Senate Hearings Uncover 3-Hour Delay In Deploying National Guard

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Several senators and representatives have expressed their irritation at having razor wire surrounding the Capitol complex. They complain that they did not like how it appeared, and it made it more difficult for them to go about their business. That was when they found out January 6 could happen again — on March 4.

Our Capitol Police in Washington, D.C. just disclosed a “possible plot” by a militia group not unlike the one that organized the January 6 attack. The chatter indicated that another attack could place on Thursday.

The acting police chief’s testimony before a House subcommittee was different from that of the House sergeant-at-arms who said, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer:

‘[Capitol Police had] no indication that groups will travel to Washington D.C. to protest or commit acts of violence.’

In the January 6 attack, the Defense Department languished for over three hours before sending in the National Guard to help the Capitol Police where five people died and over 100 of the officers were injured.

Commanding General of the District of Columbia National Guard Major General William Walker has been with the Guard for 39 years. He told senators that the former Capitol Police chief asked for military support in a 1:49 p.m. call. The Defense Department had to okay the request, although Walker has been able to intervene on his own in the past. Those above him in the Defense Department had to approve this request and asked for a “plan of action” before doing so. That was the point when “optics” were mentioned.

Finally, after 5:00 p.m. Eastern time, Walker received the go-ahead. He had his troops readied for hours. He said he only needed “18 minutes” to get them into the action.

They were waiting on buses at the armory and 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. As local officials pleaded for help, Army officials raised concerns about the optics of a substantial National Guard presence at the Capitol.’

Walker continued:

‘The Army senior leadership [told officials then] that it would not be their best military advice to have uniformed Guardsmen on the Capitol.’

The Senate held two other hearings to discover the security breakdowns during the January 6 failed coup. Tuesday, a Senate committee questioned the Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] Director Christopher Wray.

The FBI dicrector said:

‘[The intelligence was] specific and concerning enough the smartest thing to do, the most prudent thing to do, was just push it to the people who needed to get it.’

Wednesday, the senators questioned representatives of the Pentagon, the National Guard, and the Justice and Homeland Security departments. They discovered that ex-president Donald Trump’s followers talked about their plans for interrupting the Electoral College count online and even in public.

One of two Democratic senators presiding over the Senate Rules Committee, Chair Amy Klobuchar, said Tuesday that she thinks every moment the Secretary of Defense delayed resulted in more injuries to the Capitol Police:

‘Any minute that we lost, I need to know why.’

In the first Senate hearing, Acting Chief of Police for the Metropolitan Police Department Robert Contee said:

‘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. [He was] shocked [the National Guard] could not — or would not — do the same.’

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