House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has found a general who she thinks will stick it to Donald J. Trump through his leadership of an “immediate” investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol security breach.
She has turned to Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, a colorful character known as “the Ragin’ Cajun.”
Honoré is best-known for his role as commander of the task force that was in charge of the U.S. military response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
He has been outspoken about the attack, saying on the day of the breach that it was a “sh– show.” So far Honoré has said that the primary problem was “the lack of adequate security at the Capitol,” which was Nancy Pelosi’s fault.
Pelosi said Honoré, who has accepted her request, will review the Capitol “security infrastructure, interagency processes and command and control.”
“The general is a respected leader with experience dealing with crises,” she said. “As a former vice director for operations, J-3, with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, his focus was military support to civilian authorities … and he has experience with the national Capitol region security.”
Pelosi said that in addition to the immediate review Honoré is conducting, congressional oversight efforts looking into the Capitol attack and how to prevent future incidents will be ongoing.
“Members are moving forward with strong oversight from committees, of course, to have after-action review,” she said. “There is strong interest in Congress in a 9/11-type commission, an outside commission to conduct that after action review.”
Such a commission will not be bipartisan. It will definitely spare Pelosi any blame.
Honoré, meanwhile, is from a Louisiana Creole family that hails from the West Indies. Salty and gruff, the retired three-star Army general was widely applauded for his take-no-prisoners approach to improving the government response to Hurricane Katrina.
A former head of operations for the joint staff at the Pentagon, he also commanded the First Army and the 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea.
But Honoré has been outspoken not just about the Jan. 6 riot, but the personalities of those involved – as well as where his bread is buttered: in Pelosi’s hands.
Notably, he has said he suspects U.S. Capitol Police leaders failed to provide sufficient security forces because, he said, they were “complicit” in the attack – something he predicted will “come out in the investigation.”
He mentioned the two sergeants at arms. And anyone with an “R” after his name.
“I’ve just never seen so much incompetence,” Honoré said. “So they’re either that stupid or ignorant or complicit. I think they were complicit. We knew they were coming. Everybody knew they were coming. Every law enforcement agency in D.C. called the Capitol and said, ‘How many you want?’ ‘Oh, we don’t need no help.’ That’s why it was complicit, and people need to go to jail over that.”
Don’t worry if this sounds like the general already has all he needs to complete an investigation.
Honoré has also indicated in tweets he does not approve of the Capitol Police’s traditional lack of transparency. He referred to their lack of press conferences after the riots and their exemption from the Freedom of Information Act.
And he noted their failure to respond promptly to lawmakers’ queries – including those from Tim Ryan, the Ohio Democrat who chairs the House Appropriations Legislative Branch subcommittee, which oversees the Capitol Police budget.
Honoré also tweeted, on Jan. 12, a link to a news report about anonymous Capitol Police officers saying they were sent home the day of the riots and told they were not needed.
“Just as I said on day one Police Leadership in the capital was Complicit part of the F–- up that left 5 Kia at the U.S. Capital real s— show,” Honoré tweeted in all seriousness.
Besides reviewing the Capitol Police response, Honoré has his sights set on broader questions of law enforcement in Washington, D.C.
He recently proposed on Twitter a “high sheriff’s department for the national capital region,” which he said would “coordinate the security entities that protect our government and the nation’s capital.” He copied Biden, Pelosi, news organizations and others on the tweet.
Honoré has pulled no punches in criticizing members of Congress. He recently retweeted calls for Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., to lose her job after she live-tweeted on Jan. 6 that Pelosi had been removed from the House chamber.
Again he blasted the Capitol Police.
“It’s like the Capitol Police was doing security by ZOOM like we’re doing this interview by ZOOM. I don’t know, I’ve just never seen so much incompetence, so they’re either that stupid, or ignorant or complicit. I think they were complicit,” Honoré said during one interview. “And my heart and soul goes out to that one guard, the gentleman who lost his life. He was beaten to death by the patriots as they call themselves with a fire extinguisher.”
Though that death by fire extinguisher has been repeated by mainstream media ad nauseum, it has been found in error by the original source – the New York Times, which was forced to print a prominent correction. The officer was just fine immediately after in incident and was no worse for wear hours afterward. Later he died; apparently there was no autopsy, and his body was cremated. But don’t expect Gen. Honoré to know that yet.
Who else does he blame?
“[The Capitol Police chief] has since said he’s going to retire; he should be fired. He should be fired for a total failure, along with the Sergeant-at-Arms in the Senate and the Sergeant-at-Arms in the House,” said Honoré.
We’ll be eager to hear the evidence of this when it is aired.
Also, Honoré said the law enforcement response to the Capitol building chaos was different from what happened during the Black Lives Matter protests.
“Totally different, they handled it totally different, that’s why I’m thinking that the leadership inside the Capitol Police was complicit because they did not see these tens of thousands of people who said they were going into the Capitol; they said this before they got there,” said Honoré.
He also noted, in another interview, that 30% to 40% of the Capitol Police were identified as “Trumpsters.”
I don’t know where he got that information, but he said it.
Honoré made several other disparaging remarks Republicans, just to demonstrate his fealty to Pelosi.
The general has implicated plenty of people already, but not Pelosi.
Seems like another fair and impartial investigation in our nation’s capital.
Content created by the WND News Center is available for re-publication without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
