversy in an interview with Fox News on Monday, pointed a finger at “the left,” claiming those with opposing political opinions want to bring Rogan down because of his ability to “reach so many people.” 
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