Timeline: ‘Clear the Capitol,’ Pence pleaded
Internal Pentagon file shows details of riot
WASHINGTON — From a secure room in the Capitol on Jan. 6, as rioters pummeled police and vandalized the building, Vice President Mike Pence tried to assert control. In an urgent phone call to the acting defense secretary, he issued a startling demand. “Clear the Capitol,” Pence said. Elsewhere in the building, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were making a similarly dire appeal to military leaders, asking the Army to deploy the National Guard.
“We must establish order,” said Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a call with Pentagon leaders.
But order would not be restored for hours.
These details about the riot are contained in a previously undisclosed document prepared by the Pentagon for internal use that was obtained by The Associated Press and vetted by current and former government officials.
The timeline adds another layer of understanding about the state of fear and panic while the insurrection played out, and lays bare the inaction by then-President Donald Trump and how that void contributed to a slowed response by the military and law enforcement. It shows that the intelligence missteps, tactical errors and bureaucratic delays were eclipsed by the government’s failure to comprehend the scale and intensity of a violent uprising.
With Trump not engaged, it fell to Pentagon officials, a few senior White House aides, the leaders of Congress and the vice president to manage the chaos.
Lawmakers, protected to this day by National Guard troops, will hear from the inspector general of the Capitol Police this week.
“Any minute that we lost, I need to know why,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., chair of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, which is investigating the siege, said last month.
The timeline fills in some of those gaps.
At 4:08 p.m. on Jan. 6, as the rioters roamed the Capitol and after they had menacingly called out for Pelosi, D-Calif., and yelled for Pence to be hanged, the vice president was in a secure location, phoning Christopher Miller, the acting defense secretary, and demanding answers.
There had been a highly public rift between Trump and Pence, with Trump furious that his vice president refused to halt the Electoral College certification. Interfering with that process was an act that Pence considered unconstitutional.
Pence’s call to Miller lasted only a minute. Pence said the Capitol was not secure, and he asked military leaders for a deadline for securing the building, according to the document.
By this point, it had been two hours since the mob overwhelmed Capitol Police unprepared for an insurrection. Rioters broke into the building, seized the Senate and paraded to the House. In their path, they left destruction and debris. Dozens of officers were wounded, some gravely.
Just three days earlier, government leaders had talked about the use of the National Guard.
On the afternoon of Jan. 3, Miller and Milley gathered with Cabinet members to discuss the coming election certification. They also met with Trump.
In that meeting at the White House, Trump approved the activation of the D.C. National Guard and told the acting defense secretary to take whatever action needed as events unfolded, according to the information obtained by the AP.
The next day, Jan. 4, the defense officials spoke by phone with Cabinet members, including the acting attorney general, and completed details of the Guard deployment.
The Guard’s role was limited to traffic intersections and checkpoints around the city, based partly on strict restrictions mandated by district officials. Miller also authorized Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy to deploy, if needed, the D.C. Guard’s emergency reaction force, stationed at Joint Base Andrews.
The Trump administration and the Pentagon were wary of a heavy military presence, partly because of criticism officials faced for the seemingly heavyhanded National Guard and law enforcement efforts to counter civil unrest in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
On the eve of Trump’s rally Jan. 6 near the White House, the first 255 National Guard troops arrived in the district, and Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a letter to the administration that no other military support was needed.
By the morning of Jan. 6, crowds started gathering at the Ellipse before Trump’s speech. According to the Pentagon’s plans, the acting defense secretary would be notified only if the crowd swelled beyond 20,000.
Before long, it was clear that the crowd was far more in control of events than the troops and law enforcement there to maintain order.
Trump, just before noon, was giving his speech, and he told supporters to march to the Capitol. The crowd at the rally was at least 10,000. By 1:15 p.m., the procession was well on its way there.
As protesters reached the Capitol grounds, some immediately became violent, bursting through weak police barriers in front of the building and beating up officers who stood in their way.
At 1:49 p.m., as the violence escalated, then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund called Maj. Gen. William Walker, commanding general of the D.C. National Guard, to request assistance. Walker immediately called Army leaders to inform them of the request.
Twenty minutes later, around 2:10 p.m., the first rioters were beginning to break through the doors and windows of the Senate.
Sund frantically called Walker again and asked for at least 200 Guard members. But even with the advance Cabinet-level preparation, no help was immediately on the way.
Over the next 20 minutes, Army Secretary McCarthy spoke with the mayor and Pentagon leaders about Sund’s request.
At 2:25 p.m., McCarthy told his staff to prepare to move the emergency reaction force to the Capitol. The force could be ready to move in 20 minutes.
Shortly after 3 p.m., McCarthy provided “verbal approval” of the activation of 1,100 National Guard troops to support the D.C. police and the development of a plan for the troops’ deployment duties, locations and unit sizes. Minutes later, the Guard’s emergency reaction force left Joint Base Andrews for the D.C. Armory. But military and law enforcement leaders struggled over the next 90 minutes to execute the plan.
The Guard troops had been prepared only for traffic duties. Army leaders argued that sending them into a volatile combat situation required additional instruction to keep both them and the public safe.
By 3:37 p.m., the Pentagon sent its own security forces to guard the homes of defense leaders. No troops had yet reached the Capitol.
At 3:48 p.m., frustrated that the D.C. Guard hadn’t fully developed a plan to link up with police, the Army secretary dashed from the Pentagon to D.C. police headquarters to help coordinate with law enforcement.
At 4:17 p.m., Trump tweeted to his followers to “go home and go in peace.”
By about 4:30 p.m., the military plan was finalized, and Walker had approval to send the Guard to the Capitol.
At about 4:40 p.m. Pelosi and Schumer were again on the phone with Milley and the Pentagon leadership, asking Miller to secure the perimeter.
It would be another hour before the first contingent of 155 Guard members were at the Capitol.
They started moving out the rioters, but there were few, if any, arrests by police.
At 8 p.m. the Capitol was declared secure.