‘I WAS FRUSTRATED. I WAS … STUNNED’: The general was resolute and unflappable. He had 155 troops, riot gear in their vehicles, available for immediate dispatch to the Capitol, but he had been denied the one thing every commander needs to succeed, the discretion to change tactics and redeploy forces to adjust to a rapidly changing situation.

And now he was called before Congress to account for why in a time of most desperate need, his ready, riot-trained National Guard troops were forced to cool their heels for hours while the Pentagon worried that switching Guard troops from traffic duty to protecting the U.S. Capital would be bad optics.