Newly revealed footage from Jan. 6, 2021, shows Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) berating Trump administration officials over former President Trump’s refusal to order the National Guard to break up the Capitol riots.
Members of Congress were evacuated to Fort McNair when rioters violently breached the Capitol. Schumer could be seen in the video, which aired Monday on MSNBC, yelling at then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy over the whereabouts of the National Guard.
“D.C. has requested the National Guard, and it’s been denied by DOD. I’d like to know a good f‑‑‑ing reason why it’s been denied,” Schumer said. “We need them fast. We’ve all had to, I’ve never seen anything like this. We’re like a third-world country here. We had to run and evacuate the Capitol.”
Trump has long claimed, falsely, that he ordered the National Guard into Washington and that then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stopped him. The claim has been undermined by Trump’s Cabinet members under oath.
Later in the video, Schumer said he would move on to then-acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller to urge his case for deploying the Guard.
“All right. I spoke to the secretary of the Army, and he’s given the full OK to give the National Guard. He said it was not done,” Schumer said. “I’m going to call up the secretary of Defense.”
In a separate clip, the majority leader also pressed acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen on his actions that afternoon and urged him to get Trump to make the rioters go home.
“Why don’t you get the president to tell them to leave the Capitol? Mr. Attorney General, in your law enforcement responsibility. A public statement, they should all leave,” Schumer said. “He is saying his tweet said we are for peace, law and order and order. Yeah. Why don’t you get him to make that statement? Would you do that?”
MSNBC anchor Katy Tur said the network acquired the video from “congressional sources.”
The Hill has reached out to Schumer’s office for comment.
Trump’s actions on the day of and surrounding Jan. 6 are at the center of a criminal investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith. Smith charged Trump with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. for his role in allegedly inspiring the rioters’ attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) told Tur that the video should be a “stark reminder” of the stakes of the day, even three and a half years later.
“This was an insurrection. There’s no other way to classify it, that that mob of insurrectionists trying to overturn a legitimate, lawful, election,” Crow said. “They did so at the request of Donald Trump. And we cannot forget that.”
“I know there’s a lot of things competing for people’s attention right now. People are raising families, building businesses, doing really important stuff across the entire country,” he continued. “But again, let’s not forget, that, there are moments where our democracy is at risk. And we are in one of those moments still.”