Well isn’t this interesting? Day after day in this second impeachment trial, Maryland’s Democratic Congressman Jeremy Raskin, the manager of the House impeachment of former President Trump, has been showing videos of the assault on the Capitol. One video after another shows the massive security breach as protestors, some of them violent, pour into the Capitol. Five people died in the chaos.
Here is this from NBC News:
FBI, NYPD told Capitol Police about possibility of violence before riot, senior officials say
The story begins this way:
“WASHINGTON — The FBI and the New York City Police Department passed information to U.S. Capitol Police about the possibility of violence during the protests Wednesday against the counting of the Electoral College vote, and the FBI even visited more than a dozen extremists already under investigation to urge them not to travel to Washington, senior law enforcement officials said.
The previously unreported details undercut the assertion by a top FBI official that officials had no indication that violence was a possibility, and they add to questions about what intelligence authorities had reviewed before the Capitol riot, which led to the death of an officer and four other people, including a rioter who was shot and killed by police.”
And then there’s this from The Washington Post:
Outgoing Capitol Police chief: House, Senate security officials hamstrung efforts to call in National Guard
That story says:
“Two days before Congress was set to formalize President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund was growing increasingly worried about the size of the pro-Trump crowds expected to stream into Washington in protest.
To be on the safe side, Sund asked House and Senate security officials for permission to request that the D.C. National Guard be placed on standby in case he needed quick backup.
But, Sund said Sunday, they turned him down.
In his first interview since pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol last week, Sund, who has since resigned his post, said his supervisors were reluctant to take formal steps to put the Guard on call even as police intelligence suggested that the crowd President Trump had invited to Washington to protest his defeat probably would be much larger than earlier demonstrations.”
Got that? The U.S.Capitol Police knew ahead of time that there was the possibility of violence against the U.S. Capitol. The Chief asked for the National Guard to be on stand-by and was refused by his superior, the House Sergeant at Arms.
Full stop.
Who, actually, is in charge of the U.S. Capitol Police? That would be a committee composed of the Architect of the Capitol, the House and Senate Sergeants at Arms, as well as four committees from both Houses of Congress. The Capitol Police website identifies two of the four committees as the House Administration Committee and the Senate Rules and Administration Committee.
Here’s the kicker.
The number two Democrat on the House Administration Committee responsible for the Capitol Police is… Congressman Jeremy Raskin.
And over on the Senate side? The Senate Rules and Administration Committee that oversees the Capitol Police? Who sits on that Committee? That would be, yes indeed, Senate Majority and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
So let’s be clear.
The impeachment managers are showing vivid images of a mob rampaging through the Capitol. Which means exactly that those in charge of security for the Capitol were utterly derelict in their duty to protect the Capitol itself and the members and staff of the House and Senate.
And who was in charge? Who sat on those House and Senate committees and didn’t do their jobs?
That would be Jeremy Raskin and Charles Schumer.
The idea that the former President “incited” a riot is a lie. But the reality that Raskin and Schumer utterly failed in their duty to protect the Capitol is a vividly obvious truth.
For which they should both be censured – if not expelled altogether.