mr. stanger both, let's start with mr. irving. why was the request for national guard assistance not approved at the same time you approved the expansion of the perimeter? mr. irving. i think you're muted mr. irving. now you're definitely muted. now you should be fine. go ahead. >> am i okay now. >> yes. >> thank you. i apologize for that. senator, i did not take the call from chief sund on the 4th as a request. chief sund called me to tell me that he had received an offer from the national guard to provide us 125 unarmed troops to work traffic control in the perimeter of the capitol. shortly after that discussion, i said let's cler sergeant at arms stanger at chair of the board and another senior official with quite a bit of experience. the three of us talked it through. and during that call, the number one question on the table was did the intelligence support it? did the intelligence support that additional offer for those 125 troops? >> did you discuss this with anybody except sergeant at arms stanger and chief sund? >> no. it

mr. stanger. mr. irving, same question. >> the video was certainly what i could see from my window on the day of january 6th. >> and from my perspective, senator, i have not diagnosed the -- why the attack occurred at the time. i would leave it to the after investigation. >> there is an intelligence division within the department, correct? >> yes, sir. >> okay, and now having read your letter to speaker pelosi, you make reference to events on both november 14th as well as december 12th that you had sort of comparable intelligence in terms of risk assessment, threat assessment and the events of november 14th and december 12th, not leading into anything near what happened on january 6th. is that my correct interpretation of your letter? >> yes, that is the correct interpretation of the letter. both assessments indicated militia groups and extremists in attendance. weapons were recovered during both those events. >> okay. and so to the best of your recollection in the lead-up to january 6th, since it was

mr. stanger, why did you think that the troops were on stand by? they must have been standing way awith a from where we needed them if it took hours to be here. what did it mean they would be on stand by? >> when i spoke to the chief and he brought up to me the attempt to get the national guard and apparently wasn't going forward, i suggested to him that he reach out. we knew the national guard commander from previous work in the metropolitan police department. i suggested he reach out to the national guard commander for a couple of reasons. one of them was i had read in the paper or heard on the news that the national guard in d.c. was rather reticent to engage because of the issues that had arisen in the white house demonstrations of a month ago and that we need to make sure that the national guard was engaged in this and that they would be willing to -- >> do you think you did make sure they were engaged and would be willing? i want to go to one more question here. did you think they were engaged and would be willing if called on? >> yeah, that'

mr. stanger and mr. irving. >> no one contacted me. >> thank you. >> and the same with me, senator, no contact with me or my office. >> thank you for those answers. i look forward to following up with the department of homeland security about this during the next hearing on this topic. mr. sund, my last question, the officers of the capitol police work each and every day to keep the u.s. capitol safe and secure. we are all grateful for the brave work of the u.s. capitol police officers on january 6th. tragically the law enforcement community has now lost two officers to suicide since january 6th as a result of the insurrection and the events then. my thoughts, and i'm sure the thoughts of all of us here today are with the families of mpd officer smith and u.s. officer howard libengood. what resources are available and are these resources sufficient? >> the department has brought in significant mental health services. i appreciate your recognition of that. i've talked to a number of officers who have defi

mr. stanger. mr. irving. >> chairman peters, chairwoman klobuchar and ranking member portman and blunt and distinguished members of the committees, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. there has been a lot of press reporting about me not all of it accurate and i appreciate the opportunity to address some of that today. my name is paul irving and i served as the sergeant of arms to the house of representatives for the past nine years. serving in that role was one of the great honors of many life and i count it a privilege to work to speakers from both political parties, including speaker boehner, speaker ryan and speaker pelosi. i'm law enforcement officer by training. my professional career started more than 40 years ago as an intern at the department of justice and then as a clerk at the fbi. i became the special agent of the secret service where i worked on two different presidential protection details and rose to the rank of assistant director. like you i'm profoundly saddened

mr. stanger, did you get the report? >> no. >> okay, mr. irving? >> i did not. >> today "the post" reports another warning art violence extremists calling for an assault on congress was sent to a d.c. police inbox and to a member of the capitol police. the officials who testified today all agreed -- the 1/6 attack was planned and that it involved white supremacist groups and extremists. >> we planned for a level of violence. what we got was a military style coordinated assault. beating police officers with belts, sticks, metal barricades and flagpoles. these people came for war. they came with equipment. you're bringing climbing gear, explosives, chemical spray that you're planning on our agency not being at what we call full strength. >> their testimony laid bare the chaos, the mistakes that bureaucracy that -- the siege. in his written statement, that man, the former capitol police chief sund said he had spoke ton both sergeants at arms about a request for approval to call the national guard in right after 1:00 p.m. that. account was not backed u

mr. stanger, did you get that report? beforehand? mr. stanger, did you get the report? >> no. >> okay.> so, carol len ig, that one's so important because here we art again, a failure to connect the dots. the intel existed. it was knowable, what donald trump has invited his supporters to do and it was knowable what the extremists who were among that crowd had planned to do. the fbi office, as you and your colleagues have reported in norfolk, reported that they knew, the fbi office there, that they planned for war. can youth just talk about the importance of establishing some of these breakdowns in communication?an >> you know, i think this is indeed one of the most important questions that arise -- arose today, and arose immediately after january 6th. and it echos something elizabeth said at the beginning, speculation about d.o.j. and dhs, these two entities sort of beaten down by the president, you know, it's speculative and yet there's evidence to support it. but the key thing about this intelligence, nicole, is there were numerous warnings. it wasn't just the fbi. the capitol police'

mr. stanger's office. >> so you are waiting at any point for input from congressional? is that your testimony? >> yes. i advise them as we do with many security protocols. >> but you were not waiting for them at any point there was no delay to get that request you are not waiting for the input of the speaker or majority leader or anybody else. >> no. absolutely not. >> is that your recollection? >> my recollection was at one oh 9:00 p.m. in the command center watching things rapidly deteriorate i made a phone call in the presence of both my assistant chiefs possibly my general counsel which i may be the initial request we need to activate the national guard the situation is bad on the west front. i followed up at 1:22 p.m. to check on the status of the request. >> so who constitutes the chain of command mr. irving said he never made that statement but my understanding from the statutes that in the emergency situation i would think this would qualify that the capital police board does not have to consult with members of senate or house leadership to make a request for de

mr. stanger. they -- i do not believe that the chief ever spoke to the architect of the capitol prior to that. i believe that's what mr. blanton testified to yesterday, who is also on the board. so, the ask would have to come from all three. the capitol police board issued a verbal declaration of emergency to give authority to national guard deployment on 2/10 on the sixth. >> rosa -- >> please, the board seems obsolete. the board seems to be non-functioning. >> and i think we're getting to the point here. so, whether it's tim or chief pittman, it sounds that there was an official denial of the senate meeting for the emergency order? >> no, no, no. i apologize. the demonstrations were discussed. there was no request at that time for an order. >> there was no request -- there was never a vote by the board. i think this is what's really important about getting to the bottom of this. so, it sounds like mr. irving was taking all of the authority by the board to act and was basically denying chief sund'

mr. michael stanger former senate sergeant at arm's and mr. paul irving former house sgt at arm's, the other witnesses are here and many of our witnesses do via video. to our witnesses your testimony is vital and thank you again for coming. at the same time this is certainly not the last hearing that we will have regarding this attack next week we will hear from witnesses from federal agencies including the fbi the department of homeland security and the department of defense that are critical to understanding the interaction of the capital was more than an assault on democracy it was an actual life or death situation for the many brave law-enforcement officers who show up here to do their work every day and at the beginning of this testimony we will hear from one of them we will never forget the haunting shrieks of the police officer pinned in between the doors of the hands of the rioters pleading for help we will never forget office or harry dunn who fought against the violent mob four hours and after was over broke down in tears telling fel

stanger's office. >> let me get that straight. mr. sund, do you know when you asked for national guard assistance? was it 1:09 or 2:00 p.m.? >> it was 1:09. >> the first conversation i had with chief sund was 1:28, 1:30. >> acting d.c. metropolitan police chief robert congi described what happened when the request did go out. >> chief sund was pleading for the national guard, and in response to that there was not an immediate yes, the national guard is responding, yes the national guard is on the way. the response was more asking about the plan, you know, what was the plan for the national guard? my response to that was simply -- i was just stunned about that. you know, i have officers that were out there literally fighting for their lives. >> today's testimony did not hold everyone's attention. ted cruz, back in the senate after his one-day cancun getaway spent some of the hearing on his phone. the senate is also trying to get through confirmation hearings for biden cabinet nominees. right now, three of his picks are facing some significant head winds from republicans, particularly, though, budge