Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said on Thursday that Defense Department officials repeatedly denied his requests to send National Guardsmen to help law enforcement agencies during Wednesday’s Capitol riot, The Washington Post reports.
“There’s been ongoing discussions with all the federal agencies and all of our state agencies for a long time about the inauguration, which we’re always involved in, but this particular mission yesterday, you know, it just seemed to be a little dysfunctional,” Hogan said.
Hogan immediately moved to mobilize the state’s National Guard to help when the Capitol was attacked. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer called him from an “undisclosed bunker” to say that Capitol Police were “overwhelmed” and was “pleading with us” to send help.
Pentagon denied requests, then asked for help:
The Pentagon denied approval for Hogan to send the guard.
“He (Hoyer) was yelling across the room to Schumer who, and they were back and forth saying, ‘We do have the authorization,’ and I’m saying: ‘I’m telling you, we do not have the authorization,’” Hogan recalled.
An hour and a half later, Hogan got a call from Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, who asked, “Can you come as soon as possible?”
“Yeah, we’ve been waiting. We’re ready,” he recalled telling him. “I can’t tell you what was going on on the other end, on the decision-making process. There’s been lots of speculation in the media about that, but I’m not privy to what was going on inside the White House or inside the Pentagon.”
Hogan calls for Trump to resign:
Hogan faulted Trump for Wednesday’s violence and called for him to resign.
“I think there’s no question that America would be better off if the president would resign or be removed from office and if Mike Pence, the vice president of the United States, would conduct a peaceful transition of power over the next 13 days until President Biden is sworn in,” Hogan said.
Hogan said the Maryland National Guard would remain in DC through the inauguration.
“I just want to assure all Americans that the state of Maryland will do anything and everything we possibly can to continue to secure the core of our nation’s capital and to ensure the peaceful transition of power,” Hogan said.
