We know what it looked like, how it felt, but we don’t have the full story.
However, some alarming details are starting to emerge. On Monday, when Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf resigned, CNN reported that the FBI had received information indicating that “armed protests” are planned in all 50 capitals and at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Capitol Police Officers Under Investigation For Their Behavior During The Riot; two have been suspended.
So was the storming of the Capitol a spontaneous event, or was it part of something more orchestrated?
There is growing evidence to justify grave concern and urgent investigations may face barricades of impediment.
Still, it’s imperative that we find out exactly what happened on January 6 and what may still be going on. It requires a two-level survey at two speeds.
First, the FBI and law enforcement agencies need to track down and detain the instigators, and consider what might be on their agendas in the coming days. This is particularly urgent because the day after the attack, when President Donald Trump finally agreed to a peaceful transfer of power, in a video filmed in the White House that he reportedly “expressed regret,” he told his supporters. Our incredible journey has only just begun. ”
Separately, Congress is to establish a two-tier committee to pull every thread and see what unravels.
The widely accepted version of what happened is that a mass of passionate Trump followers gathered on the day Congress would certify Biden’s election victory. After Trump and his proxies turned their anger over the legitimate election results into a fiery frenzy, they seemingly followed his instructions and headed for the Capitol. There, the Capitol police failed to stop them. According to this story, the failure of law enforcement was the result of a combination of lack of preparation, poor communication, the perpetrators’ race, and possibly sympathy for the rioters among some who had to stop them.
But is this an accurate representation of what happened?
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the day’s events was the failure of the National Guard to react quickly. The timeline is mind-boggling.
At a rally held the night before the riot, attendees heard former national security adviser Michael Flynn tell them that Americans were willing to “bleed” for freedom. At Wednesday’s rally, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani called for “trial by combat” to settle the election. Then came Trump’s instructions to “fight like hell.” After Trump’s speech and his false promise to join them there, they stormed the Capitol.
According to a reconstruction by the Wall Street Journal, several officers were already injured at 1:18 pm on Wednesday. At 1:41 PM, an alarm from the “Broken Arrow” went out across town, reporting that the rioters had overrun the police. By 3 p.m., The Wall Street Journal reported that at least three key officials had urged support from the National Guard, Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who has since resigned.
Details of their talks reveal increasing fear and bewilderment as the Pentagon did not approve and deploy the troops quickly. Sund told The Washington Post he pleaded, “I make an urgent, urgent request for help from the National Guard,” he pleaded, “I need to get boots on the ground.”
At the same time, Hogan was trying to get the Pentagon to approve the deployment of Maryland’s guard, but like Sund, he says the urgent request was granted with inexplicable delay.
Sund told The Washington Post that he asked it six times. Hogan, who approved Maryland’s deployment, told CNN it took two hours to get the necessary clearance.
With people being killed in the chaos of the Capitol, the troops were nowhere to be found. Lieutenant General Walter Piatt, the Director of the Army Staff, reportedly contested Sund’s report, saying in a statement on Monday that the authorization to activate the National Guard was about 40 minutes after the start of a conference call between officials at around 2:20 PM came. the first personnel of the National Guard did not arrive until 5:40 PM. By the time the crowd retreated, four people were dead, and a Capitol Police officer was so badly injured that he died the next day.
What happened? Why did it take so long for help to arrive?
Many have accurately noted that Black Lives Matter social justice protests involve much tighter security, but a historian who has seen multiple protests on Capitol Hill says he saw greater security in
other pro-Trump demonstrations. Was the Capitol intentionally left undershot?
Once inside, according to Rep. Jim Clyburn, some rioters
walked straight to his office, which is not marked. “I think that indicated that something unusual might be going on,” he told CNN.
Investigators must answer questions about why Trump and Giuliani called senators during the attack and asked them to try to delay the vote on certifying Biden’s victory. Giuliani said it was because he wanted the process to be delayed “so we can ask this legislature to give you more information.” But did anything more need to be done in the wake of the Capitol occupation?
If the frenzy was nothing more than a spontaneous gathering that got out of hand, why did some of the men occupying the Capitol wear bundles of flexible cuffs, the plastic shackles used by police to hold suspects?
If it was all an unplanned protest that went off the rails, why did the authorities discover pipe bombs in the area?
And what about the truck, parked two blocks from the Capitol, and featuring 11 homemade bombs built in such a way that federal investigators said if they exploded it would have the effect of napalm. Court documents show that the explosive-filled mason jars and supplies found tightly packed could have been a “destructive device.” Authorities say other participants have taken weapons and hundreds of ammunition.
There is no doubt that Trump has tried to undo the legitimate, democratic outcome of the election. His followers thought they were about to help him succeed. But we need to know if their attack on the citadel of American democracy was the result of overflowing emotions, or if it was something sinister. Something worse than what we saw in those pictures, which will remain etched in the collective memory of the country. Something that won’t end with Trump’s impeachment.
