We know how it looked, how it felt, but we don’t have the full story.
Some alarming details, however, are beginning to emerge. On Monday, while Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf resigned, CNN reported that the FBI had received information indicating that “armed protests” were being planned in the state’s 50 capitals and the U.S. Capitol. in Washington, DC. Capitol police officers are being investigated for their behavior during the riot; two have been suspended.
So was the Capitol Storm a spontaneous event or was it part of something more orchestrated?
There is growing evidence to warrant deep concern and urgent investigations may suffer wall barricades.
Still, it is imperative to find out exactly what happened on January 6 and what may still be going on. It requires two-level research at two speeds.
First, the FBI and law enforcement agencies must track down and detain instigators and determine what may be on their agenda for the next few days. This is particularly urgent because the day after the assault, when President Donald Trump finally agreed to a peaceful transfer of power, in a video that was recorded at the White House and about which he “regretted,” he said. to his supporters. “Our incredible journey is just beginning.”
Separately, Congress must establish a bipartisan committee to pull all the strings and see what unravels.
The generally accepted version of what unfolded is that a mass of passionate Trump supporters gathered on the day Congress would certify Biden’s electoral victory. After Trump and his proxies ignited their anger over the legitimate election results in a frantic frenzy, they apparently followed his instructions and headed to the Capitol. There, Capitol police failed to stop them. According to this narrative, the failure of law enforcement was the result of a mixture of unpreparedness, poor communications, the race of the perpetrators, and possibly sympathy for riot police among some who were supposed to stop them.
But is this an accurate account of what happened?
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the day’s events was the failure of National Guard forces to respond quickly. The chronology is mind-boggling.
At a rally the night before the riot, attendees heard former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn tell them that Americans were willing to “bleed” for freedom. At Wednesday’s rally, Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, defended the “combat trial” to resolve the election. Then came Trump’s instructions: “fight like hell.” After Trump’s speech and his false promise to join them, they stormed the Capitol.
At 1:18 a.m. Wednesday, several officers had already been injured, according to a reconstruction of the Wall Street Journal. At 1:41 p.m., a “Broken Arrow” alert was issued throughout the city, reporting that riot police had surrounded the police. At 3 p.m., the Wall Street Journal reported that at least three key officials had urgently sought the support of the National Guard, Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, and Capitol police chief Steven Sund, who has since resigned.
The details of their conversations reveal growing anguish and bewilderment, as the Pentagon did not approve and quickly deploy troops. Sund told the Washington Post that he cried, “I’m making an urgent and urgent request for National Guard assistance.” He begged, “I have to put boots on the ground.”
At the same time, Hogan was trying to get the Pentagon to approve the deployment of the Maryland Guard, but, like Sund, he says the urgent request was met with unexplained delays.
Sund told the Washington Post he asked for it six times. Hogan, who had approved the Maryland deployment, told CNN it took two hours to get the necessary permission.
With the death of people in the chaos of the Capitol, the troops were nowhere to be found. Lieutenant General Walter Piatt, the director of the Army General Staff, reportedly answered Sund’s account and said in a statement on Monday that the authorization to activate the National Guard came about 40 minutes after the start of a conference call between officers around 2:20 p.m. , the first National Guard personnel did not arrive at the scene until 5:40 p.m. When the crowd withdrew, four people were killed and a Capitol Police officer was so seriously injured that he died the next day.
What happened? Why did it take so long for help to arrive?
Many have pointed out precisely that Black Lives Matter social justice protests have faced much tougher security, but a historian who has seen several protests on Capitol Hill says he saw more security in
other pro-Trump demonstrations. Was the Capitol deliberately left unprotected?
Once inside, according to Rep. Jim Clyburn, some riot police
he headed for his office, which is not checked. “For me, that indicated that maybe something inappropriate was happening,” he told CNN.
Investigators should answer questions about why, in the midst of the assault, Trump and Giuliani called on senators to ask them to try to delay the vote on certification of Biden’s victory. Giuliani said it was because he wanted the process to slow down “so we can get these legislatures to get more information from you.” But was something else supposed to happen after the occupation of the Capitol?
If the fury was nothing more than a spontaneous rally that got out of control, why did some of the men occupying the Capitol carry bundles of flexible fists, the plastic restraints used by law enforcement to detain the suspects?
If it was all an unplanned protest that went off the rails, why did the authorities discover pipe bombs in the area?
And what about the truck, parked two blocks from the Capitol and carrying 11 homemade bombs built in such a way that federal investigators said if it exploded it would have the effect of napalm. Court documents said the pallet jars full of explosives and supplies found tightly bound could have caused a “destructive device.” Authorities say other participants carried weapons and hundreds of ammunition.
There is no doubt that Trump has tried to overturn the legitimate and democratic outcome of the election. His followers believed they were about to help him succeed. But we need to know if his attack on the citadel of American democracy was the result of an overflowing emotion or if it was something more sinister. Something even worse than what we saw in those images that will be etched in the collective memory of the country. Something that will not end with a removal of Trump.
