<\/p>\n
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\nThis article may contain commentary
\nwhich reflects the author\u2019s opinion.<\/p>\n
Nancy Pelosi just got a very public \u201cfact check\u201d from the man who was in charge of Capitol security on January 6 \u2014 and it\u2019s not a good look for the former House Speaker.<\/p>\n
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\nThe California Democrat unloaded on President Donald Trump Monday after he announced a sweeping federal crime crackdown in Washington, D.C., taking direct control of the Metropolitan Police Department and activating the D.C. National Guard to patrol the streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonald Trump delayed deploying the National Guard on January 6th when our Capitol was under violent attack and lives were at stake,\u201d Pelosi fumed. \u201cNow, he\u2019s activating the D.C. Guard to distract from his incompetent mishandling of tariffs, health care, education and immigration \u2014 just to name a few blunders.\u201d<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long for former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund \u2014 who resigned after the Jan. 6 riot \u2014 to hit back, and hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cMa\u2019am, it is long past time to be honest with the American people,\u201d Sund said in a scathing statement. He recounted how on January 3, 2021, just three days before the riot, he formally requested National Guard support. That request, he says, was shot down by Pelosi\u2019s own Sergeant at Arms.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder federal law (2 U.S.C. \u00a71970), I was prohibited from calling them in without specific approval,\u201d Sund explained. \u201cThat same day, Carol Corbin at the Pentagon offered National Guard support, but I was forced to decline because I lacked the legal authority.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\nWhen January 6 arrived and chaos erupted, Sund said he begged again for the Guard \u2014 and was stalled for over an hour. \u201cWhile the Capitol was under attack and despite my repeated calls, your Sergeant at Arms again denied my urgent requests for over 70 agonizing minutes, \u2018running it up the chain\u2019 for your approval,\u201d Sund wrote.<\/p>\n
He then accused Pelosi of hypocrisy: \u201cWhen I needed assistance, it was denied. Yet when it suited you, you ordered fencing topped with concertina wire and surrounded the Capitol with thousands of armed National Guard troops.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pelosi\u2019s own daughter showed the Speaker on Jan. 6 telling aides she wanted Trump to come to the Capitol so she could \u201cpunch him out\u201d and \u201cgo to jail\u2026 happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\nThe remarks were caught on camera for an HBO documentary and aired by CNN. In the clip, Pelosi\u2019s staff told her the Secret Service had dissuaded Trump from coming due to security concerns, but Pelosi replied, \u201cI hope he comes. This is my moment. I\u2019ve been waiting for this.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is still a mystery why she wasn\u2019t \u201cwaiting\u201d to authorize the National Guard to secure the Capitol through the House Sergeant at Arms, as former Chief Sund highlights.<\/p>\n
Trump on Monday called his D.C. crime crackdown \u201cliberation day\u201d for the capital, vowing to rid the city of violent gangs, roving mobs, and \u201cdrugged-out maniacs.\u201d The move gives the president full control of the MPD for 30 days under the Home Rule Act, and he warned that New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles could be next.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals\u2026 and we\u2019re not going to take it anymore,\u201d Trump declared at the White House. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Guard troops from D.C. and other states will be deployed within days as \u201cforce multipliers\u201d for local and federal officers.<\/p>\n
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, calling the takeover \u201cunsettling and unprecedented,\u201d said she would nonetheless comply, adding, \u201cEverybody should follow the law, the police and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is odd that Mayor Bowser doesn\u2019t find it \u201cunsettling\u201d that she failed to secure the Capitol ahead of January 6, despite the repeated warnings. Bowser addressed a letter to acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy and acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller prior to the January 6 riot.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be clear, the District of Columbia is not requesting other federal law enforcement personnel and discourages any additional deployment without immediate notification to, and consultation with, MPD if such plans are underway,\u201d she wrote in the letter.<\/p>\n
The irony wasn\u2019t lost on political observers: Trump is now deploying the very D.C. Guard he has been accused of withholding on Jan. 6 \u2014 and the former Capitol Police Chief is now on record saying it wasn\u2019t him who blocked them at all.<\/p>\n
Sund\u2019s remarks revive a bitter political fight over who bears responsibility for the Guard delay that day. Democrats have long blamed Trump personally, suggesting he refused to send reinforcements as the riot unfolded. Trump and his allies counter that security planning for the Capitol fell under congressional leadership \u2014 meaning Pelosi\u2019s office was at the center of the decision-making process.<\/p>\n
In addition, it is a documented fact that Trump instructed the Pentagon to secure the capitol, ahead of expected election objections, and that included a pre-authorization for as many as 10,000 National Guard troops.<\/p>\n
With Trump once again in the Oval Office and now exercising emergency control over the capital\u2019s streets, the battle over the truth about January 6 is front-page politics all over again. And judging by Sund\u2019s blunt words, he\u2019s not letting Pelosi rewrite the record to fit her political narratives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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