Republicans blame Nancy Pelosi for certain Jan. 6 security failures

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News Desk

Updated on August 3, 2021

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House Republicans staged a news conference Tuesday morning, an hour and a half before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol was due to begin for its first hearing, to oppose the hearing, concentrating especially on Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The politicization of the events that day continued on “The Ingraham Angle,” with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) implying that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) played a part in preventing the National Guard from securing the United States Capitol.

“There’s questions into the leadership within the structure of the speaker’s office, where they denied the ability to bring the National Guard here,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said.

“The American people deserve to know the truth that Nancy Pelosi bears responsibility as speaker of the House for the tragedy that occurred on Jan. 6,” said Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York and the party’s No. 3 leader.

House Republican Whip Steve Scalise questioned “about why Speaker Pelosi didn’t make sure that Capitol Police had all the tools they needed to be prepared for that day.”

The D.C. National Guard is the only one of 54 National Guard units in the United States that reports entirely to the President of the United States; at the time of the Capitol riots, that was Donald J. Trump. The president can direct the Secretary of Defense or the Secretary of the Army to activate the guard, which was done by Christopher Miller (acting) and Ryan McCarthy.

“On Jan. 6, these brave officers were put into a vulnerable, impossible position because the leadership at the top has failed,” said California Representative Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader.

The US Capitol Historical Society’s president and CEO, Jane L. Campbell, told CNN that “the Speaker of the House does not oversee security of the US Capitol, nor does this official oversee the Capitol Police Board.”

Due to the District of Columbia’s lack of statehood, Mayor Muriel Bowser was required to request that the federal government mobilize the National Guard to help Capitol Police and D.C. Police in guarding the United States Capitol from rioters. Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, according to a National Guard news statement, activated soldiers.

Ms. Pelosi wields significant power as Speaker, but she is not in charge of Congress’s security. That is the work of the Capitol Police, which Ms. Pelosi only has a tangential influence over. The Capitol Police Board, comprised of the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms and the Architect of the Capitol, makes the majority of decisions on Capitol security.

Pelosi is also not allowed to exert undue influence on who is nominated to the Board.

The mayor’s request to mobilize the National Guard was denied by the Department of Defense, according to a statement from the D.C. Council.

Ms. Pelosi shares control of the Capitol with the Senate majority leader, who at the time was Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell. Republicans have made no attempt to blame Mr. McConnell for the security lapse or failure to plan for an assault.

According to former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund’s testimony, Pelosi was not engaged with the National Guard decisions made prior to Jan. 6. Former US Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund testified before the Senate in February that he sought both Sergeants at Arms on the House and Senate sides on Jan. 4 to seek the National Guard through an Emergency Declaration from the Capitol Police Board, but his request was denied. According to Sund’s testimony, Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael C. Stenger “suggested I ask (the National Guard) how quickly we could get support if needed and to ‘lean forward’ in case we had to request assistance on January 6.”

It took hours for authorities at the Department of Defense to deploy the National Guard, and even longer for the 1,000-plus troops to arrive.

This accusation also contradicts a bipartisan assessment issued by two Senate committees, which found evidence of systemic failings across American intelligence, military, and law enforcement organizations, which underestimated the danger in the run-up to Jan. 6 and were not adequately equipped to respond to it.

Following the events of Jan. 6, the US Capitol Police said it was working “with Congressional oversight and the Capitol Police Board to obtain the authority to immediately request National Guard assistance if needed without having to wait for board approval.”

However, there is no indication that any political officials were involved in the Capitol Police decision.