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The outgoing Capitol Building Police Chief has called for DC National Guard units to be put on hold in case his small force is overwhelmed by violent protesters last Wednesday, but he was rejected by House and Senate security officials and a senior Pentagon commander, he said in an interview on Sunday.
Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who resigned under pressure last week, said he made the request two days before Wednesday’s riot after reviewing information indicating the protest would be larger and more violent than previously expected – and repeated his request as he watched the rioters attack his officers.
“If we had had the National Guard, we could have kept them at bay longer, until more officers from our partner agencies could arrive,” said Mr. Sund, who held the most senior position. for less than a year, to the Washington Post.
Ultimately, the outnumbered Capitol Police were unable to restrain a crowd several times their size, resulting in a violent invasion of the national legislature since the War of 1812. Rep. Tim Ryan, Democrat from Ohio, told reporters on Monday that two officers had been suspended: one who took selfies with rioters, and one who donned a “Make America Great Again” hat and led rioters into the Capitol.
Five people, including a Capitol policeman injured at the scene and another who died shortly after the attacks, died in the violence.
Earlier today, President Trump urged a crowd gathered near the White House to march on Capitol Hill “to show your strength,” warning them: “You will never take back our country with weakness.”
Eventually, officials from federal agencies and local Washington DC police responded Wednesday evening, clearing the complex shortly before dark.
In his first interview since the riot, Mr. Sund, a 25-year veteran of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, said six appeals for support during the riot were dismissed or delayed.
On a call around 2 p.m., around the time the compound was broken up, Mr. Sund and local district officials pleaded with Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, director of the general staff of the military, for help, only to have the general say he couldn’t recommend the deployment to his boss, Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy.
“I don’t like the visual of the National Guard standing in a police line with the Capitol in the background,” General Piatt said, according to Mr. Sund.
General Piatt pushed back in an interview, saying he did not have the authority to send the troops, and that the Capitol City and Police needed a plan for how the National Guard would be deployed.
“The last thing you want to do is throw forces where you don’t know where they’re going, and all of a sudden it gets a lot worse,” he says.
Mr Sund also claimed that House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving and Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger both appeared reluctant to strengthen the uniformed presence around the Capitol in the days leading up to the riot. , suggesting that they too were concerned about the optics.
Mr. Irving and Mr. Stenger both announced their resignations, under pressure from members of both parties.
Neither of them commented on Mr. Sund’s allegations to the Post, and messages left at their offices were not immediately returned.
Mr Sund added that he was worried about the possibility of a repeat of the violence during the inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on January 20.
“What concerns me is that if they don’t link their action to physical security, it will happen again,” he said.
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