Outgoing U.S. Capitol Hill Police Chief Steven Sund says his requests for National Guard assistance to monitor the Trump rally last week were denied or delayed at least five times ahead of the evening riot on Wednesday.
Sund, who announced his Saturday resignation last week under pressure from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said he had asked House and Senate security officials for D.C. National Guard assistance ahead of the rally, where President Trump urged his supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol building, in anticipation of the large crowd.
The first request was rejected, and in the midst of escalating violence on Capitol grounds, Sund said he asked for assistance five additional times.
“If we would have had the National Guard, we could have held them at bay longer, until more officers from our partner agencies could arrive,” Sund told the Washington Post.
Sund, who repeated his assertions to Fox 5 reporter Natalie Rubino, was said to have become emotional talking about the riot. “We were expecting a large protest, not a mobbed attack,” he said.
Local and federal leadership have engaged in finger-pointing over who was responsible for the lack of National Guard presence.
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office said it was the Army secretary who was to blame for the delay in mobilizing when violence escalated, according to a report by NBC News.
Defense officials asserted they had provided support requested by Capitol Police and the city government and never turned down any requests from city officials.
Sund said House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving, who also resigned his post following the Capitol siege, was concerned about the “optics” of declaring an emergency before the protests. He also said Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger suggested to him that he informally seek out his National Guard contacts and ask them to “lean forward” and be alert in case Capitol Police needed assistance. Stenger also resigned from his post.
Around 8,000 demonstrators are estimated to have marched down to the Capitol after a daytime rally last week to protest Congress’s certification of President-elect Joe Biden as the victor of the 2020 election. Around 1,400 Capitol Police officers were on duty, and Sund’s outer perimeter was breached in about 15 minutes, according to the Washington Post.
Amid the chaos, five people died, including one Capitol Police officer. Trump vowed to have a peaceful transition of power on Jan. 20, after Congress re-met to declare Biden the next president.
