The acting chief of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., said he was “honestly shocked” by how slowly the National Guard responded to his emergency request for help during the Capitol riot last month as he scrambled to mobilize 850 officers from neighboring states.
“I was stunned at the response from Department of the Army, which was reluctant to send the D.C. National Guard to the Capitol,” acting MPD Chief Robert Contee wrote in a statement submitted ahead of a joint hearing Tuesday between the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and Senate Rules Committee. “On the call, in an effort to seek clarification, I asked the Capitol Police Chief if he were, in fact, requesting the assistance of the National Guard and then asked the U.S. Army representatives on the call if they were refusing to deploy the Guard to assist. The Army staff responded that they were not refusing to send them, but wanted to know the plan and did not like the optics of boots on the ground at the Capitol.”
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Contee, whose officers were called in by Capitol police only after the attack began, said law enforcement and military officials spoke in a call about who was responding but that defense officials were concerned about the optics of sending in the military.
“While I certainly understand the importance of both planning and public perception, the factors cited by the staff on the call, these issues become secondary when you are watching your employees, vastly outnumbered by a mob, being physically assaulted,” said Contee, who got neighboring cities and states to send in police officers within hours.
“I was honestly shocked that the National Guard could not, or would not, do the same,” he said.
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Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser requested on Dec. 31 that the National Guard be activated in a limited scope mission for a week later. Washington is the only jurisdiction in the United States where the state governor cannot activate the Guard — only the president has the authority to do so. Given former President Donald Trump’s role in rallying his supporters, who then attempted to overtake the U.S. Capitol, the president was reluctant to send in the Guard as lawmakers, aides, and media took cover to hide from invaders. Eventually, former Vice President Mike Pence told the Pentagon to approve the request.
