“Sund told the Post that House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving was concerned with the ‘optics’ of declaring an emergency ahead of the protests and rejected a National Guard presence,” NPR reported. “He says Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger recommended that he informally request the Guard to be ready in case it was needed to maintain security.”

His requests for additional National Guard troops would be turned down.

“Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said he requested that the National Guard be placed on standby in the days before the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, but House and Senate security officials turned him down,” the USA Today reported.

Speaker Pelosi is thus accused of having weakened security before and during the Capitol riots due to “optics.” A report from the Daily Caller citing multiple anonymous sources say the former House Sergeant at Arms is “covering for her.”

The Daily Caller reported on the problematic timeline of Speaker Pelosi’s authorization of more National Guard troops. The request was granted after former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund had previously asked the Congress six times for a stronger security presence, but he was turned down every time until it was too late.

The New York Times previously reported that the Speaker’s office confirmed that the National Guard was approved around 1:43 pm. Sund said he sent a request for help from the National Guard to Irving around 1:09 p.m, according to CNN. Irving said he was contacted about the matter after 2:00 pm, Axios reported. Sources questioned how Irving got the request after 2 pm but Pelosi approved the request at 1:43 pm.

“If you believe Irving’s timeline that he testified under oath to, how could he ask for permission from the Speaker 20 minutes before he got the request?” one of the sources told the Daily Caller. The National Pulse lays out what happened, throwing the 1:43 pm time for Pelosi’s ‘authorization’ into major question.

At 1:50pm the Capitol itself was breached. Still before most Trump speech attendees could have arrived.

What happened after this point was a back and forth over hours between D.C. officials, Army officials, and Capitol police.

Eventually – at past 5pm – the National Guard arrived.

It’s all clear now: President Trump had indeed requested 10,000 more National Guard troops, but the Pentagon only authorized a ‘stand by’ force of a small fraction of that size. Speaker Pelosi had delayed authorization of a larger National Guard force, despite frequent warnings about the danger, until it was too late. Why?

The 340 national guardsman that had been activated were to be used for traffic. On top of that it took 4-1/2 hours to be sworn in, Too little to late and not enough guardsman.