On Wednesday morning, roughly 340 members of the D.C. National Guard had been activated and were in the city, unarmed, in preparation for expected protests in the city surrounding Congress' vote to affirm Joe Biden's 2020 election victory.
By Thursday morning, the number of active Guard troops activated to serve in the district had grown to 6,200.
While Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser originally requested only 340 D.C. Guard members and specifically asked that they be unarmed, by Wednesday afternoon it became clear additional support was needed. According to a timeline constructed by Vox.com, that additional support was slow coming. In fact, the Virginia National Guard responded to Bowser’s request for additional troops before D.C. did.
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By 4 p.m. on Wednesday, all 1,100 members of the D.C. Guard were activated by Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller in coordination with Vice President Mike Pence.
"We have fully activated the D.C. National Guard to assist federal and local law enforcement as they work to peacefully address the situation," Miller said in a statement. "We are prepared to provide additional support as necessary and appropriate as requested by local authorities. Our people are sworn to defend the Constitution and our democratic form of government, and they will act accordingly."
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Now, the Defense Department has formally activated roughly 6,200 members of the National Guard from six northeastern states to help support Capitol Police and other law enforcement in Washington. Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy confirmed Thursday morning they would be in place for at least the next 30 days.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced Thursday that approximately 1,000 Pennsylvania National Guard members had been activated in support of the D.C. Guard and local civilian authorities. With approximately 19,000 members, the commonwealth has the second-largest National Guard in the country.
"The unprecedented and disturbing events yesterday in our nation’s capital are cause for ongoing concern and Pennsylvania is prepared to assist as needed in securing peace and an orderly transfer of power on Jan. 20," Wolf said.
But Wednesday afternoon, as Trump supporters overran Capitol police, looted the Capitol building and broke into the Senate chamber, many onlookers wanted to know where the Guard was.
So where were the Guard reinforcements?
As the smoke clears, the timeline is still being constructed using firsthand accounts, tweets from government officials, and very little input from the Department of Defense.
The 6,200 Guard troops now activated surpass the Guard force that was activated in the city back in June in response to protests over the killing of George Floyd. At that time, 5,100 total Guard troops were sent to the city, but they were sent under a different guise and by the same individual who is being criticized for inciting the mobs that required Guard activation this week -- President Donald Trump.
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In June, Bowser requested 500 D.C. National Guard troops to be activated in response to protests in the nation’s capital. Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy sent 1,200 -- the entirety of the D.C. National Guard’s force -- into the city instead, despite pushback from Bowser. Over the following days, the president asked governors to send more. While some states -- notably Maryland and Virginia -- declined to send their Guard troops, governors sent 3,900 more troops from other states to D.C., again despite pushback from the city’s leadership and even some from the Department of Defense.
During those days in June, the D.C. Guard flew a helicopter dangerously low over protesters, resulting in an investigation that is still ongoing. Law enforcement agents used tear gas to clear peaceful protestors from Lafayette Square. After action reviews were ordered by then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.
The Pentagon was heavily criticized for its June response, and some have pointed to this criticism as a factor in yesterday’s delays -- the Pentagon wished to remain as uninvolved as possible in this political fray and was careful in how it engaged when the time came. Similarly, Bowser’s initial request to only activate 340 unarmed Guard troops has been seen as an attempt to avoid a repeat of what was called an “over militarization” in June.
And when the situation changed and support was needed quickly, the intricacies of the D.C. Guard’s chain of command further complicated the situation to the point that the city initially reported its request for support was denied.
Moving the Guard troops already present in the city and augmenting them with additional Guard troops constituted a “change of mission orders” that needed to be approved. When Connecting Vets asked the National Guard Bureau of Public Affairs who exactly approves those change of mission orders the response was “it depends.”
Washington, D.C., without a governor, generally turns to the president for the direction of its Guard component. In general, the president delegates that command to the Secretary of the Army. In reality, however, it was the Acting Secretary of Defense who ultimately approved the mission change on Wednesday. Miller coordinated with the vice president. Trump was not involved.
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The delay, Bowser said at a briefing Thursday morning, is evidence supporting the need to shift control of the D.C. Guard from the Secretary of the Army to the city itself.
With McCarthy’s order for Guard troops to remain in the city for at least 30 days, this 6,200-strong force will still be in place during the days leading up to Jan. 20 and the inauguration itself.
“We are obviously concerned about the twentieth. We’re concerned about the days leading up to it, but I think we as Americans have to also ask ourselves -- is this going to be a new normal?” Bowser said. “Regardless of if Donald Trump is the president, are people still going to be inspired to violence and try to overthrow institutions of our government? I think that frame for everybody has to reset. It may not end on the twentieth. For us, as we think about what that means as the nation’s capital, it means a whole different level of policing.”
The District of Columbia remains in a state of emergency as does Virginia.
Four died in the events at the Capitol on Wednesday.