In an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, Lt. General Russell Honore demonstrated obvious frustration with the intransigence of Congressional Republicans. In the interview Honore said that, “One of the missions they will not be able to probably accomplish as designated by both houses and old parties, is the open campus. That will be- they will not be able to return immediately to the open campus where people can openly visit the Capitol because of the strain on the Capitol Police. Their numbers are down over 230. And that was as of the date we completed our report. But God bless the National Guard. They’ve done significant work and they are leaving today, 137 days after the attack on 1/6.”
After being asked about Republican intransigence regarding a recent Capitol area security bill, including the creation of a “Quick Reaction Force” for the Capitol complex Honore responded: “The longer they think, the less secure the Capitol will be because we have to harden the capital and look, $700 million of the $1.9 is paying bills, JOHN. You know, we had to pay for those 20 some thousand National Guard that were there for over a month and the continued deployment of the Guard. And they’re leaving today as we speak. They’re redeploying home. So those bills had to be paid. They had to pay bills for overtime for the Capitol Police. You know, the Capitol is not just one building. It’s about 10 buildings that are included under the purview of the Capitol Police. They also put some money there to pay some of the COVID expenses, as well as money for the architect of the Capitol to start the design work to harden the Capitol. So $700 million is paying bills…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 a regional police for that mission. That might work, on the scheduled event that might happen on Saturday afternoon with a large crowd coming to town. I don’t think it will work with the threat of domestic terrorism at three o’clock in the morning, where you can call local- local law enforcement and say show up at the Capitol. You know, 80% of our Capitol Police live outside the district. 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 would be able to respond because you’ve got to recall them to duty.”
When asked if he thought a Quick Reaction Force would have made a difference during the Trump Insurrection Honore answered: “It could have been totally different and as has been pointed out, some of the command and 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.”
After seeing a clip of a Trump sycophant insisting the Trump Insurrection was “like a tourist visit,” Honore responded: “They had to face a dangerous, violent mob that fought them, tried to kill them. Look, the Capitol Police have taken two, what we may- usually say, three killed in action, two on that day, one directly and one indirectly from suicide and subsequent attack that killed the Capitol Police. This is a- a tough mission. The Capitol will have to be protected 365.”