Manipulated statistics, high murder rate: 5 things to know about federal takeover of DC

3. Dems accuse Trump of hypocrisy on National Guard, citing Jan. 6

As they have expressed disapproval of Trump's decision to send the National Guard to Washington, congressional Democrats have mentioned the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot. A group of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol as Congress was working to certify the 2020 presidential election won by former President Joe Biden. 

Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat who serves as Washington's non-voting delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives, issued a statement reacting to the federal takeover.

"It does not escape me that the president is calling in the DCNG on the pretext of a surge in crime that the numbers do not support, while he was nowhere to be found for hours on January 6, 2021, as D.C. officials tried to get him to mobilize the DCNG as the U.S. Capitol was under siege," she wrote. 

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who formerly served as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, offered a similar analysis in a statement posted to X Monday.

"Donald Trump delayed deploying the National Guard on January 6th when our Capitol was under violent attack and lives were at stake," she insisted. 

"Now, he's activating the DC Guard to distract from his incompetent mishandling of tariffs, health care, education and immigration — just to name a few blunders," she added.

Pelosi's remarks did not sit well with Steven Sund, a former Capitol Police chief who has repeatedly spoken out about the events that unfolded that day. 

In an X post directly responding to Pelosi, Sund asserted that "On January 3, I requested National Guard assistance, but your Sergeant at Arms denied it." Maintaining that federal law prohibited him from "calling them in without specific approval."

Sund alleged that he had to decline an offer from the Pentagon to provide National Guard support because he "lacked the legal authority" to do so. 

"On January 6, while the Capitol was under attack and despite my repeated calls, your Sergeant at Arms again denied my urgent requests for over 70 agonizing minutes, 'running it up the chain' for your approval. When I needed your assistance, it was denied. Yet when it suited you, you ordered fencing topped with concertina wire and surrounded the Capitol with thousands of armed National Guard troops."