The news report is from Ken Dilanian and Julia Ainsley, What went wrong with security at the Capitol? 01/07/2021.
The Morning Joe segment has the same title, What Went Wrong With Security At The Capitol? 01/08/2021:
That segment has Pentagon correspondent Julia Ainsley telling the story. It takes off from a setnence in the stoey she co-authored, "The Pentagon officials said that on Sunday, during a planning meeting, the Defense Department offered the Capitol Police and the city of Washington additional National Guard troops, but were turned down."
Willie Geist quotes that sentence as it shows on the screen, only what he says it, "Püentagon officials said more troops were offered, but city officials turned them down." (my emphasis)
There's nothing particularly scandalous about this. But it's definitely a case of sloppy reporting, particularly asAinsley makes it sound like the Mayor turned down extra assistance, which is garbled at best. The position of the Capitol Police and the federal response are the big questions at this point.
There will certainly be investigations of this incident. So how off-base this Morning Joe segment was is something that we can probably evaluate well in a few weeks.
But it did introduce the idea, which we will surely hear from some supporters of the Capitol invasion that the whole thing was the fault of that black woman mayor. Especially since Republicans are dead set against DC statehood, an important civil rights issue.
Then Joe Scarborough fellows up to say, "let's underline this. So the DC police got several requests, or several offers of help, because of course we all knew that January 6 was going to be a tumultuous day. ... And yet the Capitol Hill police rejected that help and also the city of Washington DC rejected that help, as well?"
Just to be clear, the US Capitol Police is a federal agency, not part of the municipal government of the city of Washington DC.
Scarborough really sounds like he wants to give the Washington Mayor the main blame in this segment.
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