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General
Walker:
Pentagon
hesitated
on
sending
Guard to
Capitol
riot
By
ERIC
TUCKER
and
MARY
CLARE
JALONICK
apnews.com
WASHINGTON
- The
Defense
Department
took
more
than
three
hours to
dispatch
the
National
Guard to
the
deadly
riot at
the U.S.
Capitol
despite
a
frantic
request
for
reinforcement
from
police,
according
to
testimony
Wednesday
that
added to
the
finger-pointing
about
the
government
response.
Maj.
Gen.
William
Walker,
commanding
general
of the
District
of
Columbia
National
Guard,
told
senators
that the
then-chief
of the
Capitol
Police
requested
military
support
in a
1:49
p.m.
call,
but the
Defense
Department’s
approval
for that
support
was not
relayed
to him
until
after 5
p.m.,
according
to
prepared
testimony.
Guard
troops
who had
been
waiting
on buses
were
then
rushed
to the
Capitol.
That
delay
stood in
contrast
to the
immediate
approval
for
National
Guard
support
granted
in
response
to the
civil
unrest
that
roiled
American
cities
last
spring
as an
outgrowth
of
racial
justice
protests,
Walker
said. As
local
officials
pleaded
for
help,
Army
officials
raised
concerns
about
the
optics
of a
substantial
National
Guard
presence
at the
Capitol,
he said.
“The
Army
senior
leadership”
expressed
to
officials
on the
call
“that it
would
not be
their
best
military
advice
to have
uniformed
Guardsmen
on the
Capitol,”
Walker
said.
Meanwhile,
the
Capitol
Police
disclosed
the
existence
of
intelligence
of a
“possible
plot” by
a
militia
group to
breach
the U.S.
Capitol
on
Thursday.
The
revelation,
coming
as the
acting
police
chief
was
testifying
before a
House
subcommittee,
differed
from an
earlier
advisory
from the
House
sergeant-at-arms
that
said
Capitol
Police
had “no
indication
that
groups
will
travel
to
Washington
D.C. to
protest
or
commit
acts of
violence.”
The
Senate
hearing
is the
second
about
what
went
wrong on
Jan. 6,
with
national
security
officials
face
questions
about
missed
intelligence
and
botched
efforts
to
quickly
gather
National
Guard
troops
that day
as a
violent
mob laid
siege to
the U.S.
Capitol.
Even as
Walker
detailed
the
National
Guard
delay,
another
military
official
noted
that
local
officials
in
Washington
had said
days
earlier
that no
such
support
was
needed.
Senators
were
eager to
grill
officials
from the
Pentagon,
the
National
Guard
and the
Justice
and
Homeland
Security
departments
about
their
preparations
for that
day.
Supporters
of
then-President
Donald
Trump
had
talked
online,
in some
cases
openly,
about
gathering
in
Washington
that day
and
interrupting
the
electoral
count.
At a
hearing
last
week,
officials
who were
in
charge
of
security
at the
Capitol
blamed
one
another
as well
as
federal
law
enforcement
for
their
own lack
of
preparation
as
hundreds
of
rioters
descended
on the
building,
easily
breached
the
security
perimeter
and
eventually
broke
into the
Capitol.
Five
people
died as
a result
of the
rioting.
So
far,
lawmakers
conducting
investigations
have
focused
on
failed
efforts
to
gather
and
share
intelligence
about
the
insurrectionists’
planning
before
Jan. 6
and on
the
deliberations
among
officials
about
whether
and when
to call
National
Guard
troops
to
protect
Congress.
The
officials
at the
hearing
last
week,
including
ousted
Capitol
Police
Chief
Steven
Sund,
gave
conflicting
accounts
of those
negotiations.
Robert
Contee,
the
acting
chief of
police
for the
Metropolitan
Police
Department,
told
senators
he was
“stunned”
over the
delayed
response
and said
Sund was
pleading
with
Army
officials
to
deploy
National
Guard
troops
as the
rioting
rapidly
escalated.
Senate
Rules
Committee
Chair
Amy
Klobuchar,
one of
two
Democratic
senators
who will
preside
over
Wednesday’s
hearing,
said in
an
interview
Tuesday
that she
believes
every
moment
counted
as the
National
Guard
decision
was
delayed
and
police
officers
outside
the
Capitol
were
beaten
and
injured
by the
rioters.
“Any
minute
that we
lost, I
need to
know
why,”
Klobuchar
said.
The
hearing
comes as
thousands
of
National
Guard
troops
are
still
patrolling
the
fenced-in
Capitol
and as
multiple
committees
across
Congress
are
launching
investigations
into
mistakes
made on
Jan. 6.
The
probes
are
largely
focused
on
security
missteps
and the
origins
of the
extremism
that led
hundreds
of Trump
supporters
to break
through
the
doors
and
windows
of the
Capitol,
hunt for
lawmakers
and
temporarily
stop the
counting
of
electoral
votes.
Congress
has, for
now,
abandoned
any
examination
of
Trump’s
role in
the
attack
after
the
Senate
acquitted
him last
month of
inciting
the riot
by
telling
the
supporters
that
morning
to
“fight
like
hell” to
overturn
his
defeat.
As
the
Senate
hears
from the
federal
officials,
acting
Capitol
Police
Chief
Yogananda
Pittman
will
testify
before a
House
panel
that is
also
looking
into how
security
failed.
In a
hearing
last
week
before
the same
subcommittee,
she
conceded
there
were
multiple
levels
of
failures
but
denied
that law
enforcement
failed
to take
seriously
warnings
of
violence
before
the
insurrection.
In
the
Senate,
Klobuchar
said
there is
particular
interest
in
hearing
from
Walker,
the
commanding
general
of the
D.C.
National
Guard,
who was
on the
phone
with
Sund and
the
Department
of the
Army as
the
rioters
first
broke
into the
building.
Contee,
the D.C.
police
chief,
was also
on the
call and
told
senators
that the
Army was
initially
reluctant
to send
troops.
“While I
certainly
understand
the
importance
of both
planning
and
public
perception
— the
factors
cited by
the
staff on
the call
— these
issues
become
secondary
when you
are
watching
your
employees,
vastly
outnumbered
by a
mob,
being
physically
assaulted,”
Contee
said. He
said he
had
quickly
deployed
his own
officers
and he
was
“shocked”
that the
National
Guard
“could
not — or
would
not — do
the
same.”
Contee
said
that
Army
staff
said
they
were not
refusing
to send
troops,
but “did
not like
the
optics
of boots
on the
ground”
at the
Capitol.
Also
testifying
at the
joint
hearing
of the
Senate
Rules
Committee
and the
Senate
Homeland
Security
and
Governmental
Affairs
Committees
are
Robert
Salesses
of the
Defense
Department,
Melissa
Smislova
of the
Department
of
Homeland
Security
and Jill
Sanborn
of the
FBI, all
officials
who
oversee
aspects
of
intelligence
and
security
operations.
Lawmakers
have
grilled
law
enforcement
officials
about
missed
intelligence
ahead of
the
attack,
including
a report
from an
FBI
field
office
in
Virginia
that
warned
of
online
posts
foreshadowing
a “war”
in
Washington.
Capitol
Police
leaders
have
said
they
were
unaware
of the
report
at the
time,
even
though
the FBI
had
forwarded
it to
the
department.
Testifying
before
the
Senate
Judiciary
Committee
on
Tuesday,
FBI
Director
Christopher
Wray
said the
report
was
disseminated
though
the
FBI’s
joint
terrorism
task
force,
discussed
at a
command
post in
Washington
and
posted
on an
internet
portal
available
to other
law
enforcement
agencies.
Though
the
information
was raw
and
unverified
and
appeared
aspirational
in
nature,
Wray
said, it
was
specific
and
concerning
enough
that
“the
smartest
thing to
do, the
most
prudent
thing to
do, was
just
push it
to the
people
who
needed
to get
it.”
_____
Associated
Press
writers
Ben Fox
and
Michael
Balsamo
contributed
to this
report.
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