CNN Panel Shocked by Security Officials Claiming Intelligence Breakdown Before Capitol Riot: ‘How Can That Happen?’
CNN’s John King conducted a panel discussion for Inside Politics by focusing on the alleged communications breakdown behind the security failures of the January riot at the U.S. Capitol.
King led the conversation on Tuesday as the Senate Homeland Security and Rules committees took a break in their hearing on the Capitol insurrection by supporters of former President Donald Trump. A lot of the hearing revolved around witnesses attributing the riot to poor planning and intelligence failures, and even though King acknowledged “human error” as a relevant factor, he said some of the testimony was “quite alarming” to hear.
The Capitol Police chief acknowledges that the FBI did send a pretty harsh warning the night before, on January 5th. It went up to Capitol Hill, but they say it never reached the leadership… How can that happen?
Former DC Police chief Charles Ramsey responded that law enforcement had enough raw information to go on for them to have acted differently when the riot began.
“If it’s true that it actually went from the Joint Terrorism Task Force to the Capitol Police intelligence section and the sergeant in charge of intel did not pass that on, then that is just totally inexcusable,” he said. “That is the kind of information you need, and it’s occurring the day before the eventual action itself.”
Ramsey concluded with his point that the intel should’ve been expedited to security directors over the phone, and King kept this going by asking former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe about who was responsible in this situation. McCabe agreed with Ramsey, saying “you don’t rely” on the usual bureaucracy when key intelligence emerges that needs to be sent up through the chain of command quickly.
The conversation continued from there as King and Dana Bash spoke about whether a clash of jurisdictions allowed the Capitol riot to plunge further into chaos before law enforcement could move in to stop it.
Watch above, via CNN.
