‘This Was a Failure, People Are Dead’: Jake Tapper Confronts Top National Guard Official Over Security Breakdown at Capitol

CNN’s Jake Tapper grilled General Daniel Hokanson, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, over security failures at the U.S. Capitol last week when a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the building.

Tapper questioned him over the timeline of what happened on Wednesday, with Hokanson saying, “I’m not aware of any delays with respect to our response or the D.C. National Guard’s response to the events of that day.”

“No delays once the Army Secretary approved it, once Acting Secretary of Defense Miller approved it, you’re saying,” Tapper said. “But in terms of delays, you acknowledge there were delays? It’s just not your issue. It was the people that needed to give approval, right?”

“Wen you look at what they were asked to do, they were prepared to do the mission that they were doing, the traffic control points,” Hokanson responded. “We had to get them back to get them properly equipped and briefed so when they entered there, they were part of the solution and were not mis-coordinated with the efforts taking place.”

At one point Tapper directly asked if President Donald Trump “had any role in making sure that they were not deployed in humvees and instead in a lower-key fashion on January 6th.”

“No that I’m aware of at all,” Hokanson responded.

More broadly, Tapper asked if he believes there were politics at play “from the Pentagon commanders who were delaying whether or not to let you deploy.”

Hokanson said he was “not at all” concerned about that.

As Tapper wrapped the interview, he added this:

“I’m getting a lot of answers from you. I don’t hold you or the National Guard responsible for this, but I have to say, this was a failure. And people are dead. And I hope people at the Pentagon are looking into what happened, because something happened wrong. And while I don’t have subpoena power, I hope the people in the Pentagon are looking into this, especially the inspector general.”

Hokanson closed by emphasizing how they’re making sure there’s going to be appropriate security in place for the Biden inauguration.

You can watch above, via CNN.