‘We waited for hours’: Law enforcement testify that Trump outright rejected sending help on Jan. 6

Is an inconvenient truth for Trump. It’s proven itself true time and again, including today, that however bad things seem for those of us watching from the outside looking in at Donald Trump’s conduct as president, what actually happened in the room in secret? It always turns out it was much, much worse. We knew, for instance, even on the very afternoon that the insurrection took place at the US Capitol, that the disgraced ex president was derelict simply by virtue of having summoned that mob and acting too late to stop it. But as we said, the reality is worse. The January 6th Select Committee made clear Trump didn’t merely sit on his hands while his supporters threatened to hang Mike Pence or abduct lawmakers. As you saw. He actively resisted calls from his family, from his allies, from his cabinet to bring in reinforcements law enforcement, and to disperse those ransacking our seat of government. Today, though, we learned. But even though we knew all that, it was worse than all that. Because according to two former leaders of the DC National Guard, if Trump, or by extension the Pentagon, had effectively reached out that day, they were ready. They were ready to swing into action. They had a plan to secure the US Capitol. Michael Brooks was the Senior Enlisted Leader of the DC Guard on January the 6th. Here’s what he told a House Subcommittee on Oversight investigating security failures at the Capitol today this morning. What I can tell you with absolute certainty is that we had a force equipped and ready to respond, and despite the inaccuracies of the Dodig report, we had a plan and would have liked the opportunity to try. Instead, we waited for hours less than two miles east of the Capitol building. Absolutely frustrating, knowing our Capitol had been breached and not understanding why we had not received the authorization to respond. I cannot tell you the number of times someone has asked me where were you? Where was the National Guard, or how can you call yourselves capital guardians? There’s no easy response to those questions. And the truth is, we were there and we were ready. We just weren’t authorized to respond. And that is difficult to explain. The soldiers and airmen of the DC National Guard deserve better. We were there. We were ready. Trump wasn’t just reluctance to save lives, including his own vice presidents to keep the peace. It was an outright, outright rejection to do so. Even his help, as you just heard there was standing by quote we were ready, begs the question once again, if he was capable of such a callous disregard for the safety of Republican lawmakers, Democratic lawmakers and democracy the last time around, what on earth would he do with a second term? That’s where we start at the hour. Some of our favorite reporters and friends, Politico national correspondent and MSNBC contributor Betsy Woodrow Swan is here. Plus Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California joins us. And former lead investigator for the January 6th Select Committee, Tim Hafey is back. Congressman, your thoughts to what you heard today? Me, me, me. That is always going to be the priority when it comes to Donald Trump. And it couldn’t have happened to the country on a worse day than January 6th. He’s he’s not an America first president. He’s a me first president and and we see that in every way that he tries to lead and and so it’s not surprising that he could have done more and didn’t and and by the way if his defense is and I I see this in my own lawsuit that we have against him for January 6. If his defense is no no no the the mob that was there took me you know figuratively. They took me literally rather than figuratively when I said we’re going to the capital and that we have to fight like hell. Well, if it was a mistake for them to go there or they misinterpreted you, wouldn’t you do everything in your power? Once you saw those violent images of police officers being beaten at the Capitol, to stop that and to send them home and to have reinforcements from the guard come in, he did nothing. And so we can derive from the absence of action, his motive and his intent. Yeah, I mean, Carson, I The evidence is turned up by the select committees. You even bleaker than that, right? This is some questioning from your fellow panelists, Tim, Tim Hafey of Pat Cipollone. Did you continue throughout the period of time up until 4/17, continue, you and others to push for a stronger state? Yes. Were you joined in that effort by Ivanka Trump? Yes. Eric Hershy. Yes. I’m Mark Meadow. Yes, White House Counsel’s Office wanted there to be a strong statement out to condemn the rioters. I’m confident in that. So, right. So it goes beyond, well, we didn’t mean for them to be violent. We didn’t mean for them to hang Mike Pence. Once he saw, everybody saw and everyone tried to get him to stop and he was still unwilling to do so. What? What in your view explains the the fact that there still hasn’t been legal accountability for Donald Trump? Yeah, that he is a legal terrorist who has 40 years of experience, probably more than any person in America, with lawsuits and tying up the system and seeking to delay, delay, delay. And so it’s coming though, Nicole. There’s a tapestry of accountability that he’s seen in the civil and criminal realms right now. It’s not coming as fast as it should, but it’s coming. And he’s going to have to answer for all of it. But as we think through, like, what would a Trump presidency look like knowing that he, you know, failed to protect the country in the capital that day? Well, what do you think could happen if you have a distracted, selfish, vengeful president who only cares about himself? And America is in another way under attack, as we have so many, you know, adversaries around the world and vulnerabilities in our country. Would he protect us and save us or would he again do what’s in the best interest of him? He’s a me, me president. He was on January 6th, and he would be if he’s president again. So I don’t get to say this very often, but Mark Esper agrees with you. Let me show you what he had to say about Donald Trump. I think he’s unfit for the presidency. What I look for in a candidate is somebody puts a country first. Somebody has character and integrity, somebody that can unify the country and somebody that can lead. And in my estimation, Donald Trump doesn’t check any of those boxes. So I’m going to continue to say that when asked. And I’m going to continue to let people know that as somebody that worked directly for him, not just as Secretary of Defense. But keep in mind I was secretary of the Army for nearly two years that he’s just, I don’t think he’s the right person for our country. And so I will not be supporting him. But but but otherwise, look, I think his records out there at this point in time, voters either know who he. If they don’t know who he is, then they’ve been, you know, asleep in a cave somewhere. What is the special obligation of former national security officials to tell people what they saw? It’s the highest it’s ever been because the consequences of us getting it wrong again are too high. And and and we could be attacked, you know, in a way that you know, could seriously jeopardize our country’s security with a commander in chief who’s just not up for defending America’s interests because he’s putting his own 1st. And so if you saw something, you should probably now say something because we have six months to go and Americans should go to the ballot box fully aware of what would happen. You know, if that, you know quote UN quote, you know, 3:00 AM or 3:00 PM, you know, decision has to be made as it was in this case on January 6th. Tim Hafey here is a product of the investigation that you oversaw the Oath Keepers. On that day. CNNN said that they evacuated all members of Congress into a safety room. There’s no safe place in the United States for any of these right now. Let me tell you, I hope they understand that we are not joking around. Military Principle 105. Military Principle 105, Cave means grave. Trump just tweeted. Please support our Capitol Police. They are on our side. Do not harm them. That’s saying a lot. By what he didn’t say. He didn’t say not to do anything to the congressman. Well, he did not ask him to stand down. He’s just said stand by the Capitol police. They are on our side and they are good people to me. What was the significance of that? He did not. I mean, what they heard again, what they heard was he did not tell us to stand by, to stand down. Yeah, I’ve always, Nicole thought that the actual language of the president’s tweets that afternoon was really significant. The first thing he does is he criticizes Mike Pence and calls him a coward, which only amps up the energy in the crowd. And then the next two tweets use the words stay and remain, stay, stay peaceful, remain peaceful. He doesn’t tell anybody to leave that very strong evidence that that he appreciated the motives of the crowd and frankly intended for the joint session to be interrupted. I want to say something though, significant about the National Guard, right? The National Guard was not waiting for President Trump to give the green light. To be fair, the President has overall command of the DC Guard, but he has delegated the authority to deploy the Guard to 1st the Secretary of Defense and then from the Secretary of Defense to the Secretary of the Army. So it was Acting Secretary Miller and Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy who had the immediate authority to deploy the Guard. Now, had the President of the United States, in the middle of the riot, urged haste, urged deployment of the Guard, arguably it would have made a difference. Mike Pence was doing that. As General Miley said, it was Mike Pence who was on the phone taking control, saying, where’s the Guard? We need them here. This is a violent situation, Miley also said. Then the middle of that, Mark Meadows called him and said, hey, we have to tamp down on the narrative that the vice president is in charge, the president is still the commander in chief, and Miley is incredulous because he has not heard from President Trump. President Trump never calls. Milly never calls. McCarthy never calls. Acting secretary. Miller never calls any police or military agency. But we’ve got to be clear that the authority to deploy the Guard has been delegated to the Secretary of Defense and ultimately to the Secretary of the Army. And the National Guardsmen who have testified today told the same thing, that the Select Committee, they were frustrated that that order to deploy did not come faster. They’re sitting still for a period of time when they could have been moving toward the Capitol. All of this is laid out in Appendix 2 of the Select Committee report in great detail.