OFFICIALS: PENTAGON LIMITED GUARD TROOPS
Commander details ‘unusual’ constraints during Jan. 6 riot
Pentagon officials placed “unusual” restrictions on the D.C. National Guard before the Capitol riot, its commander told senators Wednesday, saying the military leaders’ fears of a repeat of aggressive tactics used during racial justice protests last year slowed decisionmaking and squandered time as the violence by a proTrump mob escalated.
Military and federal security officials detailed in a joint Senate committee hearing the additional security breakdowns that led to the failure to quell the mob attack on Jan. 6. Maj. Gen. William J. Walker, the D.C. National Guard commander, said he did not receive approval to mobilize troops until more than three hours after he had requested it.
The delay he outlined was longer than previously known and came to light in the latest hearing by lawmakers investigating the attack.
Days before the riot, the Pentagon had removed Walker’s authority to quickly deploy his troops, he testified. He said he was unable to move troops even from one traffic stop to another without permission from Ryan McCarthy, the Army secretary. Once Walker had approval for deployment, the
guard arrived at the Capitol only minutes later, at 5:20 p.m., and helped re-establish the security perimeter on the east side of the building.
Walker said he could have had 150 troops to the complex hours earlier. The violent rampage that unfolded over nearly five hours caused injuries to nearly 140 police officers and left five people dead.
“That number could have made a difference,” Walker said of the possibility of deploying his troops earlier.
“Seconds mattered,” he added. “Minutes mattered.”
In response to questions from senators, Walker said he believed that a double standard existed in the military decision-making, pointing out differences between the quick and aggressive tactics he was authorized to use during protests last spring and summer of police killings of Black men and the slower response to the violence of Trump supporters. He said military officials had expressed concerns about the “optics” of sending troops into the Capitol to subdue Americans.
The restrictions were put in place because of the widely criticized crackdown by the guard on mostly peaceful protesters in Washington in June, said Robert G. Salesses, a senior Defense Department official testifying at the hearing.
He said that McCarthy and other military officials, including Christopher Miller, the acting defense secretary, delayed deciding whether to deploy forces on Jan. 6 because they wanted to know more about what the troops would be doing. They had assumed deployment authority over the D.C. National Guard to avoid a repeat of last year, Salesses said.
“Secretary Miller wanted to make the decisions of how the National Guard was going to be employed on that day,” Salesses testified.
Walker recounted how the day had unfolded as Trump supporters protesting congressional certification of the election results devolved into violence. He said he had received a “frantic call” at 1:49 p.m. from Steven Sund, then the chief of the Capitol Police, about half an hour before rioters breached the Capitol.
“Chief Sund, his voice cracking with emotion, indicated that there was a dire emergency at the Capitol,” Walker testified. “He requested the immediate assistance of as many available National Guardsmen I could muster.”
He said he had immediately alerted Army leaders and even put troops on buses “ready to move to the Capitol.” But Miller did not approve the request until 3:04 p.m., after military officials had expressed their concerns about optics. Walker did not receive word that Pentagon officials had authorized his request until 5:08 p.m. — three hours and 19 minutes after he had received Sund’s plea.
The testimony came at the latest bipartisan investigative hearing of the Homeland Security and Rules Committees. At a hearing last week, Chief Robert J. Contee III of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington testified that he was “stunned” at the slow deployment of the National Guard on Jan. 6, noting that even as the violence escalated, the Army had expressed reluctance to send troops.
At that hearing, the first joint oversight meeting of the two committees, three former top Capitol security officials deflected responsibility for failures that contributed to the riot, blaming the other agencies, one another and at one point even a subordinate for the breakdowns that allowed hundreds of Trump supporters to storm the Capitol.
The officials testified that the FBI and the intelligence community had failed to provide adequate warnings that rioters planned to seize the Capitol and that the Pentagon was too slow to authorize guard troops to help overwhelmed police forces after the attack began.
The testimony came as the Capitol Police said they were increasing security this week on Capitol Hill, warning of “potential threats toward members of Congress or toward the Capitol complex.”
Testifying at a House hearing, Yogananda D. Pittman, the acting Capitol Police chief, told lawmakers that her agency had received “concerning” intelligence about possible threats against the Capitol for today.
Leaving nothing to chance, House leaders on Wednesday abruptly moved a vote on policing legislation from today to Wednesday night, so lawmakers could leave town, according to a senior Democratic aide familiar with the planning.
The “possible” plot, as described by the Capitol Police, appeared to be inspired by the pro-Trump conspiracy theory known as QAnon, according to a senior administration official who reviewed the intelligence warning. Intelligence analysts had spent weeks tracking online chatter by some QAnon adherents who have latched on to March 4 — the original inauguration date set in the Constitution — as the day Donald Trump would be restored to the presidency and renew his crusade against America’s enemies.
Some federal officials described the threats as more “aspirational” than operational. The militia group was not named, and even many influential QAnon followers, who believe the United States is dominated by a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles, have cast March 4 as a “deep state” plot to incite the movement’s adherents and provoke a nationwide crackdown.
But after being caught flat-footed by rioters on Jan. 6, the Capitol Police and members of Congress appeared to be taking no chances. Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, a senior Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, pleaded on CNN on Wednesday: “President Trump has a responsibility to tell them to stand down. This threat is credible. It’s real. It’s a right-wing militia group.”
The perimeter of the Capitol had already been ringed with new fencing, topped with razor wire. The Capitol Police said the agency is reaching out to local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to prepare further.