(LifeSiteNews) – In an extraordinary interview with Tucker Carlson, former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said federal agencies withheld crucial intelligence from him that indicated significant threats to the building on January 6, 2021. In addition, they shockingly declined to provide him with reinforcements during the riot.
Furthermore, Carlson related that he had conducted a similar recorded interview with Sund earlier in the year while still hosting his flagship show with Fox News. Curiously, the interview was slated for broadcast on Monday, April 24, the morning the popular host was fired, and thus it never aired, suggesting a possible motive for the financially counterproductive move by the network.
Ep. 15 Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund reveals what really happened on January 6th. Our Fox News interview with him never aired, so we invited him back. pic.twitter.com/opDlu4QGlp
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 10, 2023
In the rapid-fire interview, Sund related the sharp disparity between the intelligence he was given for the day and what the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were holding.
The Capitol Police have their own intelligence office that interfaces with the other federal intelligence agencies for the routine purpose of relating such relevant information. But they were left in the dark. “The intelligence I was getting coming into it was indicating this was going to be just like the previous MAGA rallies, the November and December rallies that we had where we had limited skirmishes.”
He received absolutely none of “the intelligence that we know now existed, talking about attacking the Capitol, killing my police officers, attacking members of Congress and killing members of Congress,” despite the fact that the “FBI [and] DHS was swimming in that intelligence. We also know now that the military seemed to have some very concerning intelligence as well.”
In fact, the FBI and DHS would normally put out something called a Joint Intelligence Bulletin (JIB) and provide a conference call briefing for such large events as the Stop the Steal rally, but they did neither for January 6, which Sund said is “very unusual.”
Even on January 5, the day before the disturbance, Sund says he coordinated a conference call with Steven D’Antuono, assistant director at the FBI’s Washington Field Office, General Omar Jones from the “military desk” and General William Walker from the National Guard.
“Not one person on that call talked about any concerns from the intelligence, the attack on the Capitol, the threats to officers that we were seeing that was out there. That’s what’s scary,” he said.
Furthermore, he added, they “know for a fact,” that there were emails going to Steven D’Antuono in the days before the riot “talking about the violence that they’re predicting,” and the FBI official said nothing about it on their January 5 conference call.
The same dynamic appears to have been present with military officials. Despite Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller and General Mark Milley having discussed, just days before the disturbance, the drastic move of “locking down the city [and] revoking permits on Capitol Hill because of the concern for violence,” they didn’t inform Sund who in his role as Capitol Police Chief, has the authority to issue such permits.
“Instead, on January 4th, what does Miller do? He puts out a memo restricting the National Guard from carrying various weapons, any weapons, any civil disobedience equipment that would be utilized for the very demonstrations or violence that he sees coming. It just doesn’t make any sense,” the former police chief said.
“And this direction affected the National Guard in Virginia and Maryland. When I was calling begging for assistance on January 6, they weren’t allowed to respond at first … all because of the memo,” Sund explained.
Additionally, he described how Milley had obtained intelligence “talking about killing members of Congress and attacking the United States Capitol, and he’s not telling me. He’s telling select members of Congress.”
“That’s concerning as hell, because as the chief of police, there’s a duty to warn there, and I should be told, so I can take the necessary action. I don’t know who else he was telling, but he sure wasn’t telling me,” Sunt said.
He went on to relate how he was required, due to an actual federal law, to get authorization to bring in National Guard reinforcements for such events. Yet the former police chief claims he was denied this request on January 3 by House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving and Senate Sergeant at Arms Mike Stenger.
“I was denied twice because of ‘optics’ and because the intelligence didn’t support it. So think about that,” he told Carlson.
These two officers worked directly for Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, respectively. And even though in an emergency situation these men had the authority to authorize National Guard reinforcements at Sund’s request, which happened at 12:58 p.m., they instead chose to “run it up the chain” to Pelosi.
“Finally, at 2:09, 71 minutes later, 2:09, I’m finally given approval. Think about that, 71 minutes later,” Sund emphasized. “I can’t fathom why. They had to have known what was going on. I was telling them how bad it was … The fighting is going on right outside [Mike Stenger’s] office and I’m still getting delayed.”
Sund then says he had “to sell my request for the National Guard,” to a Lieutenant General Walter E. Piatt at the Pentagon, who recommended against the request, saying, “I don’t like the optics of the National Guard on Capitol Hill” while the police chief pleaded for assistance calling it a “life or death” situation.
“This sounds like a setup to me,” Carlson told Sund. “I’m sorry, it does.”
“It gets better. So, I beg and beg and he goes, ‘Well, I’m gonna walk down the hall and we’ll talk to the Secretary of Defense or whoever he’s gonna talk to.’ Right then I get a notification, oh, I’m still on the call, we have the shooting of Ashli Babbitt. And I said we have shots firing, I still remember yelling over the phone. ‘We have shots firing on the U.S. Capitol, is that urgent enough for you now?!’”
According to Sund, the National Guard did not arrive until around 6 p.m., several hours after the shooting of Babbitt. He also reported that in the meantime the Pentagon deployed military resources to protect the homes of generals.
In a May posting on X (formerly known as Twitter), Sund spoke of his previous interview with Tucker on the Fox News network and suggested it may have had something to do with the most popular cable news host ever being dismissed that day.
“On the day he was fired, Tucker Carlson was planning to air parts of our 1-hour interview and showcase my book. It was an interview he was excited about and said it ‘made the hair on my arm stand up.’ But Fox canned both Tucker and the interview. Coincidence?”
On the day he was fired, @TuckerCarlson was planning to air parts of our 1-hour interview and showcase my book. It was an interview he was excited about and said it “made the hair on my arm stand up.” But Fox canned both Tucker and the interview. Coincidence? pic.twitter.com/QA9jdfFjsb
— Chief Steven Sund (@ChiefSund) May 5, 2023
In an early March interview with Glenn Beck, Carlson assessed that based on their vitriolic and unified response, the January 6 narrative is clearly “foundational” to the plans of establishment leaders.
What is clear is one can “know their priorities by their reaction,” he said. And when it comes to the January 6 narrative, he recalled that the moment he challenged the broad assertion that it was “an armed white supremacist insurrection … they went freakin’ crazy.”
Thus, the January 6 event “is second only to the 2020 election as the biggest scam in my lifetime,” the former Fox News Host said. “And you know it is because they become completely hysterical when confronted with any facts that deviate from their lies.”
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