Democrats are slamming President Donald Trump for sending the National Guard to help quell violent riots in Los Angeles after previously slamming him for allegedly not sending the National Guard to assist during the Capitol riot — the latter claim complicated by the fact that Trump’s offer to have National Guard forces present ahead of January 6 was rejected by leaders on Capitol Hill and thwarted by some in his own Pentagon.

Protests opposing illegal immigration crackdowns by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have erupted in numerous cities nationwide — including protests which spiraled into violent riots in Los Angeles, spurring Trump to order the deployment of the U.S. military to help restore order.

Trump has activated elements of the California National Guard while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said Marines stationed at Camp Pendleton are being deployed “to restore order” as well.

“If I didn’t ‘SEND IN THE TROOPS’ to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great City would be burning to the ground right now,” Trump said on his Truth Social account on Tuesday.

Double standard built on a falsehood

Democrats like Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have used the opportunity to allege a double standard — the National Guard is helping restore order amidst destructive riots in Los Angeles now but didn’t arrive at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 until hours after that riot began — but the logic of her argument was quickly refuted by ex-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and is contradicted by a number of facts, some embarrassingly captured by her own daughter.

“On January 6, with violence against the Constitution, against the Congress, and against the United States Capitol, we begged the President of the United States to send in the National Guard. He would not do it,” Pelosi said during a Tuesday press conference. “Not only would he not do it when law enforcement people were being harmed — some later died — he would not send it in when his instigation that he — an insurrection that he incited was causing damage to those assigned to protect the Capitol and the Constitution that day, to accept the results of the Electoral College. That day, he didn’t do it.”

Contrary to what Pelosi implied, the January 6 rioters did not kill any law enforcement officers.

Pelosi continued: “And yet in a contra-constitutional way, he has sent the National Guard into California. Something is very wrong with this picture. Inconsistent in his actions… and in violation of the Constitution.”

Ex-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund revealed Pelosi's dissembling in his post on X, writing  “FACT: I made 11 urgent calls requesting National Guard support on Jan 6, starting at 12:58 PM. Approval was withheld for 71 minutes by the House Sergeant at Arms, who reported directly to Speaker Pelosi. She caused critical delays, and now is shifting blame to @realDonaldTrump for failures she helped create. The record is clear,” Sund wrote on X in response to Pelosi’s remarks.

The former Capitol police chief, who resigned in the wake of the riot, argued on X that “I was restricted by Federal Law (2US1970) [2 U.S. Code § 1970] from bringing in ANY federal support, including the National Guard, without first receiving permission from the Capitol Police Board, which included both Sergeants at Arms who reported to Pelosi and McConnell.”

“On January 3, I made multiple requests for the assistance of the National Guard to help secure the Capitol on January 6 and was DENIED each time, leaving us underprepared for the attack,” Sund added on Tuesday.

Last June, the House Subcommittee on Oversight issued a statement pointing out that outtakes from her daughter Alexandra's footage for an HBO documentary show the then-Speaker castigating one of her subordinates for apparently balking at assistance from the Guard, and saying "I take responsibility for not preparing them to have more" referring to Capitol Police who were overwhelmed by the number of demonstrators.

According to the Subcommittee, Vice-chair Liz Cheney and Chair Bennie Thompson's J6 Select Committee had this footage but did not release it publicly and did not archive this footage at the end of the 117th Congress or hand it over when Republicans took the majority at the beginning of 2023. Therefore, the Subcommittee went directly to HBO to obtain the footage. 

Two major strands of evidence have emerged cutting against the narrative pushed by Democrats like Pelosi that the absence of the National Guard at the Capitol riot was all Trump’s fault.

The first is testimony and documentation showing that offers from Trump and his team in the days ahead of January 6 to preposition the National Guard to provide security around the Capitol were denied by those reporting to congressional leaders like Pelosi — with some Capitol Hill officials being slow to ask for such assistance even as the riot unfolded.

The Capitol Police Board played a key role in whether to request National Guard troops to be present at the Capitol ahead of January 6. The board — which is made up of the House Sergeant at Arms (who reports to Pelosi), the Senate Sergeant at Arms, and the Architect of the Capitol — rejected requests for the National Guard to help protect the Capitol ahead of the riot there.

The second strand of evidence cutting against the Democratic narrative is testimony and records indicating similar strong hesitance and resistance in the days ahead of January 6 by some officials inside the Trump Pentagon, with these officials pushing back on involving the National Guard despite Trump pushing for it — including approval delays even as the Capitol riot was ongoing.

Trump suggested National Guard help as long as three days before

Trump has said many times, including during the June 2024 presidential debate with then-President Joe Biden, that he pushed for 10,000 U.S. troops to be present at the Capitol on the day that the November 2020 election was being certified, but that it was turned down. Intelligence had been floating around D.C. for several days that there would be some sort of disturbance on January 6.

“I offered her [Pelosi] 10,000 soldiers or National Guard, and she turned them down,” Trump said. “And the mayor, in writing by the way, the mayor in writing turned it down. The mayor of D.C. They turned it down.”

General Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff, confirmed to the Pentagon inspector general in 2021 that, during an Oval Office meeting on January 3, Trump pre-approved the use of National Guard or active duty troops to keep peace in the nation’s capital on the day Congress was to certify the results of the 2020 election.

“Hey look at this. It’s going to be a large amount of protesters come in here on the 6th, and make sure that you have sufficient National Guard or Soldiers to make sure it’s a safe event,” Milley said in recounting what Trump told him.

Milley said then-Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, himself a former general, assured Trump there was an adequate safety plan for Pentagon assistance to the nation’s capital.

“Miller responds by saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got a plan, and we’ve got it covered.’ And that’s about it,” Milley recalled.

Milley confirmed a second time during the interviews that Trump was clear in his wishes.

“Hey, I don’t care if you use Guard, or soldiers, active-duty soldiers, do whatever you have to do. Just make sure it’s safe,” the general said when quoting Trump to the watchdog.

Miller told Congress that Trump gave a specific number of troops he wanted to see made available for security ahead of time.

“The President commented that they were going to need 10,000 troops the following day… I interpreted it as a bit of presidential banter or President Trump banter that you all are familiar with, and in no way, shape, or form did I interpret that as an order or direction," Miller testified to the Democrat-led January 6 select committee in 2022.

Kash Patel, who is now FBI Director but who was Miller’s chief of staff at the time, told the Capitol riot select committee that Trump had preauthorized 10,000 to 20,000 troops ahead of January 6.

“We knew, in order to get the National Guard even mobilized, we needed the President to at least say yes first. So what — my recollection of that meeting is the President preemptively authorized ten to twenty National Guardsmen and women around the country … Sorry, 10,000 to 20,000 National Guardsmen and women to be utilized around the country,” Patel said. 

“The second part of that, of course, would have to be the Governors, the Federal agencies, and the mayors would have to ask us for that to satisfy the law. But what he [Trump], I believe, and the Acting Secretary [Miller] at the time were working out was we would not need to come back to the President should Mayor Bowser or anyone ask for 100, 1,000, 5,000, up to 20,000.”

'Optics' stop Capitol Police Board from OK'ing Guard ahead of January 6

Sund told Congress in 2023 that he had wanted the National Guard in advance of January 6 but was denied permission to ask for them by the top security officials reporting directly to Pelosi and to the Senate Majority leader. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was the outgoing leader and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was the incoming one.

“On January 3, I requested the assistance of the National Guard to support my perimeter and was denied by the two Sergeants at Arms over the concerns for politics and optics,” he testified.

An after-action timeline created by the Capitol Police to review security failures revealed further details about efforts by Sund and by some in the Trump administration to get approval from Capitol Hill to deploy National Guardsmen well ahead of January 6.

The timeline states that:

On January 2, “Carol Corbin (DOD) texts USCP Deputy Chief Sean Gallagher, Protective Service Bureau, to determine whether USCP is considering a request for National Guard soldiers for January 6, 2021 event.”

The next day “USCP Deputy Chief Gallagher replies to DOD via text that a request for National Guard support is not forthcoming at this time after consultation with COP Sund.” Sund has said his efforts had been thwarted by the Capitol Police Board.

"COP Sund asks Senate Sergeant at Arms (SSAA) Michael Stenger and House Sergeant at Arms (HSAA) Paul Irving for authority to have National Guard to assist with security for the January 6, 2021 event based on briefing with law enforcement partner and revised intelligence Assessment."

COP Sund's request was denied on January 4. SSAA and HSAA tell COP Sund to contact General Walker at DC National Guard to discuss the guard's ability to support a request if needed."

The timeline then says that Sund notified Major General William Walker, the since-retired commanding general of the DC National Guard, “that the USCP may need DC National Guard support for the January 6, 2021 [sic], but does not have the authority to request at this time.”

Patel has previously explained why the Trump administration did not simply deploy the National Guard without approval from DC and Capitol Hill officials.

"We went to the Capitol Police and the Secret Service and law enforcement agencies and Mayor Bowser days before January 6, and asked them, 'Do you want thousands of National Guardsmen and women for January 6?' They all said no,” Patel said in a 2022 interview. “Why did we do that? The law requires them to request it before we can deploy them.”

Pelosi's team withholds approving Guard until it was too late 

Sund argued that getting Capitol Hill officials to approve a request for National Guard assistance was slow and difficult even as things escalated on January 6.

“Minutes after the attack began, I made my first call to the House Sergeant at Arms, Paul Irving, at 12:58PM, to request approval to bring in the National Guard. ‘Let me run it up the chain and I will get back to you,’ was his response,” Sund told Congress in 2023.

 “It would be 71 minutes before that approval would finally come. Between 12:58PM and when I finally received approval for the National Guard at 2:09PM, I made thirty-two calls to coordinate support for my officers, including at least eleven frustrating calls to the Sergeants at Arms regarding my request for the National Guard.”

On January 6, Pelosi expressed regret that the National Guard had not been pre-positioned to protect Congress ahead of the congressional certification of the 2020 election results, according to video footage turned over to House Republican investigators in 2024 last year. The footage was made by Pelosi's daughter, Alexandria, a documentary filmmaker who has sold several films to HBO.

“We're calling the National Guard now? They should have been here to start out,” Pelosi can be heard saying as she flees through a tunnel under the Capitol on the afternoon of January 6, as her daughter Alexandra videotaped her.

“How many times did members ask, are we prepared? Are we prepared? We're not prepared for the worst,” Pelosi also stated on the tape. Pelosi later added: "We will have totally failed. And we have got to take some responsibility."

D.C. Mayor to the feds: "We don't need your help"

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote a January 5 letter to three Trump officials — the heads of the Justice Department, the Pentagon, and the Army — that she had not requested and did not believe she needed federal law enforcement assistance ahead of January 6, lamenting the involvement of some federal personnel in attempting to quell violent protests in Lafayette Square during the summer of 2020.

Bowser wrote in her letter that the past summer’s episode in the nation’s capital "caused confusion" and could have become "a national security threat with no way for MPD and federal law enforcement to decipher armed groups."

D.C. Mayor Bowser made it clear to Trump administration officials the day before January 6 that she did not want federal assistance the next day.

"To be clear, the District of Columbia is not requesting other federal law enforcement personnel and discourages any additional deployment without immediate notification to and consultation with MPD, if such plans are underway," Bowser wrote about the next day’s certification of the 2020 election, adding that she believed her police department was "well-trained and prepared to lead the way" to ensure January 6 unfolded safely.

Republicans say Pentagon watchdog covered up DOD’s own January 6 failures

Republican investigators have also argued that the Pentagon did not respond to January 6 the way it should have, and that the Pentagon inspector general who investigated the saga helped bury the Defense Department’s failures.

The Pentagon watchdog released its report titled “Review of the DoD’s Role, Responsibilities, and Actions to Prepare for and Respond to the Protest and its Aftermath at the U.S. Capitol Campus on January 6, 2021” in November 2021.

The Pentagon report concluded that “actions taken by the DoD in response to the civil disturbance at the U.S. Capitol Campus on January 6, 2021, were reasonable in light of the circumstances that existed on that day.” 

The report also “determined that DoD officials did not delay or obstruct the DoD’s response to the USCP [U.S. Capitol Police] RFA [request for assistance] on January 6, 2021.”

But the GOP-led House Administration's Subcommittee on Oversight released its own September 2024 report contradicting these assertions, arguing “the exact opposite” was true, based on numerous transcripts the committee made public.

“Throughout our investigation, the Subcommittee has found significant irregularities in the DoD IG report, including statements attributed to witnesses who subsequently informed the Subcommittee that the witness did not make these statements, as well as glaring inconsistencies regarding the deployment of the D.C. National Guard (DCNG),” the report last year concluded. 

“From our review of phone records, timelines, firsthand accounts, sworn testimonies, and after-action reports, there is considerable evidence pointing to an intentional delay at the DoD in either deploying the National Guard, or communicating the deployment order,” the report also said.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who led the inquiry, was unsparing in his critique.

“Pentagon leadership prioritized concerns of optics over their duty to protect lives. President Trump met with senior Pentagon leaders and directed them to make sure any events on January 6, 2021 were safe. It is very concerning that these senior Pentagon officials ignored President Trump’s guidance AND misled Congressional Leaders to believe they were doing their job, when they were not,” Loudermilk said. 

“The DoD IG’s report is fundamentally flawed. It does not draw conclusions from the interviews they conducted, but pushes a narrative to keep their hands clean. We have many questions for them, and we will continue to dig until we are satisfied the American people know the truth," he added.

Miller: "I had to factor in politics"

Transcripts show civilian leadership at the Pentagon admitting openly that they would not comply with Trump’s wishes for a National Guard presence on January 6, with some saying they did not like the optics of armed soldiers or Guardsmen roaming the Capitol with weapons during what was supposed to be a peaceful transition of power.

“There was absolutely — there is absolutely no way I was putting U.S. military forces at the Capitol, period,” Miller told the inspector general in 2021, also adding that “the operational plan was this, let’s take the D.C. National Guard, keep them away from the Capitol.”

Miller admitted there was a political calculus to his decision not to deploy troops near or at the Capitol ahead of time for preventative security.

“I hate to use the word optics because it’s been used and so prejudicially and negatively. It wasn’t the optics. It was like there was would have been huge political consequences that, because that’s what I got paid to do. I had to factor in the politics of this and that was my concern is the situation does not warrant at this time, U.S. military forces,” he explained.

Former District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee confirmed in his own interview with the inspector general that Pentagon officials, specifically Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, resisted his department’s initial request around New Year’s Eve 2020 for troops in advance of January 6, especially if they were to be deployed anywhere near the Capitol.

“I received a call directly from the Secretary of the Army, Ryan McCarthy and at that time — at that point, he had reviewed our request for the support of D.C. National Guard, and what he relayed to me this phone call was not what I initially thought that he would saying,” Contee recounted in his interview. 

“He did not initially say, ‘Yes, you get the National Guard responding and they’re going to handle this traffic and crowd management that you asked for that they’re going to be responding to handle it.’ That was not what was stated. What was stated to me was that he was not inclined to fulfill the request with Guardsmen simply because the optics of it was bad.”

Contee added that “he said that he did not want to have boots on the ground on the — he didn’t want to have boots on the ground anywhere near the Capitol is what was stated.”

Political ecology before January 6

During the summer of 2020 riots following the death of George Floyd, Milley accompanied Trump part of the way from the White House to the area near Lafayette Square on June 1, where Trump was then photographed holding a Bible outside of St. John’s Church. The church had been lit on fire the night before amidst a violent riot where protesters destroyed property and battled police near the White House.

Milley soon publicly apologized for having done so.

“As senior leaders, everything you do will be closely watched. And I am not immune. As many of you saw, the result of the photograph of me at Lafayette Square last week. That sparked a national debate about the role of the military in civil society,” Milley said in a speech to graduates at the National Defense University later in June 2020. “I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it.”

Milley used the speech to say that he was “outraged” by the death of George Floyd and argued that the protests that followed spoke to “centuries of injustice toward African Americans.” Milley said that “we should all be proud that the vast majority of protests have been peaceful.”

The then-chairman of the joint chiefs added that “we never introduced federal troops on the streets of America as a result of the combined efforts of the Guard and law enforcement at quelling the violence and de-escalating very very tense situations.”

Milley also reportedly described “a stomach-churning” feeling as he listened to Trump’s claims about election fraud after the November 2020 election and prior to January 6, with Milley reportedly comparing it to the 1933 attack on Germany’s parliament building that Adolph Hitler used as a pretext to seize power and begin his Nazi dictatorship.

"This is a Reichstag moment. …The gospel of the Führer," Milley told his aides, referring to the summer 2021 book "I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year."

“I never threatened, or spoke about, to anyone, a coup of our Government. So ridiculous!” Trump said in 2021 in response to Milley’s words which were relayed in the book. “Sorry to inform you, but an Election is my form of ‘coup,’ and if I was going to do a coup, one of the last people I would want to do it with is General Mark Milley.”

“Look at the FBI’s OIG report. They talk about Milley. He’s the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, he’s not even an operations person. He’s an advisor to the president. And he’s sitting there briefing about how he doesn’t want to see any military soldiers on the streets of Washington, DC. That’s absolutely crazy,” Sund previously told Just the News.

The Washington Post on January 3 published an opinion piece titled “All 10 living former defense secretaries: Involving the military in election disputes would cross into dangerous territory.”

The article was penned by ex-Defense Secretaries James Mattis and Mark Esper (both of whom served under Trump during his first term) along with Ashton Carter, Dick Cheney, William Cohen, Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel, Leon Panetta, William Perry, and Donald Rumsfeld. In it, they directly stated that Miller and his team “must also refrain from any political actions that undermine the results of the election or hinder the success of the new team.”

The opinion piece appeared to have an impact on Miller.

“I was cognizant of the fears that the President would invoke the Insurrection Act to politicize the military in an anti-democratic manner. And, just before the Electoral College certification, ten former Secretaries of Defense signed an op-ed piece published in The Washington Post warning of the dangers of politicizing and using inappropriately the military,” Miller told the Pentagon inspector general later in 2021. “No such thing was going to occur on my watch.”

Troops limited on what they could do on January 6

Eventually, the Pentagon approved fewer than 400 DC Guard troops and assigned them to traffic control — not for securing the areas around the Capitol — on January 6.

Defense Secretary Miller issued a January 4 memo to Army Secretary McCarthy, stating that the National Guard would not be allowed to use weapons or engage with protesters on January 6 — a limitation that became magnified when violence broke out.

“Without my subsequent, personal authorization, the DCNG is not authorized the following: To be issued weapons, ammunition, bayonets, batons, or ballistic protection equipment such as helmets and body armor. To interact physically with protestors, except when necessary in self-defense or defense of others, consistent with the DCNG Rules for the Use of Force. To employ any riot control agents,” Miller wrote.

A follow-on memo from the Army secretary shows the DC Guard was told directly by McCarthy that it would be severely limited in its duties.

“DCNG are not authorized to perform any additional tasks or duties not authorized in this memorandum,” McCarthy’s staff wrote to the National Guard commander on January 5. “In addition, without my personal authorization, the DCNG is not authorized the following: a) to be issued weapons, ammunition, bayonets, and batons. (Removed body armor and helmets).”

The emailed memo continued: “Addition: DCNG Soldiers have the inherent right to self‐defense. DCNG Soldiers will store their helmets and body armor within vehicles or buildings in close proximity to their positions. In the event of an elevation of the threat requiring immediate donning of this equipment for self‐defense, DCNG leadership will immediately notify the Secretary of Army.”

Patel — Miller’s former chief of staff — told the January 6 select committee in late 2021 that the memo described “the limitations that were placed on the D.C. National Guard by the mayor. And under the law and what the Department of Defense has to do is they cannot go outside the lines of what the request for National Guard was. And, in this instance, the mayor did not want them armed or body guarded or kitted out in any way, and this outlines that.”

Subsequently, on the afternoon of January 6, when violence broke out during the riot, the Pentagon would eventually deploy hundreds more troops — though it took hours to get them to reach the Capitol, a delay which frustrated Capitol Police.

‘Optics’ weighed on Pentagon officials even as the riot unfolded

Sund also testified to Congress in 2023 about what he believed was slow-walking by some officials inside the Trump Pentagon to deploy the National Guard after he had finally received approval to make the request on the afternoon of January 6.

“After I had received approval to call in the National Guard, I had to beg Pentagon officials to send us help,” Sund said. “I was repeatedly denied assistance by Army Lt. Gen Piatt citing the concern over the optics of the National Guard on Capitol Hill. The DC National Guard, many of whom were standing within eyesight of the Capitol and whose motto is ‘Capital Guardians,’ would not arrive until almost 6pm, after the fighting was over and the Capitol grounds secured.”

Lieutenant General Walter Piatt was the director of Army staff at the time.

Sund told the Pentagon's inspector general in 2021 that he called a representative for the Secretary of the Army and relayed to him that “I’m making an urgent request for the National Guard. We are being overrun. I gave a quick rundown of what we had going on and that officers out there are fighting for their lives. We were about to be taken over.”

He said that the representative from the Secretary of the Army replied that “I don’t like the optics of National Guard standing in a line with the Capitol in the background.”

Sund also said that, in a call with Pentagon officials, “I explained to them that the building is being breached. I need their assistance immediately.” He contended that Piatt replied that “my recommendation to the Secretary of the Army is to not support the request.”

Colonel Earl Matthews, who served as the Chief Legal Advisor for the D.C. Army National Guard on January 6, told Congress in 2024 that he believes senior Pentagon leadership lied to Congress and misled investigators about what actually happened that day.

He specifically criticized Piatt as well as General Charles Flynn, who served as deputy chief of staff for operations on January 6.

Matthews sent a 36-page memo to the Democrat-led January 6 Select Committee in December 2021, arguing that Piatt and Flynn were both concerned about the optics of deploying the National Guard to the Capitol after Sund urged them to deploy the force after the building perimeter was breached.

“LTG Piatt stated that it would not be his best military advice to recommend to the Secretary of the Army that the D.C. National Guard be allowed to deploy to the Capitol at that time. LTG Piatt stated that the presence of uniformed military personnel could inflame the situation and that the police were best suited to handle the situation. Both LTGs Piatt and Flynn stated that the optics of having uniformed military personnel deployed to the U.S. Capitol would not be good,” Matthews recounted of a phone call between the military officials.

Both Piatt and Flynn have previously denied this.

Piatt said that “at no point on January 6 did I tell anyone that the D.C. National Guard should not deploy directly to the Capitol.” Flynn told investigators he “never expressed a concern about the visuals, image, or public perception of” sending the National Guard to the Capitol.

Command Sergeant Major Michael Brooks, who served as Senior Enlisted Officer for the D.C. Army National Guard on January 6, relayed to Congress in 2024 that military leaders were particularly concerned with the “optics” of deploying the D.C. National Guard to the Capitol and instead wished to use the guardsmen to replace D.C. Metropolitan Police Officers.

“In my opinion, it was a senseless recommendation, the logistics and the amount of time it would have taken to replace individual MPD officers across the city, you’re taking away too much time and we’re getting further delayed,” Brooks said.

Both Brigadier General Aaron Dean, now retired, and Captain Timothy Nick, who now serves in the Florida National Guard, confirmed the assessment by Brooks during a congressional hearing in 2024 and said they recalled hearing senior military officials concerns about the "optics" of deploying the guard to the Capitol — which caused delays.

Walker told the Pentagon inspector general later in 2021 that, at 2:42PM as the riot was still unfolding on January 6, Piatt told him that “it would not be his best military advice to send the National Guard to the U.S. Capitol at this time” and that “military presence could make the situation worse and the optics were bad.”

The D.C. Homeland Security Coordinator Christopher Rodriguez also told the Pentagon inspector general that the same concerns about political optics that blocked troops from being present at the Capitol ahead of the riot may have also factored into the delay on deploying those troops quickly on the afternoon of January 6.

Rodriguez noted that a top Army official used the word “optics” during a call as emergency resources were being urgently sought to stop the violence at the Capitol.

“I do believe it was one of the generals that was on the line from Secretary of Army staff that I referred to,” Rodriguez recalled, adding, “It shocked me quite frankly. And we recognize that we might not be able to get an answer to getting needed support up to the Capitol in a timely fashion.”

While the National Guard was slow to respond to the Capitol riot four years ago, the same cannot be said about the U.S. military’s response to the current unrest in Los Angeles — much to the consternation of Democrats, regardless of which story they seem to be telling.