In the political witch hunt surrounding former-president Donald Trump’s latest indictment, there’s only one thing standing between Democrats and their victory over a political rival.
Inconvenient facts.
Throughout the entire one-sided “investigation” into the riot of January 6, 2021, key players were not asked for testimony regarding their role in the incident.
And there were many. From the top down, many witnesses were ignored because they could testify that Trump requested police and National Guard intervention days before the alleged “riot” took place.
For days leading up to January 6, the Pentagon asked Capitol Police if they would need assistance. Again and again, the offers were rebuffed. Even as the events unfolded, the offer of additional help was once again refused.
For more than four hours, the National Guard awaited orders amid communications breakdowns and concerns about public perception over mobilizing troops in a protest. It’s even more egregious that the incident was allowed to escalate when the National Guard was waiting less than two miles away in an armory.
For officials, it was all about the optics. In June 2020, law enforcement’s response to protests near the White House prompted criticism, and the agencies were wary of letting the nation see the federal government using National Guard troops against Americans again.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that he asked for 10,000 National Guardsman ahead of January 6. He said that Pelosi rejected the offer because it wouldn’t “look good.”
For the White House, it was an error of omission. Per Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, it quickly became clear that Capitol Police were in over their heads. But there was no contingency planning for the incident, and McCarthy waited by the phone for a call authorizing deployment as the events unfolded.
Capitol Police had major flaws in their planning, such as failing to secure a hard perimeter around the Capitol. While barricades were set up, most of their efforts were focused on the side of the Capitol where lawmakers were certifying the election.
Pelosi and the White House have denied the claim multiple times, sending fact-checkers into overdrive to “debunk” it.
Ex-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund has stated multiple times that the White House refused additional help. A recent Tucker Carlson interview, unaired and recently leaked, takes his allegation one step further: not only were officials aware of the impending riots, but they also actively covered the potentially explosive protests up. Sund was forced to resign shortly after the riots.
Per the leaked footage, Sund stated that if he had been allowed to do his job as chief, the riot would have been averted. He explained that not only was he not given National Guard support prior to January 6, but he was also denied help for 71 minutes while the riot unfolded.
Per the interview, Sund explained that he initially requested support from the National Guard at 1 p.m. on January 6 but did not receive a reply until over seventy minutes later. There was a delay, including the time it took to mobilize the soldiers, of three hours between Sund’s request for support and help arriving.
Sund’s interview contained a scathing rebuke of government officials, who knew the protest was planned. He points back to a Trump tweet dated December 19, 2020, that said there would be a “big protest” on January 6 and that it would be “wild.” While Trump had no idea of how “wild” it would be, the tweet should have served as a warning for the White House to prepare.
The ex-capitol police chief said that while he is not a conspiracy theorist, the way the incident played out was concerning. Sund said, “It’s sad when you start putting everything together and thinking about the way this played out. It gets concerning. What was their end goal?”
Sund claimed in February of 2021 that he never received an intelligence report surrounding the potential of the January 6 riots. He was later told that a warning was received by the Joint Terrorism Task Force on January 5, and the report was forwarded via email to the intelligence division at Capitol police headquarters.
From there, the warning was missed or ignored, either intentionally or unintentionally. And it’s a story that will be ignored during Trump’s upcoming legal battles.
The leaked interview, covered by Newsweek, is more than just proof that the White House withheld requested aid on January 6. The unaired footage is proof that Fox News has officially changed allegiance.
