Timeline of an Insurrection – U.S. Capitol Attack Jan 6th, 2021
In the critical minutes before the breach of the Capitol building, the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police force and the mayor of Washington, D.C., put out urgent requests for guard backup. It took more than an hour to get formal approval for this, and then nearly three more hours for the first guard reinforcements to arrive.
12:40 p.m.: First protesters arrive at the Capitol, where the joint session of Congress is in progress.
1.p.m.: Trump wraps up speech at the “Save America” rally near the White House. He tells rallygoers the presidential election was “stolen” and he’s going to walk with them to the Capitol.
Sund says he already realizes “things aren’t going well,” that the protesters came with riot helmets, gas masks, pepper spray, fireworks, metal pipes and baseball bats. Sund calls Metropolitan Police Chief Contee, who sends 100 officers to the Capitol, with the first ones arriving within 10 minutes, according to Sund’s interview with the Washington Post.
1:09 p.m.: Sund tells Irving and Stenger by phone that the National Guard is needed. Sund says both men told him they would “run it up the chain.”
1:26 p.m.: Capitol Police order the evacuation of the Capitol complex.
1:34 p.m.: In a phone call with Secretary of the Army McCarthy, Bowser requests an “unspecified number of additional forces,” according to the Pentagon timeline.
1:49 p.m.: Sund, in a phone call with the commanding general of the D.C. National Guard, Maj. Gen. William Walker, requests immediate assistance, and tells him to prepare to bring in the guard.
About 2 p.m.: Rioters breach the Capitol. In an interview with the Washington
2:10 p.m.: Sund says Irving calls him back with formal approval to send in the guard. But as the Washington Post noted, “Sund finally had approval to call the National Guard. But that would prove to be just the beginning of a bureaucratic nightmare to get soldiers on the scene.”
2:22 p.m.: The secretary of the Army, Bowser, D.C. police leadership and others “discuss the current situation and to request additional DCNG support,” according to the Pentagon timeline.
2:24 p.m.: Trump tweets, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”
2:26 p.m.: Sund says he joins the conference call to plead for additional backup. “I am making urgent, urgent immediate request for National Guard assistance,” Sund recalls saying. According to Sund and others on the call, the Washington Post reports, Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, director of the Army staff, says he could not recommend that to his boss, McCarthy, because, “I don’t like the visual of the National Guard standing a police line with the Capitol in the background.”
However, Piatt disputed that, saying in a statement: “I did not make the statement or any comments similar to what was attributed to me by Chief Sund in the Washington Post article — but would note that even in his telling he makes it clear that neither I, nor anyone else from [the Department of Defense], denied the deployment of requested personnel.”
2:30 p.m.: Miller, Milley and McCarthy meet to discuss the requests from Capitol Police and Bowser.
3 p.m.: Miller “determines all available forces of the DCNG are required to reinforce MPD [Metropolitan Police Department] and USCP positions to support efforts to reestablish security of the Capitol complex,” according to the Pentagon timeline. Simultaneously, the D.C. National Guard prepares to move 150 personnel to support Capitol Police, pending Miller’s approval.
3:04 p.m.: Miller “provides verbal approval of the full activation of DCNG (1100 total) in support of the MPD,” according to the Pentagon. In response, McCarthy immediately directs the D.C. National Guard “to initiate movement and full mobilization.” That means the D.C. guard members helping with traffic and crowd control are redeployed to support the Metropolitan Police Department at the Capitol, and the entire D.C. guard begins full mobilization.
3:19 p.m.: McCarthy explains in a phone call to Sen. Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that Miller has already approved full DCNG mobilization. Miller later releases a statement saying, “Chairman Milley and I just spoke separately with the Vice President and with Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, Senator Schumer and Representative Hoyer about the situation at the U.S. Capitol. We have fully activated the D.C. National Guard to assist federal and local law enforcement as they work to peacefully address the situation.” No mention is made of Trump’s involvement.
3:36 p.m.: White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweets: “At President @realDonaldTrump’s direction, the National Guard is on the way along with other federal protective services.”
4:17 p.m.: Trump releases a video on social media in which he states, in part, “We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side, but you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. … We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace.”
5:02 p.m.: 154 members of the D.C. National Guard leave the D.C. Armory.
5:40 p.m.: The first National Guard personnel arrive at the Capitol. By then, most of the violence had ended.
6 p.m.: A citywide curfew goes into effect.
6:01 p.m.: Trump tweets, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”
6:14 p.m.: Capitol Police, Metropolitan Police and the D.C. National Guard “successfully establish perimeter on the west side of the U.S. Capitol,” the Pentagon timeline states.
8 p.m.: Capitol Police declare the Capitol building secure.
8:06 p.m.: Vice President Mike Pence reopens the Senate. “The Capitol is secured and the people’s work continues,” Pence says. “To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win. Violence never wins. Freedom wins, and this is still the people’s house.” Pelosi brings the House back into session less than an hour later.
In total, five people died as a result of the riot, including Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who was “injured while physically engaging with protesters” and died as a result of those injuries the day after the riot, according to Capitol Police.
