“The acting chief of the Capitol Police apologized to Congress on Tuesday for the agency’s extensive security failures on Jan. 6, acknowledging during a closed-door briefing that the department knew there was a ‘strong potential for violence’ but failed to take adequate steps to prevent what she described as a ‘terrorist attack.’
“Yogananda D. Pittman, the acting chief of police, also confirmed that the Capitol Police Board, an obscure panel made up of three voting members, had initially declined a request two days earlier for National Guard troops and then delayed for more than an hour as the violence unfolded on Jan. 6 before finally agreeing to a plea from the Capitol Police for National Guard troops, according to prepared testimony obtained by The New York Times.”
The story goes on to say, “Chief Pittman said that her department knew Jan. 6 would be unlike previous protests. She said her department knew that militia groups and white supremacists organizations would descend on Washington.
“‘We also knew that some of these participants were intending to bring firearms and other weapons to the event,’ she said. ‘We knew that there was a strong potential for violence and that Congress was the target. The department prepared in order to meet these challenges, but we did not do enough.’
“She said the Capitol Police had 1,200 people working on site when the attack occurred, which was ‘no match’ for ‘the tens of thousands of insurrectionists.’”
The above answers a bunch of questions about how this all could have happened — and how many wondered if it was a total failure in intelligence? Instead, it was a failure in responding to the anticipated events of the day. Either mistake is bad, but not reacting to the intelligence you have on hand is inexcusable!
