Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund accused security officials of the House and Senate of impeding several efforts before and during the Capitol riots to call the National Guard.
Sund told The Washington Post in an interview published on Sunday night – the first since Capitol events on Wednesday – that he asked House and Senate security officials in the days before Congress was set for the county the Electoral College voted for. allow him to request the presence of the DC National Guard wait in case troops are needed before thePresident Trump
Donald Trump Kim said that North Korean efforts will focus on bringing the US to its knees Pelosi urges Democrats to prepare to return to DC this week amid impeachment accusations Ken Klippenstein: ‘Ideological’ blind spot prevented police from respond urgently to the riots at Capitol MORE protests.
But the capitol police chief, who was officially replaced as boss on Friday after your resignation, told the newspaper that the authorities denied the request.
Sund reported that the house’s weapons sergeant, Paul Irving, said he was not comfortable with the “optics” of declaring an emergency before the protests, and Senate weapons sergeant Michael Stenger recommended that Sund informally ask the Guard to be ready for last wednesday.
“We knew it would be bigger,” Sund told the Post. “We look for intelligence. We knew that we would have large crowds, the potential for some violent strife. I had nothing to indicate that we would have a large crowd taking the Capitol. “
The ex-boss said his request before the disturbances ended up being the first of six times his requests for help would be denied or postponed. When the pro-Trump crowd arrived at the Capitol at around 12:40 pm, it took about 15 minutes for the west side perimeter to be breached, he said.
“If we had the National Guard, we could keep them away for longer, until more police from our partner agencies could arrive,” he said.
Sund said around 2:26 pm that he asked the Pentagon for support in a teleconference. But a senior army official said he could not recommend the army secretary Ryan McCarthyRyan McCarthyOvernight Defense: Pentagon Chief Condemns Capitol Riots | Mayor calls for removal of Trump | Fence erected around the Capitol | Murdered woman, veteran Air Force senator, Democratic senator, raises concerns about possession of DC Guard security to erect 7-foot ‘non-scalable fence’ around Capitol Hill after violent unrest MORE authorize the deployment, saying “I don’t like the image of the National Guard standing on a police line with the Capitol in the background,” reported the Post, citing participants in the call.
The first National Guard personnel ended up arriving at 5:40 pm, after four of the now five deaths had occurred in the midst of the riots.
The Post was unable to contact Irving for comment, and Stenger declined to comment, saying to a reporter, “I really don’t want to talk about it.” Both authorities resigned after the unrest amid pressure from lawmakers.
Pentagon officials pointed out that the Capitol Police did not request the DC National Guard before the protest or called for a riot contingency plan involving the Guard.
“We are counting on the Capitol Police and the federal police to provide an assessment of the situation,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said last week, according to the Post. “And based on their assessment, they believed they had enough staff and didn’t make a request.”
But Sund warns that “if they don’t act on physical security, it will happen again,” potentially in the president-elect. Joe Biden
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