In related news, now have several high level statements confirming that the Trump Defense Department delayed and refused to activate the District National Guard, and acted to delay and block deployment of mutual aid from the Maryland national guard, even as U.S. Capitol was being breeched.
...Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam was still fielding questions about vaccine distribution from reporters at 2:26 p.m. when spokeswoman Alena Yarmosky got a text, saying that rioters had stormed the U.S. Capitol. His chief of staff, Clark Mercer, got a call about that same time and stepped into the hallway. It office of D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, saying the Defense Department was refusing to activate the District’s National Guard. The mayor wanted Northam to send in Virginia’s, as well as state police.
Only Northam could deploy the Guard, but because of mutual-aid agreements, Public Safety Secretary Brian Moran, who had stepped into the hall with Mercer, had the power to dispatch state police without waiting for the governor’s approval. Moran and Mercer signed off on the troopers on the spot, and they were rolling into the District by 3:15 p.m.
...Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan offered new details Thursday about the delayed response to assist law enforcement at the Capitol, saying the Maryland National Guard was ready to help but was “repeatedly” told they did not have the authorization needed to join the effort. Hogan received a panicked call from House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md)., who pleaded with him to send in troops from Maryland, the governor said. Hoyer told him that he was calling from a secure location with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Hogan said Maj. Gen. Timothy Gowen, the adjutant general of the
Maryland National Guard, was repeatedly rebuffed by the head of the National Guard at the federal level. Gowen “kept running it up the flagpole, and we don’t have authorization,” Hogan said. “We don’t have authorization.”
Ninety minutes later, Hogan said, he received a call “out of the blue, not from the secretary of defense, not through what would be normal channels,” but from Ryan McCarthy, the secretary of the Army. McCarthy asked if the Maryland guardsmen could “come as soon as possible,” Hogan recounted.