Gov. Hogan recounts harrowing call from lawmakers in basement of Capitol on Jan. 6
BALTIMORE -- The U.S. House Jan. 6 Committee on Thursday showed previously unseen footage of congressional leaders phoning officials for help during the Capitol siege.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer can be seen in the footage referring to a conversation with Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan in a call with Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam.
The footage also shows Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders as the group asks the acting attorney general for help.
"They're breaking the law in many different ways — quite frankly at the instigation of the president of the United States," Pelosi is heard saying at one point.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Friday recounted his role in assisting law enforcement to quell rioters at the Capitol building.
The governor sent 500 members of the Maryland National Guard and 200 state troopers to D.C that day. Baltimore County and Baltimore City officers also assisted.
Asked about the never-before-seen footage in a press briefing at the State House, Hogan described the moment he learned about the siege, and the steps taken to mobilize forces.
"I was sitting in this very room with those screens behind you on a zoom with the Japanese ambassador," Hogan said. "Then my Chief of Staff came in and leaned over to me and said 'the Capitol is under attack' and we call an emergency meeting right away."
Hogan said while he was ordering State Police and the National Guard, Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer, Majority Leader of the House, called him in a panic.
Hoyer was in an undisclosed room in the basement of the Capitol with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer, and "they were desperately looking for help," Hogan said.
"They said that Capitol was under attack under assault," he said. "The Capitol Police were overwhelmed and overrun and they were you know, scared. And I assured leader Hoyer that Maryland State Police were already on the way and should be there any moment, that I had already activated the guard, but that I we did not have approval from the Secretary of Defense."
As the Commander in Chief of the state's military forces, Hogan is allowed to send the Maryland National Guard to any state but needs permission from the Secretary of Defense to send forces into a federal city.
"We fought for two and a half hours to get that approval," Hogan said. "I finally got a call from acting Secretary of the Army, Ryan McCarthy, who said 'Governor, can you send the Maryland National Guard to the US Capitol?' and I said 'We've been trying to do that for two and a half hours.'"
The governor said Maryland State Police were the first police outside of the District to arrive, and the Maryland National Guard were the first after the District's.
"I didn't realize there was a video of Nancy Pelosi talking to Northam and she was saying, you know, 'Leader Hoyer just talked to Governor Hogan and this is what Governor Hogan said, they don't have approval.' But I don't you know, I don't know what's going on the other end of the phone, but it was obviously a day I'll never forget."
"I mean, it wasn't just hey, would you mind coming down and helping us out? There was panic," Hogan continued. "It was, you know, there was noise outside the door. There was you know, the people were worried for their lives. And I think we took very quick and very strong action and, you know, could have turned out much worse."
At least five people died in the Jan. 6 attack and its aftermath, including a Trump supporter shot and killed by Capitol Police.
The Jan. 6 committee has been meeting for more than a year, set up by the House after Republican senators blocked the formation of an outside panel similar to the 9/11 commission set up after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Even after the launch of its high-profile public hearings last summer, the Jan. 6 committee continued to gather evidence and interviews.
The committee voted unanimously Thursday to subpoena former President Donald Trump, saying there is precedent for a former president to appear before the panel.
The vote seeking Trump's testimony comes as the panel is producing vivid new details and evidence of Trump's state of mind as he refused to concede his election loss to Joe Biden, resulting in the 2021 attack at the Capitol.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
