Two of Donald Trump's Pentagon leaders should be hauled before Congress to explain why they were slow to deploy National Guard forces as the U.S. Capitol was being overrun by the former president's supporters, says a Democratic senator.
A Senate hearing this week drew heightened attention for revealing new details about the Defense Department's failure to respond quickly to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, but absent among witnesses were two key Trump DOD officials at the center of the response.
Now, Michigan Sen. Gary Peters is calling for former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller and former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy to testify.
“I certainly think we need to hear from them. There's no question,” Peters told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Thursday night. “They were central in the discussion yesterday in the hearing.”
In Wednesday’s joint Senate Rules and Homeland Security Committee hearing, D.C. National Guard Chief Maj. Gen. William Walker described his frustration at the long delay he faced before he received authorization to send a waiting rapid response team with riot gear to assist overwhelmed Capitol Police.
In his opening statement, Walker described the 1:49 p.m. call with then-U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund when he first learned that the legislative hall had been breached and reinforcements were urgently needed.
“Immediately after that 1:49 p.m. call, I alerted the U.S. Army senior leadership of the request,” he told senators. “The approval for Chief Sund's request would eventually come from the acting secretary of defense and be relayed to me by Army senior leaders at 5:08 p.m., about three hours and 19 minutes later.”
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