D.C. National Guard chief: Pentagon dragged its feet on Jan. 6 backup - POLITICO

Senior Pentagon officials took more than three hours to approve sending National Guard troops to the Capitol as it was being violently breached on Jan.

William Walker told senators that senior Pentagon leaders did not approve then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund’s “frantic” request until three hours and 19 minutes after Sund's initial plea.

and raced to send the request to senior Pentagon officials.

“Consequently, at 5:20pm (in under 20 minutes) the District of Columbia National Guard arrived at the Capitol,” Walker wrote.

Walker also agreed with Capitol security officials that Pentagon leaders gave a tepid response to urgent pleas for aid during a 2:30 p.m.

“The Army senior leaders did not think it would look good" to send troops to the Capitol and also worried about further incitement of the violent mob, Walker said.

Walker added that if the Pentagon had approved the request sooner, it would have made a significant difference in the security response: “We could have helped extend the perimeter and push back the crowd.”.

The three officials in charge of protecting lawmakers that day — Sund, former House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving and former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger — have accused the Pentagon of slow-walking their urgent requests for National Guard aid.

6 during which one top military official indicated he was concerned about the “optics” of a heavily armed National Guard force protecting the Capitol and said he’d likely urge superiors to reject their request.

Sund and other Capitol security officials have said the intelligence warnings they received in the days leading up to the Jan.

Never, those former Capitol security officials said, did they anticipate an organized, coordinated assault on the legislative branch that would overwhelm the 1,200 officers on-site and result in a breach of the building.

Instead of seeking a robust National Guard presence in advance, those former Capitol security officials said they asked Walker to simply be ready should they need him.

Walker, they said, offered to place 125 National Guard units in supportive roles, such as traffic duty, to help free Capitol Police for more direct engagements with protesters.

One of the sharpest points of disagreement among the three Capitol officials — all of whom resigned in the aftermath of the insurrection — is the timing of their requests for National Guard assistance, once it was clear the Capitol would be overrun.

Sund, whose account has been backed up by acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman, said he reached out to Irving at around 1 p.m.

6 to seek permission to request National Guard assistance.

and did not receive a formal request for National Guard assistance until after 2 p.m., when Sund reached Irving and Stenger together.

Also at issue is the intelligence assessment that led Capitol security officials to dismiss the need for preemptive National Guard support.