Ever since the riot at the Capitol took place on January 6, 2021, Donald Trump has maintained that he requested National Guard troops for the rally, and he was told no.
Reports are now surfacing that the January 6 Select Committee suppressed testimony that would have backed up Trump’s claim.
Talking Points…
- Donald Trump’s alleged request
- New report surfaces
- Analysis
Trump’s claim that he wanted National Guard troops at his “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6 has been a point of contention since the riot took place. Trump continued pointing the finger at Pelosi for allegedly declining his request. During a recent interview, Trump discussed this, stating:
"Nancy Pelosi was in charge of security. She turned down 10,000 soldiers. If she didn’t turn down the soldiers, you wouldn’t have had Jan. 6.”
Trump would not discuss if he personally called the police or law enforcement that day, but he later added:
"I understand that the police testified against her, the chief very strongly against her, the Capitol police, great people.
“They testified against her, and they burned all the evidence. OK? They burned all the evidence. They destroyed all the evidence about Nancy Pelosi."
Last week, reports started to surface online regarding Trump's alleged request for National Guard to be present at the event for security purposes. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) claims that an interview with then-White House Deputy Chief of Staff Anthony Ornato was buried by the January 6 Select Committee. He stated:
"The former J6 Select Committee apparently withheld Mr. Ornato’s critical witness testimony from the American people because it contradicted their pre-determined narrative. Mr. Ornato’s testimony proves what Mr. Meadows has said all along: President Trump did in fact offer 10,000 National Guard troops to secure the U.S. Capitol, which was turned down.”
Loudermilk then accused the committee of suppressing evidence that would have proven that Trump did, in fact, request the troops to be at the rally. Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-MT), one of two Republicans appointed to the committee by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), responded to the report on X…
Hi Mark: I see you’re still spreading BS. You & the bozo who wrote this might want to actually read the 1/6 report (eg, Appendix 2, 741-2, 127-8, 587-92), SecDef Miller’s transcript (Trump never ordered 10k troops), Judge Wallace’s finding (Kash Patel is “not a credible witness”) https://t.co/WdOxaEbVks
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) March 10, 2024
DC is unique in terms of activating National Guard troops. Typically, a governor would deploy the troops, but DC has no governor, so the job of activating the National Guard actually falls under the president, who has since delegated that authority to the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Army.
Since DC legislation also falls under Congress, the mayor or the Speaker of the House can request that National Guard troops be present, but that approval would ultimately have to come from those mentioned above. In this case, however, Trump maintains that the Guard troops were offered to the Mayor and Pelosi, and the offer was denied.
Former Trump administration adviser Kash Patel also commented on this, stating that DC Mayor Bowser wrote a letter declining Guard troops for the rally. He went on to say that authorization was in place, but the administration acted on Bowser’s declination of the troops.
The problem for Trump here is that regardless of what Bowser or Pelosi wanted, ultimately, he was the one who had the direct authority to deploy National Guard troops in DC if he wanted them in place. That is the one question that Trump has yet to answer when reporters have asked him: Why did he not just override the mayor and deploy the troops if he was that concerned about the rally? This is the issue that will haunt Trump in the election interference case because if he was so worried about the rally that he wanted National Guard troops to serve as security, then why did he even go through the rally in the first place?
