The Ohio Republican claimed that Pelosi initially denied the Capitol police request for National Guard assistance, and then waited nearly an hour to approve a second request — but a Washington Post fact-checker found that’s not what happened.
Three key figures involved in Capitol security, each of whom resigned under pressure following the riot — former Capitol police chief Steven Sund, former House sergeant-at-arms Paul Irving and former Senate sergeant-at-arms Michael Stenger — testified before Congress last week about what went wrong.
“There is no indication that Pelosi was at all involved,” wrote the Post‘s Glenn Kessley. “Irving supposedly had made a vague reference to ‘optics,’ but there is no indication what that means. Moreover, the Stenger, the Senate sergeant-at-arms, was also reluctant to support an immediate dispatch of National Guard troops. So there is little reason to suggest Irving, acting under Pelosi’s direction, only was responsible. It appeared to have been a joint decision.”