The former chief of Capitol Police and the Senate sergeant at arms said accusations that they were “complicit” in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol made by retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honore are “disrespectful” and “not in good taste.”
“It’s disrespectful to myself and the members of the Capitol Police department,” Steven Sund, the former chief of the Capitol Police, said in a Tuesday Senate hearing.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi picked Honore to lead a review of Capitol security systems following the Jan. 6 breach. He has since come under fire for partisan political statements.
“I’ve just never seen so much incompetence. So they’re either that stupid or ignorant or complicit. I think they were complicit,” Honore said about law enforcement officials tasked with guarding the Capitol in a Jan. 8 interview with local news.
Honore added about the police chief that it was concerning “that he did not have sufficient police on hand to protect the Capitol, which has led me to believe that there was some complicity on behalf of the Capitol Police, and that will come out in the investigation. I hope I’m wrong.”
Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee gave the officials a chance to respond to Honore’s statement.
“I disagree with what the general said,” former Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger said. “There’s … people who put themselves in very much danger on that day, and saying something like that is just not in good taste.”
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Sund hinted that he did not approve of Honore heading the review, again saying that his comments were “highly disrespectful.”
“I welcome and I look forward to an after-action that will move this agency forward, move our partnership with the federal agencies forward. But it has to be done in an unbiased fashion,” Sund said.
“[Russel Honore] has …. criticized you for the ‘appearance of complicity’ during the attack… Were you complicit? “@HawleyMO asks witnesses at a Senate hearing if Lt. Gen. Honore’s comments that law enforcement officers were “complicit” in the Capitol attack are accurate. pic.twitter.com/PfMboIUVXN
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) February 23, 2021
