Officers were not “prepared whatsoever” to handle the mob that overwhelmed the Capitol and had no dedicated security briefing in advance, unlike with other major events, said the officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution.
When officers were hit in the face with bear spray, they did not have the equipment or weapons to retaliate, he added.
“In my time as an officer, we have never failed so miserably than we did on that day,” the officer said. “We were failed by our management. . . . We were put in a situation to fail.”
He added: “It’s like trying to climb Mount Everest and they give you house slippers.”
The officer said that Sund “fell on the sword” and that the two sergeants-at-arms for Congress are at fault, along with Trump. Both sergeants-at-arms resigned last week.
“People said openly they were going to storm the Capitol, and [the officials] acted like it was nothing,” the officer said.
The officer also said he disagreed with the agency’s decision to suspend the officer who donned the cap, saying rioters put the hat on the officer and he kept it on to persuade several Trump supporters to help him extract officers who had been overwhelmed at the eastern front of the Capitol.
In videos online of the attack, a Black officer wearing a MAGA cap is seen asking several Trump supporters to help him reach officers swarmed by the mob at the entrance of the Capitol. “They’re scared,” the officer says. The Trump supporters help him move through a mob of people to reach several other officers in riot gear, who they then lead out of the mob.
The officer said he had spoken with the suspended officer and thought he took the actions he did to not “leave any man behind.”
“He used those two White guys, basically, used those Trump supporters to help get his people out of harm’s way,” the officer said. “If it wasn’t for them, those guys wouldn’t have gotten out. . . . People can say what they want, but he put that hat on to try to save his guys.”