A series of interviews that were completed in the aftermath of the January 6th riots in 2021 at the Capitol Building are now helping to bring new truths to light on the efforts former President Donald Trump made to get local authorities to be present and tasked with ending the unrest and protect those who were inside the building certifying the 2020 election results. Sooner or later, leftists are going to have to give twisting this narrative a rest. It’s been clearly established that what happened that day was not Trump’s fault.
A report from Trending Politics News revealed that new testimony released on Thursday by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, a Georgia Republican, indicates that the former president made a request for additional ground support from the National Guard or active duty troops, but was denied. This information came to light while those investigating the situation interviewed Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told the Pentagon inspector general back in 2021 that Trump, while in an Oval Office meeting, pre-approved the deployment of troops for security purposes.
“The President just says, ‘Hey look at this. It’s going to be a large amount of protesters come in here on the 6th, and make sure that you have sufficient National Guard or Soldiers to make sure it’s a safe event,’” Milley told the inspector general during the Pentagon’s J6 investigation. He added that then-acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller assured Trump that the Pentagon had protocol in place to keep the peace in Washington, D.C. that day. “Miller responds by saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got a plan, and we’ve got it covered.’ And that’s about it,” Milley recalled. “‘Just be sure it’s safe,’” Milley claims Trump told his team. “It was just what I just described, which was, ‘Hey, I don’t care if you use Guard, or soldiers, active-duty soldiers, do whatever you have to do.’” Milley sat for two interviews that year, one on April 8th and a second on April 16th, the transcripts of which Rep. Loudermilk obtained as part of a GOP-led probe into what House Speaker Mike Johnson and allies maintain was a politically-motivated congressional committee seeking to lay the blame on Trump.
According to Milley, an interagency plan involved positioning National Guardsmen on the streets to direct traffic but not to guard the Capitol building, a plan that was signed off on by Democratic D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. “The operational plan was this, let’s take the D.C. National Guard, keep them away from the Capitol. Let’s put — the request, it wasn’t my request, Bowser and her Metropolitan Police Department were like ‘Let’s put D.C. National Guard on traffic control points and at the Metro stations to free up credentialed law-enforcement officers that can go out and arrest people,’” Miller explained, admitting there was a “political calculation” to keep troops away from Congress.
“I hate to use the word optics because it’s been used and so prejudicially and negatively. It wasn’t the optics. It was like there was… would have been huge political consequences for that, because that’s what I got paid to do. I had to factor in the politics of this and that was my concern, is the situation does not warrant at this time U.S. military forces,” he elaborated.
So who is the schmuck that resisted the call for troops to be stationed around the Capitol Building? Well, former District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee recounted that it was Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy who said no to sending troops.
“I received a call directly from the Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy and at that time — at that point he had reviewed our request for the support of D.C. National Guard, and what he relayed to me on this phone call was not what I initially thought that he would say,” Contee recounted in his interview. “He did not initially say, ‘Yes, you get the National Guard responding and they’re going to handle this traffic and crowd management that you asked for, that they’re going to be responding to handle it.’”
“That was not what was stated. What was stated to me was that he was not inclined to fulfill the request with Guardsmen simply because the optics of it was bad,” Conte further explained. “He said that he did not want to have boots on the ground on the — he didn’t want to have boots on the ground anywhere near the Capitol is what was stated.”
Loudermilk took to social media where he expressed concern over the fact that political considerations came into play as high-ranking military officials, along with other individuals, decided not to provide troops and a police force around the building in order to quell the agitation and potential for violence.
“President Trump directed senior DoD leaders to ensure events on J6 be safe. They ignored his guidance, prioritized optics concerns over security, and pushed a flawed narrative in their IG report,” he stated in a post published on X last week. “The American people deserve the full truth.”
President Trump directed senior DoD leaders to ensure events on J6 be safe.
They ignored his guidance, prioritized optics concerns over security, and pushed a flawed narrative in their IG report.
The American people deserve the full truth.https://t.co/2sAxqsvoZe
— Rep. Barry Loudermilk (@RepLoudermilk) September 20, 2024
McCarthy did, eventually, give the old thumbs up to putting 400 Guardsmen at various locations in our nation’s capital, but their main duty was to direct traffic. They were told they were not to use force against any of the protestors.
To summarize: Despite the leftist narrative that Trump stoked an insurrection with the intent to disrupt the election certification process, it turns out what he said was true. He attempted to quell the violence but was met with resistance from within the government.