In a speech on the House floor on Thursday, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia repeated the common Republican claim that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had rejected a National Guard presence for January 6. There is no evidence that the Speaker, who has no authority over the activation of the District of Columbia National Guard, was involved in any such rejection; her office has repeatedly said she wasn’t even consulted.
But Greene went even further than her colleagues — also casting blame on the Democrats’ leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer. Greene claimed that Schumer also turned down the Guard and was also responsible for the failure to protect the Capitol on the day of the riot.
Facts First: Greene’s claim about Schumer is false. Schumer, now the Senate Majority Leader, was Senate Minority Leader at the time of the riot on January 6, 2021; Republican Mitch McConnell, whom Greene did not blame in her Thursday speech, was head of the majority. And even the Senate Majority Leader does not have any authority over the activation of the DC National Guard. The President of the United States has that authority, along with Department of Defense officials to whom presidential power has been delegated.
Schumer only became Senate Majority Leader two weeks after January 6, when two Democrats who won runoff elections held in Georgia on January 5, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, were sworn in as senators and the Democrats took narrow control of the chamber.
Schumer spokesman Justin Goodman told CNN on Thursday that, during the riot, Schumer asked the Secretary of the Army to approve National Guard assistance at the Capitol. An official timeline released by the Department of Defense confirms that Schumer spoke to the secretary that afternoon.
Greene’s office did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment CNN sent around 3:40 pm.
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