According to a Pentagon draft of a new report cited by the AP, it took the US military at least two hours to deploy forces to the Capitol on 6 January after Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, as well as then-US Vice President Mike Pence, requested their help.
According to the document cited by the news agency, Trump approved the activation of the DC National Guard and the Army days before the riot, but they were reportedly only allowed to take limited action and had no contingency plans for a violent riot of that magnitude. As a result, it reportedly took hours to devise emergency plans after first learning of a mob storming the Capitol Building at 1:49 p.m. from Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy verbally approved the activation of 1,100 National Guard troops only at 3 p.m., but the deployment had to wait for approval by the acting defence secretary, Christopher Miller, the AP document said.
By 3:19 p.m., two Democrat Congress leaders, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, who had already been evacuated to a safe place, were repeatedly calling the Pentagon and requesting troops "clear" the Capitol Building. The Pentagon report states that both of the Democrats called again at 3:44 p.m., with Schumer asking officials to plead with Trump to recall the rioters.
POTUS responded to their pleas more quickly than the military, as, around 33 minutes later, he tweeted to the rioters "Go home. We love you. You're very special". The military started to deploy around two hours after the calls from the Democrats, backed by then-Vice President Mike Pence, who had also been quickly evacuated from the Capitol. The first troops arrived at the scene at around 5:20 p.m. and finished clearing the building by 8 p.m.
Although Trump took part in appeasing the rioting crowd and denouncing the violence, Democrats, social media giants and much of mainstream media and some of Republicans blame the ex-POTUS for the riot which saw five people killed. Many claimed that Trump triggered the violent protest by perpetuating voter fraud claims, which failed in court. Trump denies his responsibility for triggering the riot.
