DC, Capitol Police ‘Stunned’ at Slow National Guard Response During Jan. 6 Riot – By Steve Beynon (Military.com) / Feb 23 2021
Lawmakers grilled security officials Tuesday over their failure to defend the U.S. Capitol from a mob of insurrectionists Jan. 6, also asking why National Guard troops didn’t respond for hours.
“I was surprised at the reluctance to immediately send the National Guard to the Capitol grounds,” Robert J. Contee III, acting chief for the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, told senators at a joint hearing on the attack.
Around 1 p.m. Jan. 6, explosive devices were found at the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters. At the same time, rioters supporting former President Donald Trump overwhelmed police at the Capitol and started to seize the building, attacking law enforcement with blunt weapons and chemicals. National Guard troops didn’t arrive until after 5 p.m.
It is unclear where the communication breakdown between law enforcement and the military started, or why troops were not armed and present at the Capitol ahead of the attack. Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said he made multiple requests for military backup and those requests were either ignored or got lost in a web of bureaucracy.
