“I don’t like the visual of the National Guard standing a police line with the Capitol in the background.”
- Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, director of the Army staff
The Day of the Rally
12:40 p.m.: The first protesters arrive at the Capitol, where Congress is meeting in joint session to certify Joe Biden’s election.
1.p.m.: Trump begins to wrap up his speech at the “Save America” rally at the Ellipse, a park near the White House. He tells rallygoers the presidential election was “stolen” by Democrats and the “fake news media,” and says that he’s going to walk with the crowd to the Capitol “to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones … the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.” But Trump does not accompany the rally attendees to the Capitol.
Sund says he already realizes “things aren’t going well,” that the protesters came with riot helmets, gas masks, pepper spray, fireworks, metal pipes and baseball bats. Sund callsMetropolitan Police Chief Contee, who sends 100 officers to the Capitol, with the first ones arriving within 10 minutes, according to Sund’s interview with the Washington Post.
1:09 p.m.: Sund tells Irving and Stenger by phone that the National Guard is needed. Sund says both men told him they would “run it up the chain.”
1:26 p.m.: Capitol Police order the evacuation of the Capitol complex.
1:34 p.m.: In a phone call with Secretary of the Army McCarthy, Bowser requests an “unspecified number of additional forces,” according to the Pentagon timeline.
1:49 p.m.: Sund, in a phone call with the commanding general of the D.C. National Guard, Maj. Gen. William Walker, requests immediate assistance, and tells him to prepare to bring in the guard.
About 2 p.m.: Rioters breach the Capitol. In an interview with the Washington Post published on Jan. 10, Sund says, “If we would have had the National Guard we could have held them at bay longer, until more officers from our partner agencies could arrive.”
2:10 p.m.: Sund says Irving calls him back with formal approval to send in the guard. But as the Washington Post noted, “Sund finally had approval to call the National Guard. But that would prove to be just the beginning of a bureaucratic nightmare to get soldiers on the scene.”
2:22 p.m.: The secretary of the Army, Bowser, D.C. police leadership and others “discuss the current situation and to request additional DCNG support,” according to the Pentagon timeline.
2:24 p.m.: Trump tweets, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”
2:26 p.m.: Sund says he joins the conference call to plead for additional backup. “I am making urgent, urgent immediate request for National Guard assistance,” Sund recalls saying. According to Sund and others on the call, the Washington Post reports, Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, director of the Army staff, says he could not recommend that to his boss, McCarthy, because, “I don’t like the visual of the National Guard standing a police line with the Capitol in the background.”
However, Piatt disputed that, saying in a statement: “I did not make the statement or any comments similar to what was attributed to me by Chief Sund in the Washington Post article — but would note that even in his telling he makes it clear that neither I, nor anyone else from [the Department of Defense], denied the deployment of requested personnel.”
2:30 p.m.: Miller, Milley and McCarthy meet to discuss the requests from Capitol Police and Bowser.
3 p.m.: Miller “determines all available forces of the DCNG are required to reinforce MPD [Metropolitan Police Department] and USCP positions to support efforts to reestablish security of the Capitol complex,” according to the Pentagon timeline. Simultaneously, the D.C. National Guard prepares to move 150 personnel to support Capitol Police, pending Miller’s approval.
3:04 p.m.: Miller “provides verbal approval of the full activation of DCNG (1100 total) in support of the MPD,” according to the Pentagon. In response, McCarthy immediately directs the D.C. National Guard “to initiate movement and full mobilization.” That means the D.C. guard members helping with traffic and crowd control are redeployed to support the Metropolitan Police Department at the Capitol, and the entire D.C. guard begins full mobilization.
https://www.factcheck.org/2021/01/timeline-of-national-guard-deployment-to-capitol/
