A top Army leader defended the Pentagon’s response to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, telling a House panel Tuesday that the National Guard was delayed for hours because they had to properly prepare for the deployment and that senior military leaders had determined beforehand that there was “no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election.”
Lieutenant General Walter Piatt, director of the Army staff, echoed comments from other senior military leaders about the perception of soldiers being used to secure the election process. He said the Pentagon wanted to be careful about their response in part because of concerns about military helicopters that had flown low over Washington streets during protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in the summer of 2020.
It also took several hours for Guardsmen to be equipped and given a plan for how to secure a building overrun by hundreds of supporters of former president Donald Trump, Piatt said.
“When people’s lives are on the line, two minutes is too long,” he said. “But we were not positioned to respond to that urgent request. We had to reprepare so we would send them in prepared for this new mission.”
Piatt’s testimony comes as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House will step up its investigations into the deadly insurrection. She said Tuesday that the House “can’t wait any longer” to do a comprehensive investigation after Senate Republicans blocked legislation to create an independent commission.
“Whether we have a commission today, tomorrow or the next day over in the Senate or not, the work of the committees will be very important in what we’re seeking for the American people — the truth,” Pelosi said.
One option under consideration is a select committee on the January 6 attack, a setup that would put majority Democrats in charge. More than three dozen Republicans in the House and seven Senate Republicans wanted to avoid a partisan probe and supported the legislation to create an independent, bipartisan commission outside Congress.
But those numbers weren’t strong enough to overcome GOP opposition in the Senate, where support from 10 Republicans is needed to pass most bills. Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer has said he may hold a second vote after the legislation failed to advance last month, but there’s no indication that Democrats can win the necessary support from three additional Republicans.
“We can’t wait any longer,” Pelosi said. “We will proceed.”
Meanwhile, most Republicans are making clear they want to move on from the January 6 attack, brushing aside the many unanswered questions about the insurrection, including how the government and law enforcement missed intelligence leading up to the rioting, and the role of Trump before and during the attack.
The hearing Tuesday in the House Oversight and Reform Committee was to examine “unexplained delays and unanswered questions” about the siege, with public testimony from FBI Director Christopher Wray, Piatt and General Charles E. Flynn, who was previously Army deputy chief of staff.
All three men were involved that day as the Capitol Police begged for backup. The National Guard did not arrive for several hours, as police were overwhelmed and beaten by the rioters.
Piatt insisted that he did not deny or have the authority to deny Guard help during a call with former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who has previously said he believed Piatt and other Army leaders were concerned about the optics of soldiers surrounding the building. According to the Defense Department, military leadership approved activation of the full D.C. National Guard at 3:04 p.m., about 40 minutes after the call with Sund.
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who chairs the committee, criticized Wray for not providing documents her staff had requested and asked him if he believed the FBI should be blamed for the law enforcement failures on January 6.
“Our goal is to bat 1.000, and any time there’s an attack, much less an attack as horrific and spectacular as what happened on January 6, we consider that to be unacceptable,” Wray replied.
Seven people died during and after the rioting, including a Trump supporter who was shot and killed as she tried to break into the House chamber and two police officers who died by suicide in the days that followed. A third officer, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, collapsed and later died after engaging with the protesters, but a medical examiner determined he died of natural causes.