Critics raised “red flags” after the U.S. Capitol Police gave just one day’s notice of a Sunday “training exercise” at the U.S. Capitol featuring “low-flying helicopters,” emergency vehicles and the “simulated sound of gunfire” just weeks before the midterms.
“Uhhhh. What,” asked Brendan Karet, a former researcher and writer for Media Matters for America, in response to the Capitol Police’s announcement.
The Capitol Police is a federal law enforcement agency charged with protecting members of Congress and has expanded since the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in 2021. The agency has grown its numbers significantly over the past several years, and its budget ballooned by 20% to $1 billion for fiscal year 2027.
The Capitol Police conducted similar training exercises with simulated gunfire at the U.S. Capitol, though not since last year, with the timing of the latest drill — just 16 days before the midterms — giving critics pause.
“Lol, sure,” wrote animation director Adam Deats in a social media post on X. “How many more glaring red flags do we need?”
Gonz Shimura, a podcaster and documentary filmmaker, argued the latest drill and its predecessors were “happening way too often to be mere coincidence,” and prominent liberal influencer Ed Krassenstein asked a sarcastic follow-up question to the Capitol Police’s announcement.
“Are they practicing shooting the Capitol Police?” Krassenstein asked.
The Capitol Police did not say what Sunday’s exercise was meant to simulate, calling it only a “routine training exercise” and urging the public, “Please do not be alarmed.”
The last time the agency publicly warned of simulated gunfire at the Capitol was a Sunday drill on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in July 2025. For that one, it told the public to expect “a loud boom” and large numbers of police officers. In October 2024, about a week before that year’s presidential election, the agency held a helicopter drill on the Capitol grounds.
uhhhh. what — Brendan Karet (@bad_takes) October 17, 2026
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