What We Know: House Republicans release report on Jan. 6 security failures, accuse Democrats of ‘playing politics’

Five Republicans, who were originally nominated to sit on House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, released a report on Wednesday addressing security failures at the Capitol.

The 141-page report, released by Republican Reps. Jim Banks, Rodney Davis, Jim Jordan, Kelly Armstrong, and Troy Nehls, accuses the Democrat-led Jan. 6 committee of playing politics and ignoring real concerns.

The five Republicans were originally nominated to serve on the House committee but we’re rejected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The report placed most blame on Pelosi for allegedly ignoring warnings of potential unrest and failing to prepare Capitol police.

“Prior to that day, the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) had obtained sufficient information from an array of channels to anticipate and prepare for the violence that occurred,” the report read, according to the Washington Examiner.

“However, officers on the front lines and analysts in USCP’s intelligence division were undermined by the misplaced priorities of their leadership.”

The report accused former House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving of being “compromised by politics,” and criticizes Pelosi and Irving for failing to coordinate security concerns with GOP lawmakers.

“To make matters worse, systemic issues have crippled the security apparatus for years. USCP line officers were under-trained and ill-equipped to protect the Capitol complex,” the report said.

“The intelligence failures, coupled with the Capitol Police Board’s failure to request National Guard assistance prior to January 6th, meant the District of Columbia National Guard (DCNG) was not activated, staged, and prepared to quickly respond to an attack on the Capitol,” the group of Republicans said, according to Breitbart News.

“One officer testified to investigators that he went into the fight on January 6, 2021 with nothing but his USCP-issued baseball cap. Even if every USCP officer had been at work that day, their numbers would still have been insufficient to hold off the rioters due to a lack of training and equipment. The USCP was set up to fail, and there have been scant signs of progress toward addressing these weaknesses.”

“Leadership and law enforcement failures within the U.S. Capitol left the complex vulnerable on January 6, 2021,” the report added. “The Democrat-led investigation in the House of Representatives, however, has disregarded those institutional failings that exposed the Capitol to violence that day.”

The lawmakers also accused Democrats of using the riot to “play politics” instead of addressing real concerns.

“When Speaker Pelosi made the unprecedented decision to reject Jim Banks and Jim Jordan from sitting on the January 6 Select Committee — we knew she intended to play politics instead of addressing the massive security failures that lead to that day,” they said, adding that “the Select Committee appears to have spent almost no time on this issue.”