DC National Guard Head Tries To Pass The Buck After Being Questioned About Unrest At The Capitol
DC National Guard head Major General William Walker is trying to pass the buck after being questioned during a report with the Washington Post.
Walker claimed that he wasn’t allowed to use the National Guard because the Pentagon wouldn’t let him.
“All military commanders normally have immediate response authority to protect property, life, and in my case, federal functions — federal property and life,” Walker told the Post. “But in this instance, I did not have that authority.”
But here is what we know…
On January 7, the day after the unrest, it was reported by the Washington Post that DC’s Mayor Bowser put restrictions on the DC Guard and only wanted them to be used as a measure of last resort.
Bowser initial reason for not wanting the Guard involved is because she knew she would be called out for having a double standard because she opposed troops being used during the summer riots. She was also opposed to federal law enforcement being deployed – like they were in Portland over the summer – as back up too.
“The defense official said the military wanted to be the force of last resort, and that military officials had urged Bowser to request more support from federal law enforcement but that she didn’t do so until Wednesday.”
Then acting Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy explained after June because of Bowser’s restrictions it was difficult to use the DC National Guard.
“After June, the authorities were pulled back up to the secretary of defense’s office,” McCarthy told The Post. “Any time we would employ troops and guardsmen in the city, you had to go through a rigorous process. As you recall, there were events in the summer that got a lot of attention, and that was part of this.”
As usual buried at the bottom of the report attempting to place blame on the Trump administration Walker relents that Pentagon and officials were worried about optics; they weren’t being stalled because of the Trump Administration as some are insinuating.
“There was some talk about optics, but I can’t assign that to one person,” Walker said. “From the Army leadership, there were quite a few people on the call. … It’s clear that somebody talked about the optics. Who said that? I’m not sure.”