Outgoing Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said efforts to deploy the National Guard during last Wednesday’s riots were hampered by Pentagon security officials and the House and Senate, according to an interview with the Washington Post that was published late on Sunday.
Why it matters: Sund, who resigned over the violence, told WashPost that his requests for help from the Guard had been “ rejected or delayed ” a total of six times – including before the Capitol Hill protest and ensuing violence began.
- Sund said he is concerned that if officials “don’t manage their affairs along with physical security, it will happen again” – possibly at the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 20.
Between the lines: Sund said House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving expressed discomfort about the “optics” of declaring an emergency ahead of the protests.
- Michael Stenger, the then-sergeant-at-arms of the Senate, advised Sund to informally ask the Guard to stand by if the Capitol police require it, Sund said.
- Both Irving and Stenger have since resigned.
- “We knew it would be bigger,” Sund told the Post. We looked at the intelligence service. We knew there would be large crowds, the possibility of violent quarrels. I had nothing to indicate that a large crowd would conquer the Capitol. “
Zoom in: When the crowd broke into the main building at 2:26 PM, Sund said he had asked for support in a conference call with the Pentagon to “get boots on the ground.”
- But Sund and others on the line say a senior army official told them he couldn’t recommend the request to Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy because “ I don’t like the image of the National Guard standing in a police line with the Capitol in the background.”
- The pro-Trump crowd broke the western edge within 15 minutes.
- “If we had the National Guard, we could have kept them at bay for longer until more agents from our partner offices could arrive,” Sund noted.
- National Guard personnel finally arrived at the Capitol at 5:40 PM, after four people were killed in the violence.
The other side: The Pentagon and representatives of the House and Senate Sergeants-at-Arms did not immediately respond to Axios’ request for comment.
- But Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said last week that, based on a review by Capitol Police and federal law enforcement, “they believed they were adequately staffed and made no request.”
- Stenger declined to comment on WashPost, and Irving could not be reached by the news outlet.
The big picture: Sund offered his resignation last Thursday, effective January 16. Assistant Chief Yogananda Pittman was named deputy chief of the Capitol Police on Sunday.
- Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Said last Thursday that he had “applied for and received” the resignation of Stenger, who was replaced by Deputy Sergeant-at-arms Jennifer Hemingway as acting Sergeant-at-arms.
- Several lawmakers have vowed to investigate police response to the violence.