Timeline of National Guard Deployment to Capitol

On the day of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, the first National Guard members arrived to assist at about 5:40 p.m. By then, most of the violence had subsided.

In the critical minutes before rioters had breached the Capitol building around 2 p.m., the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police force and the mayor of Washington, D.C., put out urgent requests for guard backup. But it took more than an hour to get formal approval for their deployment, and then nearly three more hours for the first guard reinforcements to arrive.

The D.C. National Guard reports to the president.

In a recorded video the following day, President Donald Trump claimed that he “immediately deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement to secure the building and expel the intruders.” But Trump’s claim that he acted quickly is contradicted by news reports citing unnamed sources who say the president initially resisted efforts to bring in the National Guard at the outset of the Capitol riot.

The New York Times, citing unnamed Defense Department officials, said it was Vice President Mike Pence, not Trump, who approved deployment of the D.C. National Guard that afternoon. The Times also cited a “person with knowledge of the events” who said Trump “initially rebuffed and resisted requests to mobilize the National Guard “and that the “mobilization was initiated with the help of Pat A. Cipollone, the White House counsel, among other officials.”

that Trump “initially resisted” deploying the guard, according to an unnamed “source familiar” with the decision to call in the National Guard. Neither report