Trump's politicization of the military contributed to Jan. 6 failures -- but the problem hasn't been corrected

Two years after the Jan. 6 insurrection, important questions remain unanswered about the lack of National Guard response.

Steven Sund, the former chief of the U.S. Capitol police, sharply criticizes both military congressional leaders, including then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi, for resisting his calls ahead of Jan. 6 to consider deploying the National Guard to respond to what appeared to be credible threats of violence, reported Politico.

“It was sickening,” Sund told the website. “I’m sitting here watching my men and women fighting, you know, defend every inch of ground. … I get on the call with the Pentagon to find that they’re really [more] concerned about the look of having the National Guard up at the Capitol than they are about my men and women and their asses handed to them. That’s sickening.”

Sund, who resigned from his post the day after the riot, has fallen under criticism himself from injured Metropolitan police officer Michael Fanone , but D.C. deputy mayor John Falcicchio tends to agree with the former Capitol police chief's assessment of the federal response for backup

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“[D.C. Police] chief [Robert] Contee kind of says, Hey, listen, guys. Let’s just get right down to it. Chief Sund, are you inviting the National Guard to come support the U.S. Capitol Police on the grounds of the Capitol? And there’s like a silent moment. Then he says yes. And literally, the Pentagon is the next voice heard. And they’re literally like, we’re not going to be able to fulfill that request.," Falcicchio said. "The Pentagon, in fairness, was saying: Listen, that visual of the National Guard charging up to the Capitol is one we don’t know that it’s the best one to portray.”

Federal officials were especially wary about calling in the National Guard after Donald Trump made his infamous walk from the White House to Lafayette Square in June 2020, and any future federal response will remain a political problem as much as a security issue unless the process is clarified.

“When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution,” said retired general and former Trump defense secretary James Mattis after the Lafayette Square incident. “Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the constitutional rights of their fellow citizens — much less to provide a bizarre photo-op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.”