Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund shared his perspective on the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with Tucker Carlson this week, explaining how critical intelligence had been withheld from him in the days before the event.
In the interview, Sund revealed that federal intelligence agencies were aware of threats that they never shared with the chief — threats that would surely have prompted him to beef up security in the area.
“I had a conference call with the leaders of all the law enforcement,” Sund told Carlson. “It was a call I coordinated. Not one person on that call talked about any concerns for the intelligence [about] the attack on the Capitol that we were seeing, that was out there. That’s what’s scary.”
“This sounds like a set-up to me, I’m sorry,” Carlson responded.
The interview was released Thursday on Carlson’s channel on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Carlson headlined the meetup as “Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund reveals what really happened on January 6th.”
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The 55-minute conversation was a do-over for the two, who previously recorded a similar interview while Carlson was still employed at Fox News. It had been scheduled to air April 24 — the day Carlson was abruptly fired without explanation by the network.
“We don’t own that tape, so we can’t show it to you,” Carlson explained. “So instead, we invited Steven Sund back to explain what he saw and experienced that day.”
The former Fox News host added: “What he has to say is shocking.”
Ep. 15 Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund reveals what really happened on January 6th. Our Fox News interview with him never aired, so we invited him back. pic.twitter.com/opDlu4QGlp
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 10, 2023
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“Our Fox News interview with him never aired, so we invited him back,” Carlson noted.
One of the take-aways from the conversation is that Sund was kept in the dark about potential threats that had been expressed in the days before Jan. 6.
“None of the intelligence that was coming up talking about the storming of the Capitol, killing members of Congress or killing my police officers, was ever discussed at the conference calls that I was on,” Sund told Carlson.
“We now know that the FBI, DHS, [were] swimming in that intelligence,” Sund said. “We also know now that the military seem to have [had] some very concerning intelligence as well.”
None of that was communicated to Sund, the head of the agency in charge of security at the Capitol.
Normally, with large upcoming events, agencies like the FBI and DHS would put out bulletins and host joint conference calls to brief law enforcement with such critical information, Sund said.
None of that happened in the lead-up to Jan. 6, Sund said. “Zero.”
Sund said it later became known that Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller had discussed locking down the city and revoking demonstration permits “because they’re so worried about violence at the Capitol on January 6.”
“You know who issues the permits on Capitol Hills for demonstrations? I do,” Sund said. “You know who wasn’t told? Me.
“Instead, on January 4th, what does Miller do? He puts out a memo restricting the National Guard from carrying various weapons — any weapons any civil disobedience equipment that would be utilized for the very demonstrations or violence that he sees coming.”
Later, when Sund was calling the National Guard in Virginia and Maryland, “begging for assistance” on Jan. 6, “They weren’t allowed to respond” because of that memo, Sund said.
“That doesn’t seem to make sense at all,” Carlson observed, more than once during the conversation.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Sund agreed.
“You’ve described this as an intelligence failure, but a failure is something that happens accidentally,” Carlson told Sund. “I don’t see how this could be accidental.”
Carlson pointed out that then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to allow Sund to call in the National Guard. “Why don’t we have answers?” he asked Sund.
“It doesn’t seem like people really want to get to the bottom of it,” Sund said.
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Portions of Carlson’s original Fox News interview were leaked last week by The National Pulse, shortly after former President Donald Trump’s Aug. 1 indictment on four criminal charges related to his actions on the Jan. 6 Capitol incursion.
Pulse Editor-in-Chief Raheem J. Kassam posted a note with the interview saying that the leaked footage was “sent to us by a whistleblower.”
