Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, who led a review of the security failures leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, said Sunday that if Capitol Police had a National Guard quick reaction force in place during the riots, the events that day “could have been totally different.”
The House on Thursday narrowly passed a $1.9 billion spending bill to upgrade Capitol security in a 213-212 vote. The measure includes $200 million to establish a standing quick reaction force within the D.C. National Guard dedicated to responding to crises in the district.
Last week, the ranking members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, however, said they “firmly oppose creating a D.C. National Guard Quick Reaction Force.”
In a joint statement released Wednesday, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) argued that the security of the Capitol complex should not be militarized, adding that “Congress has held precisely no hearings to examine the creation of a Quick Reaction Force to weigh costs, benefits and fundamental questions about its nature and responsibilities.”
Honoré, during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” however, underscored the importance of such a force, telling host John Dickerson that regional police would not be able to handle missions involving threats of domestic terrorism.
“Some of them are taking issue with $200 million that’s in the bill to fund the National Guard quick reaction force. There’s some talk about using regional police for that mission. That might work only you scheduled event that might happen on Saturday afternoon with a large crowd coming to town. I don’t think it will work with a threat of domestic terrorism at three o’clock in the morning, where you can call up a local law enforcement and say show up at the Capitol. You know 80 percent of our Capitol Police live outside the district,” Honoré said.
“That was the reason for the quick reaction force. It still leaves the mission with the D.C. guard to be prepared to respond, but the quick reaction force would give them ability to respond in minutes. Now that’s going to be hours before they’d be able to respond because you got to recall them to duty,” Honoré added.
When asked by Dickerson how the events of Jan. 6 would have been different with a quick reaction force in place, Honoré said “it could have been totally different.”
“And as been pointed out, someone in commanding control where the Capitol Police Chief can go directly to the guard in an emergency situation is one of the recommendations we made, and get the National Guard to start moving,” he added.