The head of DC’s National Guard says he got “immediate approval” for similar requests during Black Lives Matter protests over the summer. Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters. On January 6, as thousands of violent Trump supporters breached the security perimeter of the US Capitol Building, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund placed a “frantic call” to DC National Guard Maj. General William Walker asking for backup to help with the escalating situation. “He informed me that the security perimeter at the Capitol had been breached by hostile rioters,” Walker told lawmakers on Wednesday during a Senate probe of the security failures on Jan. 6. “Chief Sund, his voice cracking with emotion, indicated that there was a dire emergency on Capitol Hill and requested the immediate assistance of as many Guardsmen as I could muster.” But the “immediate assistance” never came. According to Walker’s testimony, it took more than three hours for him to receive authorization to send in Guardsmen to assist the situation at the Capitol, by which point violent Trump supporters had already broken into the building and wreaked havoc in the halls of the Capitol. Walker testified that after speaking with Sund, he immediately relayed the request to Army senior leadership, who had to get approval from Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller—a Trump loyalist who had been placed in the role only two months prior. It wasn’t until 5:08 p.m.—a 3 hour and 19-minute wait—that Walker received approval to mobilize the Guard, who he says had been sitting in buses all day waiting for the message to deploy to the Capitol.
via mother jones: It Took More Than 3 Hours for National Guard to Get Approval to Respond to Jan. 6 Insurrection
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