GOP lawmakers push Nancy Pelosi for removal of Guard protecting D.C.

GOP lawmakers push Nancy Pelosi for removal of Guard protecting D.C. (msn.com)

 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told lawmakers Monday that a September 11th-style commission would probe the Capitol riot.

She told her colleagues of the need for the probe in a President's Day letter days after the Senate voted to acquit President Donald Trump of 'incitement of insurrection.' 

'It is clear from his findings and from the impeachment trial that we must get to the truth of how this happened,' she wrote. 

She said the outside commission was needed 'to protect our security, our security, our security'.

With impeachment now behind the Senate, the only looks back at the riot during the counting of the electoral votes are an internal security review she ordered and federal prosecutors who are rounding up individual rioters, charging some small groups with conspiracy.

House Republicans are pushing Pelosi on the need for a continuing National Guard presence in Washington, D.C more than a month after the riot.

© Provided by Daily Mail Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says an independent Sept. 11th-style commission will probe the Jan. 6th Capitol riot

And Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, one of 43 Republican senators voting not to convict Trump, said the riot 'didn't seem like an armed insurrection to me.'

He told WISN radio: 'The group of people that supported Trump, the hundreds of thousands of people who attended those Trump rallies, those are the people that love this country. They never would have done what happened on January 6. That is a group of people that love freedom; that’s a group of people we need to unify and keep on our side.'

Rep. Lisa McClain, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, wants Pelosi to brief lawmakers on the lingering security presence, which has been estimated to cost nearly $500 million. 

The force rose in size to 26,000 National Guard forces in the days after the January 6 riot and leading up to the inauguration, amid what top homeland officials said was a rise in the threat assessment amid ongoing risks. 

A contingent of 5,000 troops is expected to remain until mid-March. 

'Myself and several of my colleagues have asked Nancy Pelosi for a briefing as to why do we need these troops here, and we have received zero information, zero,' said McClain in an appearance on Fox & Friends Monday. 

She hit Pelosi for failing to provide lawmakers with more information.  She called it 'extremely concerning' that troops could be in the region through the fall. 

'Just tell me why. I feel like there's a boogeyman under my bed,' she told the network. 'Just explain to us why we have the National Guard troops,' she said. 

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a group of people on a motorcycle in front of a crowd: Pelosi says the independent commission will probe the Jan. 6th riot

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Pelosi says the independent commission will probe the Jan. 6th riot

'It's amazing to me that she can do this without any disclosure, without any information and just continue to spend money with no briefing,' she said, adding: 'I would rather put those National Guard men and women to help my constituents in my state help with the distribution of the COVID relief vaccination.'

Her complaints came a day after the Senate voted to acquit President Donald Trump of 'incitement of insurrection,' in a trial in which Democratic managers played jarring footage of the MAGA mob rampaging the Capitol. Some members of the mob were even shown talking about doing harm to Pelosi herself, while others were shown chanting 'hang Mike Pence!'

Among the issues raised by House managers was why guard forces were not immediately deployed after the breach. The MAGA rioters breached the Capitol while Congress was meeting to count the electoral votes making Joe Biden president. 

Pelosi referenced Capitol security in a President's Day letter to colleagues, where she again called for a probe of the events of Jan. 6. She has implemented other measures, positioning magnetometers outside the House chamber and establishing fines for lawmakers who refuse to go through them, after several GOP members refused to honor the rules.

'Now, as always, security is the order of the day: the security of our country, the security of our Capitol which is the temple of our democracy, and the security of our Members,' Pelosi wrote.

She referenced an internal security review being overseen by retired Gen. Russel Honoré about the riot and its aftermath.

'It is clear from his findings and from the impeachment trial that we must get to the truth of how this happened. To protect our security, our security, our security, our next step will be to establish an outside, independent 9/11-type Commission to 'investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the January 6, 2021 domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex… and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power, including facts and causes relating to the preparedness and response of the United States Capitol Police and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement in the National Capitol Region,'' she wrote.

'As we prepare for the Commission, it is also clear from General Honoré's interim reporting that we must put forth a supplemental appropriation to provide for the safety of Members and the security of the Capitol,' she said, without putting a price tag on it.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) also called for the return of Guard forces. 'The National Guard answered the call at a critical time but its mission is now complete. It's time to reopen the Capitol grounds to the American people​,' Cotton wrote in an op-ed. 'It's time to send home the troops.​'​​