About two hours after a pro-Trump crowd smashed windows and smashed doors to enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, then-Vice President Mike Pence urgently called the acting secretary of defense to seek help securing the federal building, according to recently revealed documents.
“Clear the Capitol,” Pence told Christopher Miller while in a safe facility, according to the undisclosed document previously prepared by the Pentagon and obtained by the Associated Press.
Pence asked Miller for a deadline to make the building safe.
But it would be hours before order was restored, according to the chronology of events contained in the document.
Riot police attacked the Capitol as a joint session of Congress met to certify the Electoral College’s 2020 vote for President Biden.
Former President Donald Trump, who addressed his supporters earlier in the day at the Ellipse on his allegations of election fraud, was in the White House.
Around two-ten in the evening, the first riot police began breaking down the doors and windows of the Senate.
Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund called General William Walker, commander-in-chief of the DC National Guard, and called for at least 200 members of the guard.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy discussed the request over the next 20 minutes with the mayor and Pentagon leaders as senators were rescued and riots erupted in the chamber.
Just after 3 p.m., McCarthy gave “verbal approval” for 1,100 Guardsmen to be activated to support DC police, and an emergency reaction force left joint base Andrews toward DC, but still needed Miller’s final approval.
About 20 minutes later, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer were on the phone seeking help from the guard and the military, according to documents.
“We need help,” Schumer said.
They were told the guard had been fine. But in reality, military and police officers were struggling to implement the plan: Guard troops were only prepared for traffic tasks and needed more preparation before entering the violent siege.
At 3:44 p.m., Schumer was pleading again.
“Tell POTUS to tweet so everyone can leave,” he told officials.
Pence called Miller at 4:08 p.m.
Ten minutes later, Trump tweeted to his supporters to “go home and go in peace.”
Around 4:30 p.m., Walker had approval to send the Guard to the Capitol. Ten minutes later, Pelosi and Schumer spoke by telephone with the Pentagon’s management, asking for the perimeter to be fixed.
Congress leaders of the 30-minute call accused “the national security apparatus of knowing that protesters planned to carry out an assault on the Capitol,” according to documents, according to the AP.
The first of the 155 Guard members finally began arriving at the Capitol at 5:20 p.m., and order was not restored until the evening.