For anyone interested, the 17 minutes of new footage I referenced above, it is now shared on CNN's site. Especially for those who try and spread the lies that Pelosi did nothing in regards to asking for help.
CNN has obtained previously unseen footage from January 6 showing the point of view from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office as the US Capitol was being breached and congressional leaders take refuge at Fort McNair, two miles from the US Capitol.
www.cnn.com
I'm still astounded that it took so long to get "all hands on deck" to enforce rule of law and restore peace and safety to the Capitol and its grounds on January 6th.
Makes you really wonder all over again since the debacle of 9/11 about our state of readiness to defend against hostilities, whether at hands of domestic or foreign attackers.
We've potentially gained extra time to respond to North Korean ICBM attacks, through some mutually beneficial arrangements with South Korea. Our awareness of a launch aimed at the USA is faster than if only relying on detection from Alaska.
Either way though, we're talking about a matter of
minutes. Yet we speak of that time as precious.
But with an attack on our own Capitol from insurrectionists walking up the road from the Ellipse after Trump's speech, it took
hours for the National Guard actually to be deployed, even after authorization was received. In fact by time the bulk of those troops arrived, most of the violence had been quelled by manpower rounded up in desperation from other government agencies, and the Guards were down to searching the premises for remaining insurrectionists, ensuring that explosives were not left behind and then providing a presence to deter potential of further attempts at intrusion.
I will not discount value of the Guards' effort, as well as that of other law enforcement units summoned to assist as members of Congress dialed through every contact known to them. But, and after trying to discount any possible waffling or delay that may have been due to partisan sympathy for the insurrectionists, i have to hope that some lessons were learned from January 6th, because the response of law and order to that attack on our Capitol was past shoddy.
We may still discount the overall chances of radicalized and hostile militia groups here in the USA to take on an organized rollout of lawful force against violence, but since we've seen a demo of how few members of such groups it takes to help flip a rally into a violent mob, one can hope the movers and shakers in Congress will see that "next time" the effective chain of command to summon needed force turns out to be less convoluted.
Of course one can also hope that next time the instigator of violence against a sitting Congress wouldn't be an outgoing president of the USA planning to extend his own "public service" instead of letting them do their jobs.
I really do wonder what the hell was going on in the minds of some of the Secret Service, DoJ and military leaders that day, as they became aware that Trump was not doing anything to redirect his followers. He had urged them to go down to the Capitol, saying he'd "be right there with them" -- and then he went back to the WH and sat in his dining room watching the insurrection unfold on TV.
When the boss declines to lead, who might claim that right despite what the org chart suggests?
Probably not ever going to know for sure who exactly may have thought what about that question, at least in the near term. In fact it looked like more were dodging the call than stepping up to the plate. And maybe it's good that it might not all come to light for quite awhile. Learning about how narrow was the escape of a government facing a coup is perhaps a dish best served up cold and by historians, not talk show hosts or podcasters.
We do know that January 6th was indeed a narrow escape for rule of law and the shape of our federal government. We are not sure yet if aftereffects include increased popular wariness of ever getting sucked into the execution of another insurrection. Sadly, I would say the odds there are "no".
