San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
‘CLEAR THE CAPITOL,’ PENCE URGED PENTAGON
Documents give new details of Jan. 6 breach
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.
“We need help,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said in desperation, more than an hour after the Senate chamber had been breached.
At the Pentagon, officials were discussing media reports that the mayhem was not confined to Washington and that other state capitals were facing similar violence in what had the makings of a national insurrection.
“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 new details from the deadly riot of Jan. 6 during the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election victory 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 government’s failure to comprehend the scale and intensity of a violent uprising by its own citizens.
With Trump not engaged, it fell to Pentagon officials, a handful of senior White House aides, the leaders of Congress and the vice president, holed up in a secure bunker, to manage the chaos.
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 protected location, calling Christopher Miller, the acting defense secretary, and demanding answers.
The call lasted 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.
Government leaders had talked about the use of the National Guard just three days earlier. On the afternoon of Jan. 3, Miller and Milley gathered with other Cabinet members to talk about Jan. 6. 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 Guard’s role was limited to traffic intersections and checkpoints around the city, based in part on strict restrictions mandated by D.C. 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.
Shortly after 3 p.m. Jan. 6, the Army secretary 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.
Dressed in full riot gear, the Guard began arriving at the Capitol at 5:20 p.m.
At 8 p.m. the Capitol was declared secure.