Members of Congress were left stunned during a briefing from law enforcement about their failure to prepare for the insurrection at the US Capitol earlier this month, two members who attended a House Appropriations Committee briefing told CNN on Tuesday, with one saying it was "dumb luck" more people didn't die.
House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, said in a phone call with CNN that members were "shaking their heads in disbelief" throughout the briefing about the security breakdown in the lead up to January 6. During that briefing, acting US Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman admitted her department knew there was a "strong potential for violence" targeting Congress, but did not take appropriate steps to prevent it.
DeLauro said the revelation left her stunned and multiple federal law enforcement agencies failed by not acting on the intelligence they had.
"They had the information. They did not act on it. And a question that I have, and one that I think we need to get to the bottom of, is who made the decision not to act?" DeLauro told CNN.
"People said today that there was ample evidence, that the intelligence agencies had ample evidence, that an angry mob was going to descend on Washington with Congress' meeting to certify the election as the intended target," DeLauro added.
Cartwright said his theory of why there was not enough action to prepare was "that people were more worried about optics more than they were worried about security."
Cartwright said he directly asked those briefing the committee whether concerns about how security preparations would look was a reason for not acting.
"I got no denials, and I got a couple of confirmations," he told CNN, declining to say who specifically confirmed that optics were a motive behind inaction.
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According to prepared remarks, Pittman told lawmakers that Capitol Police knew two days before the insurrection that militia and White supremacist groups would be at the Capitol on January 6, and some of those people planned to be armed.
Pittman outlined four things that made the department ill-equipped to respond to the attack: a lack of manpower, not having the right equipment on hand or easily accessible, a lack of consistency in following the process for sealing the building and communication over radios and the public address system being hard to hear during the attack....”
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"While many questions remain, it is clear that the failure was not due to a lack of intelligence, but rather a failure to properly act on this intelligence. This is unacceptable...” -Rep Kay Granger, R-TX.
DeLauro said members were not given a clear answer when they repeatedly asked for who was responsible for the lack of preparedness and response.
"No one would answer the question," DeLauro said to CNN...
The Connecticut Democrat said there was no specific line of questioning around tours given prior to January 6 during the briefing, other than a mention from the FBI that all matters relating to the genesis of the insurrection are being investigated. She closed her remarks at the briefing by saying tours are something that need examined, and something she believed was being investigated.
[I don’t believe it. They are going to cover up the involvement of MC’s, their own in the FBI, and maybe Capitol Police.]
Cartwright shared that there was a "good discussion" about how to more "carefully vet" security forces, particularly those tasked with defending the Capitol.
[A “good discussion”: pablum. We need “good arrests.” “More carefully vet”: how about no Fifth Columnists? It would have been important to “vet” Fascist sympathizers out of Capitol Police before they could aid and abet a coup d’etat.]
