Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Thursday, March 4, 2021

Who Was Behind the Delay in Sending Reinforcements to Capitol Police?





D.C. National Guard chief William Walker told two Senate committees that he preemptively loaded troops on buses amid the chaos of the insurrection while awaiting approval from acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller. That approval took hours to arrive, he said. 

In the interim, top Army leaders — including the brother of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn — pushed back, worrying that the visual of National Guard troops ringing the Capitol could “inflame” the rioters, Walker said. 

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 Walker’s testimony adds a new piece to the puzzle of security lapses and miscommunication that enabled a violent mob to ransack the Capitol and delay the certification of the 2020 election results. He is the latest official to suggest that senior military leaders were partly responsible for tying the hands of the security officials on the ground as they hustled to respond to the threat. In his testimony, Walker agreed with Capitol security officials that Pentagon leaders gave a tepid response to urgent pleas for aid during a 2:30 p.m. call on Jan. 6.

 







Officials Put ‘Unusual’ Limits on D.C. National Guard Before Riot, Commander Says 

"Maj. Gen. William J. Walker testified that he did not receive permission to deploy troops for hours on Jan. 6, as violence by pro-Trump supporters escalated.


Days before the riot, the Pentagon had removed General Walker’s authority to quickly deploy his troops, he testified. He said he was unable to move troops even from one traffic stop to another without permission from Ryan D. McCarthy, the Army secretary. Once General Walker had approval for deployment, the Guard arrived at the Capitol only minutes later, at 5:20 p.m., and helped re-establish the security perimeter on the east side of the building."

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mike Flynn’s brother blocked deployment of the National Guard on 1/6. This was a gangland hit. The Republicans are the most dangerous mafia in American history.

Shaw Kenawe said...

A disgraced general (Mike Flynn) who was pushing to overturn the election had a brother (Charles Flynn) at the Pentagon who hindered the military from stopping rioters trying to overturn the election? And the Pentagon lied about it?

Charles Flynn admitted he was on for at least part of the call for reinforcements. He also said he didn't think he spoke while on that call...turns out he was lying about that.

BTW, with the Capitol under attack, why wasn't there an emergency meeting in the White House situation room? Why wasn't Trump taken by the Secret Service to an undisclosed safe place?

Of course, we all know the answers to those questions. This was a planned coup d'etat by people in very high, very important places.

We need more answers.

Ray Cranston said...

I’m kinda thinking that the Flynn brothers are gonna be going thru some things.

Les Carpenter said...

The likelihood that tRump was intimately and actively involved in the Jan. 6th insurrection is becoming more probable the deeper the digging. So yes, the "deep state", tRump's deep state was ivolved in the insurrection. Hopefully real deep digging eventually results in the Orange Son-of-a-Bitch being behind bars for a very long time.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Ray, RN,

Interesting perspective on Trump by Ezra Klein:

"Trump convinced many that he was a political genius whose shamelessness had allowed him to see what others had missed: You didn’t win by being liked, you won by being all anyone ever talked about, even if they were cursing your name.

'Very often my readers tried to persuade me there’s no such thing as bad publicity, and Trump had proven that,' Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at N.Y.U., told me. 'All that mattered was you were occupying space in the spectacle — not what was actually happening to you in that glare.'

One rebuttal to that theory was always obvious. 'Trump never got over 50 percent approval,' Rosen says. 'He’s a widely hated man, a one-term president.' For all the talk of Teflon Don, Trump paid a price for his antics and affronts and scandals. Bad publicity actually is bad publicity."

Shaw Kenawe said...

Anonymous @8:25AM

I agree. Just read any of the far right blogs to understand that they were not outraged by what happened on Jan. 6, and some even dismissed the insurrection that caused people's deaths as nothing more than "a bit of rowdiness."

R.D. said...

The problem is that the Republican Party is without ideas. It cheapened itself under Trump. The RNC said, in the run-up to the 2020 election, “his platform [which was never defined or explained] is our platform.” That is a quote that good historians should use to illustrate the total collapse of the G.O.P. under Trump.

Worse yet, the G.O.P. embraced the Fox News-promulgated nonsense about conspiracy theories, “the deep state,” a contagion of election fraud, and The Big Steal. The party became the party of grievances without solutions.

To quote Dylan, the Republican Party has “no direction home” - its a boat without sails and without a rudder - and it will remain that way as long as Cruz, Hawley, Cotton, Scalise, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and other angry demagogues do nothing but shout out their grievances and perpetuate conspiracy myths.

Mike said...

"...the visual of National Guard troops ringing the Capitol could “inflame” the rioters, Walker said."
I think the visual would have sent most of the rioters running. Just like today (3-4) when Rep. Green sat on the capitol steps waiting for rioters that never showed. He scared them all away.

Jerry said...

Trump was commander and chief and there is no doubt in my mind that he delayed the Guard because he wanted harm to come to those inside the Capitol. During the time the Guard was delayed Trump was tweeting for the mob to go after Pence. That's when the mob was screaming hang Pence. Now Pence is backing Trump's same garbage after his CPAC speech. Go figure. Deaths were involved here and Trump should be indited for murder.

Bluebullamerica said...

The Trump Crime Group struck again, no doubt.

Les Carpenter said...

Well RD, as necessary as it is that democracy and our republic have more than just one major political party it certainly would not break the hearts of many if the Q-GOP imploded and collapsed.

skudrunner said...

And just think that after 6 weeks out of office trump still dominates the news and regularly holds news conferences while biden stays away from the press and refuses to answer questions. Is joey ever going to answer questions from the press or will we have four years of his reading his speech followed by color bars.

Now we have the National Guard protecting the fences in DC which is something I didn't think I would ever see. Of courses we are more concerned about a few kooks in DC than thousands of illegals crossing the borders to the South. At least we will provide the illegals with free healthcare and housing.

Anonymous said...

Did you see this from the Washington Post:

“On Thursday, the FBI arrested a political appointee of former president Donald Trump on charges that he stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, according to a criminal complaint, marking the first member of the administration arrested in connection with the insurrection.
Federal agents arrested Federico G. Klein, 42, a former State Department aide, on multiple felony charges related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, according to a criminal complaint published by the New York Times. (Politico first reported the arrest.) The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Friday.”

Possumlady

Shaw Kenawe said...

R.D. The Trumpublican Party has no platform, no ideas, no policies, nothing. It's all about grievances, snark, and pettiness. IOW, a dying political party.

Mike I appears I missed Trump's inauguration yesterday! According to the QAnon-ers, it was scheduled for March 4, since he missed the one on January 20th. LOL!

Jerry Trump is no different from a mob boss. And Pence is a coward for his continued allegiance to the mob boss who incited armed insurgents to hang him!

Bluebullamerica Indeed, it has!

Possumlady I did see that! I believe we'll see more of the same -- even certain GOP Congressmen who participated in trying to overthrow the U.S. government. The FBI has cell phone records of all those who participated in the insurrection.

skud Trump went 300+ DAYS without a press briefing, and you weren't bothered about it enough to come here and whine. So your petty comment about President Biden is laughable.

Those "few kooks" you dismiss attacked the Capitol building and killed a policeman while trying to overthrow the U.S. government. Your comment shows everyone here how desperate the Trumpublicans are to change the narrative. It ain't gonna work. What Trump and his armed thugs did will live in infamy -- THAT is what he'll be remembered for -- inciting armed mobs to overthrow his own government and kill his own vice president.

Anonymous said...

To answer your resident trolls question on why Biden isn't giving pressers:

First of all, in a functioning federal executive there is a press secretary to communicate what's going on while the President actually works. Social media rants are not necessary, and measured, well constructed speeches are given when needed. Also, Biden has the work of the American people to do in a pandemic caused economic crisis exacerbated by the incompetence and corruption of the previous administration.

Bluebullamerica said...

Skidmark thinks that desperate and scared people crossing the border in hopes of a new and better life (Like, I believe most of your ancestors did. Mine too, but we have a few thousand years on you guys. :)) is more dangerous than hundred of radicalized right wing kooks over-running DC and threatening to murder people. Yep, ole Skid is that pathetic. What's next? whining about 'cancel culture' and Dr. Seuss books? Pathetic.

skudrunner said...

Ms. Shaw, I didn't say Press Conference I said Q&A from the press. I actually feel sorry for joey and understand mental capacities diminish with age. I guess in your view the capital police that was killed was far more significant than the retired police chief during the riots. There is widespread condemnation over the capital riots but the cities that were terrorized were insignificant because it was mostly small businesses that suffered. According to joey ANTIFA is just an idea and it is OK to wait weeks before commenting on the destruction of cities by peaceful demonstrators.

At least we have cruella to speak for the US with world leaders while joey naps.

Les Carpenter said...

You're quite the genius skud. Fortunately there are more folks that disagree with your fog bottom haziness than agree.

Grey One talks sass said...

skud likes to pontificate about how cognisance fades as one grows older. I guess that's a reason for skuds' continued logic fails. Not sure that's what they meant though....

As for President Biden not answering questions, Jen Psaki (or Ginger Snap as she's affectionately named on a few blogs) answered that charge several times with a two tiered response:
A - the president is busy dealing with the biggest pandemic and economic crisis in decades but folks are worried about a presser? Hmmmmm....
B. An appropriate time and date for a press conference are in the works. In the meantime questions are submitted to the president to be answered which he already does.

Sounds like skud got their GQP talking points but little else. I do worry about their cognitive decline. Seems serious.

(sort-of snark, some genuine care, but mostly snark)

Grey One talks sass said...

Shaw - Not that I totally believe an intervention by a deity is coming to rescue We The People but something played a part in the absolutely horrible, no good, rotten timing the insurrectionists faced in their attempted coup. I mean really - they didn't know their phones would ping their location as they committed treason? As they livestreamed their adventure to facebook? LOL

Bugs Bunny has a few descriptors for such knuckleheaded humans.

It is my hope once Biden's department heads are (finally) approved the cultist insiders are thrust into a limelight they do not seek by staff tired of their shenanigans. I can't speak for others but I need to see more than just the foot soldiers punished for the events on the 6th of January. Foot soldiers do what they're told. We (specifically I) need those who were doing the telling.

Hope you are well. It's an iffy time for me so reading every day but only commenting when typing isn't agony.

skudrunner said...

Blueballs, As long as they keep going north and take jobs and benefits from citizens. It does appear that the biden administration is conflicted. First they want to raise the minimum wage to eliminate thousand of entry level jobs, then they eliminate thousands of well paying jobs and now they want to encourage illegal entry to take jobs already held by illegals and those trying to get citizenship. Tough to balance all that. FYI, not all of us come from an immigrant background and those who aren't are the most discriminated and least vocal in our country. The federal government has totally enslaved the Native American yet no one talks about it because they keep quiet.

RN, I believe you meant foggy bottom not fog bottom but that's OK.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Grey One talks sass,

Skud and his Trumpey pals are soon keen to denigrate, destroy, and defame President Biden that they’ve reduced themselves to making fun of President Biden by claiming he’s demented. The folks doing that are themselves in their 70s and 80s. One wonders about pots and kettles. Wink, wink.

Those same Trumpers ignored Trump’s “covfefe” tweets, where Trump sounded barely literate, and his imbecilic suggestion to inject disinfectant into bodies as a cure for COVID. That’s not demented, that’s insane. But Trumpers have nothing on Biden, so they have to get in the gutter to come up with ideas.

I agree with your take on the insurrectionists and their stupidities. One must take into account that they are Trump cultists, Q.E.D.

I hate to hear you’re not feeling well, you know your comments are always welcome and appreciated here. You can drop me an email at my Shaw Kenawe email account: shawkenawe@yahoo.com.


Bluebullamerica said...

Skidmark,

You mean the tens of thousands of jobs Americans just won't do, like picking our food? It's been tried by paying Americans a competitive wage (12-15 an hour) and Americans still won't do it. Those that signed up only worked for a handful of hours before quitting. Right now, thousands of growers are desperate for help or have let fields go fallow due to a lack of workers (Thanks to your orange idiot), so don't give me that crap about 'stealing American jobs'. It's a fricking lie, like everything else your side produces, these days.
I'm assuming you didn't know but I am Native American, born on the rez. Are you also a First Nation person? Somehow, I doubt it. right wing and Native doesn't mesh up anymore, not after the was the right has bashed, attacked and slimed our people. Nope. I don't believe that you could be more than either a wannabe or maybe a fractional Indian. Sorry, but any reserve you had of faith long ago went out the window with the lies you've posted here.

Les Carpenter said...

No skud, I meant EXACTLY what I said. I chose my words for a VERY precise reason. I should have known you'd struggle to understand.

skudrunner said...

Blueballs, believe what you want correct or incorect

Bluebullamerica said...

Who am I going to believe? Skidmark who has lied repeatedly online for years or my own eyes and ears. Hmmm..... it's a tough choice. Not.