House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday an independent commission should investigate the security failures of the January 6 assault on the Capitol, now that the Senate impeachment trial has concluded. The recommendation for such a commission comes from retired Lieutenant General Russel Honoré, whom Pelosi tasked with reviewing Capitol security.
“Now, as always, security is the order of the day: the security of our country, the security of our Capitol which is the temple of our democracy, and the security of our Members,” she wrote in a letter to her colleagues.
Pelosi said Honoré’s interim reporting shows “we must put forth a supplemental appropriation to provide for the safety of Members and the security of the Capitol.” Members had already urged for more funding to support their safety.
“It is clear from his findings and from the impeachment trial that we must get to the truth of how this happened,” Pelosi wrote. “To protect our security, our security, our security, our next step will be to establish an outside, independent 9/11-type Commission to ‘investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the January 6, 2021 domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex… and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power, including facts and causes relating to the preparedness and response of the United States Capitol Police and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement in the National Capitol Region.'”
That comes after more than 30 House members asked their leaders if they can use their congressional allowances to augment their personal safety in their home districts by hiring local law enforcement or other security personnel, according to a letter CBS News obtained last month.
The January 6 assault on the Capitol, and the ensuing security footage, revealed just how close members of the House and Senate came to meeting an angry mob. Only during the Senate trial did Senator Mitt Romney realize his life was potentially saved by Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman, who directed the Utah Republican away from the mob he otherwise probably would have encountered.
