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Fact-check: President Trump authorized 20,000 National Guard troops for duty on Jan. 6, 2021
The former Democrat co-chairman of the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 continues to lie about President Donald J. Trump’s authorization of the D.C. National Guard on Jan. 6.Amid the backdrop of the Los Angeles anti-ICE riots, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) took to social media on June 8 and claimed, “Trump refused to call the National Guard during the Jan 6th insurrection.”'Pelosi will never go for it.'
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The truth is that several days ahead of time, President Trump authorized up to 20,000 National Guard troops for duty on Jan. 6. Under the law, those troops would need to be requested by a governor or, in the case of the District of Columbia, the mayor.Democrat politicians refused Guard helpDemocrat Mayor Muriel Bowser rejected the offer of National Guard troops in a Jan. 5 letter to the Department of Defense.Former Capitol Police Chief Steven A. Sund requested Guard troops days in advance during meetings with the House and Senate sergeants at arms. At the time, the House sergeant at arms, Paul Irving, reported to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). The late Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger reported to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).Sund was later told by Stenger that the National Guard request would not have flown because, as Irving put it, “Pelosi will never go for it.”The sergeants at arms are two of the three voting members of the Capitol Police Board, which is responsible for security at the Capitol. The board refused Chief Sund’s requests for the National Guard until mid-afternoon on Jan. 6, after the Capitol had been breached and the grounds overrun with tens of thousands of protesters.According to the U.S. Department of Defense inspector general’s report regarding the events of Jan. 6, 2021, the use of National Guard troops was discussed during a White House meeting on Jan. 3, 2021.In attendance were acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, presidential Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and Sec. Miller’s chief of staff, Kash Patel. “The president told Mr. Miller that there would be a large number of protesters on January 6, 2021, and Mr. Miller should ensure sufficient National Guard or soldiers would be there to make sure it was a safe event,” Milley said.Patel, who is now FBI director, said Trump did all he was constitutionally allowed to do.“He said, ‘If you need up to 20,000 National Guardsmen and women, not just in Washington, D.C., but anywhere in the country, you have my authorization,’” Patel recalled.Miller recalled the discussions this way: “The president said while we’re leaving, ‘Hey, one more thing,’ and we all sat back down and discussed what was going on on Jan. 6,” Miller said.'I am stunned by the repeated statements by Pelosi.'“The president was doing just what I expect the commander in chief to do, any commander in chief to do. He was looking at the broad threats against the United States, and he brought this up on his own. We did not bring it up.”During a series of conference calls on Jan. 6, the Pentagon balked at the “optics” of having National Guard troops at the Capitol. Thus began a critical three-hour, 19-minute delay in putting boots on the ground at the Capitol.The career officers at the Pentagon were more concerned with politics than with ensuring that the National Guard made it to the Capitol, said Casey Wardynski, former assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and Reserve affairs and a 30-year U.S. Army veteran who served former President Donald Trump at the Pentagon from 2019 to 2021.“Instead of looking after what’s best for the country, they were looking to cover their asses and do what was best for their careers and for the perception of their favorite institution, the Army,” Wardynski told Blaze News. New Jersey police arrived before National GuardU.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), chairman of the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, said information uncovered by his investigators was ignored by the now-defunct Jan. 6 Select Committee and left out of the Pentagon inspector general report issued in November 2021.“It took too long for the D.C. National Guard to arrive at the Capitol. The 113th Wing Capital Guardians have a proud history protecting our nation’s capital and serving our nation’s leadership. Nevertheless, the New Jersey State Police from nearly 150 miles away responded to the Capitol before the D.C. National Guard.” Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images In Jan. 6 HBO documentary footage obtained by Loudermilk’s subcommittee, Pelosi expressed exasperation that the Guard was not at the Capitol, at nearly the same hour that her House sergeant at arms was refusing Sund’s desperate pleas for National Guard help.Sund told Blaze News in 2024 that if Pelosi had simply granted his Jan. 3 request for the National Guard, “I don’t think we would be here discussing this today.”“I am stunned by the repeated statements by Pelosi about there not being any National Guard deployed to the Capitol in advance of the attack on January 6,” Sund said, “when it was her sergeant at arms for the House of Representatives who denied my request for support on January 3, and then again repeatedly for 71 minutes while we were under attack on January 6.”Sund said the response to his urgent request for help was “absolutely abysmal,” noting that by the time Guard members arrived at the staging location near the Capitol, they were no longer needed.“They could have not shown up and it wouldn't have changed a thing,” Sund told Blaze News.Like Blaze News? 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