REVEALED: Capitol Police REJECTED offers of National Guard help days before MAGA riot because they didn t want images of military troops on the Hill
U.S Capitol Police rejected National Guard and FBI assistance in the days and hours leading up the attack
Officials feared the bad optics of uniformed troops facing off with Americans on Capitol Hill
They also ignored warnings of an insurrection and prepared only for a free speech event
Disaster led to resignations of Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and House Sergeant at Arms Paul D. Irving
They were both followed out the door by Michael Stenger, the Senate Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper
“This Political Climate Got My Brother Killed”: Officer Brian Sicknick Died Defending the Capitol. His Family Waits for Answers. ProPublica 1/8/2021
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The grieving family of a slain Capitol Police officer says he was a private man whose death shouldn’t be politicized. But now, it is forced to make sense of the reality that he is a victim of political violence, his legacy forever linked to an insurrection in the U.S. Capitol.
“He spent his life trying to help other people,” the officer’s eldest brother told ProPublica. “This political climate got my brother killed.”
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The invasion of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday was stoked in plain sight. For weeks, the far-right supporters of President Donald Trump railed on social media that the election had been stolen. They openly discussed the idea of violent protest on the day Congress met to certify the result.
“We came up with the idea to occupy just outside the CAPITOL on Jan 6th,” leaders of the Stop the Steal movement wrote on Dec. 23. They called their Wednesday demonstration the Wild Protest, a name taken from a tweet by Trump that encouraged his supporters to take their grievances to the streets of Washington. “Will be wild,” the president tweeted.
Trump supporters rioting at the U.S. Capitol building. (Photo credit: Sebastian Portillo/Shutterstock.com
This story was originally published by ProPublica. By Logan Jaffe, Lydia DePillis, Isaac Arnsdorf and J. David McSwane.
ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
The invasion of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday was stoked in plain sight. For weeks, the far-right supporters of President Donald Trump railed on social media that the election had been stolen. They openly discussed the idea of violent protest on the day Congress met to certify the result.