Transcript: Russel Honoré on "Face the Nation," May 23, 2021
The following is a transcript of an interview with retired Lieutenant General Russel Honoré that aired Sunday, May 23, 2021, on "Face the Nation."
JOHN DICKERSON: The Senate is now considering two House-passed measures related to the insurrection of the US Capitol on January 6th, a bill funding increased security and one creating a commission to look into the attack. We go now to retired Lieutenant General Russel Honore, who conducted a security review following the riots. Good morning, General.
LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE (RET.): Good morning, JOHN.
JOHN DICKERSON: So the National Guard wraps up its mission today at the Capitol. Is now the right time to send those troops home?
HONORE: Well, I'll tell you what, if it's not they've hit that magic date and they're going home. And the Capitol is secure based on the mission that the Capitol Police have now, which is secure the Capitol. One of the missions they will not be able to probably accomplish as designated by both houses and old parties, is the open campus. That will be- they will not be able to return immediately to the open campus where people can openly visit the Capitol because of the strain on the Capitol Police. Their numbers are down over 230. And that was as of the date we completed our report. But God bless the National Guard. They've done significant work and they are leaving today, 137 days after the attack on 1/6.
JOHN DICKERSON: Your report looked into the security at the Capitol and you made a report that was the basis of a bill that barely passed out of the House. And it looks like it's going to have some tough sledding in the Senate. And this is for supplemental funding to take care of some of the inadequacies you saw. Why is it important that this bill pass and is it urgent or is it something they can have a think about?
HONORE: The longer they think, the less secure the Capitol will be because we have to harden the capital and look, $700 million of the $1.9 is paying bills, JOHN. You know, we had to pay for those 20 some thousand National Guard that were there for over a month and the continued deployment of the Guard. And they're leaving today as we speak. They're redeploying home. So those bills had to be paid. They had to pay bills for overtime for the Capitol Police. You know, the Capitol is not just one building. It's about 10 buildings that are included under the purview of the Capitol Police. They also put some money there to pay some of the COVID expenses, as well as money for the architect of the Capitol to start the design work to harden the Capitol. So $700 million is paying bills.
JOHN DICKERSON: Yeah.
HONORE: I mean, that's just logistics and that has to be paid. Some of them are taking issue with $200 million that's in the bill to fund the National Guard quick reaction force. There's some talk about using a regional police for that mission. That might work, on the scheduled event that might happen on Saturday afternoon with a large crowd coming to town. I don't think it will work with the threat of domestic terrorism at three o'clock in the morning, where you can call local- local law enforcement and say show up at the Capitol. You know, 80% of our Capitol Police live outside the district. That was the reason for the quick reaction force. It still leaves the mission with the D.C. guard to be prepared to respond. But the quick reaction force would give them ability to respond in minutes. Now, that's going to be hours before they would be able to respond because you've got to recall them to duty.
JOHN DICKERSON: And if there was such a force on the 6th of January, how would things have been different?
HONORE: It could have been totally different and as has been pointed out, some of the command and control where the Capitol Police chief can go directly to the guard in an emergency situation is one of the recommendations we made and get the National Guard to start moving.
JOHN DICKERSON: Let me ask you about that day, because urgency for this supplemental funding kind of depends on- on the way people look back on the 6th of January. I'd like to play a clip here from Congressman Andrew Clyde of Georgia, who recently emphasized some of the video on January 6th. Let's listen to what he has to say.
(ROLL CLIP)
REP. ANDREW CLYDE: You know, if you didn't know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.
(END CLIP)
JOHN DICKERSON: Now, that's true of some of the footage, but there's also a great deal of the other kind of footage, some of which was released this week of the rioters celebrating hurting a policeman. You looked at this situation on the 6th. How would you characterize what the police had to face on that day?
HONORE: They had to face a dangerous, violent mob that fought them, tried to kill them. Look, the Capitol Police have taken two, what we may- usually say, three killed in action, two on that day, one directly and one indirectly from suicide and subsequent attack that killed the Capitol Police. This is a- a tough mission. The Capitol will have to be protected 365. What I'm afraid of, JOHN, is when I hear statements like that is that we have a two-party system that normally would be referred to as the minority party, the opposition. And that scares me. They've gone from being a minority party to an opposition party. And to borrow the words from Nancy Reagan, they just say no. This has- this is serious business. It's about their security. And right now we have the security to secure the Capitol. But that does not include the mission to have it open to the public, which all of them, both sides, houses, both parties want to have the Capitol be open to the public. And this funding is needed. So if they don't fund it, they don't have it. But I think they want the Capitol Police to have current of the day riot equipment. I think they want the Capitol Police to have the security and harden the Capitol. So they're going to have to sit down and talk their way through this. But I don't think waiting on--
JOHN DICKERSON: General, we're going to--
HONORE: --regional police to come to your need is an answer.
JOHN DICKERSON: All right, General, I'm sorry to cut you off. We're going to have to end it there. Thank you so much for being with us. And we'll be right back.