A day late and four deaths after rioters overtook the U.S. Capitol, the Army announced on Thursday the authorization of 6,200 National Guard members from seven states to support law enforcement in Washington, D.C.
“Yesterday was a horrible and shameful day in our history,” Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said at a press conference, hosted by Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, while praising the mayor’s and the Metropolitan Police Department’s leadership in regaining control of the Capitol after Capitol Police were overcome by supporters of President Trump who were protesting the election results.
McCarthy said the Guard members from the district, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and New York will be in place by the weekend.
The Army secretary said 850 personnel will be on the Capitol grounds by noon Thursday and will remain for at least 30 days.
Bowser declined to admit that she should have requested additional National Guard support in the capital.
“Obviously, it was a failure, or you would not have had police lines breached and people enter the Capitol building,” Bowser said of the rioters entering Congress.
Only 340 unarmed National Guard members had been previously requested by Bowser for a strictly traffic- and crowd-control mission to support the district’s law enforcement.
Bowser put the blame for the breach squarely on the Capitol Police for not calling the D.C. National Guard.
“They did not make the decision,” she added. “I cannot order the Army, the National Guard, to the Capitol grounds.”
McCarthy added, “We have to be requested to come onto the grounds.”
In the tumultuous hours when rioters overran law enforcement and seized control of the Capitol Wednesday, Washington-area National Guard members awaited orders to respond. Once requested, Defense Secretary Chris Miller activated the full 1,100-member D.C. National Guard in a civil disturbance response.
The states of Virginia and Maryland also sent their Guard members to Washington, but all arrived after the Capitol had been secured.
Bowser called the rioting by pro-Trump activists “domestic terrorism and sedition.”
McCarthy said that nonscalable, 7-foot fencing is being constructed around the Capitol grounds and will remain beyond the inauguration.
Bowser said the Guard members arriving in the capital will remain through the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration, and McCarthy said such a force is larger than for a “standard inauguration.”
Questioned about intelligence gaps, the Army secretary said he relied on local law enforcement intelligence to prepare for Wednesday’s events.
“It was our going in position that it would be somewhat similar,” he said of recent pro-Trump rallies in the capital. “But [we] had no [idea] in our wildest imagination that you could end up breaching the Capitol grounds.”
