Pelosi taps commander of D.C. Guard to become House sergeant-at-arms

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Kyle Griffin
@kylegriffin1
Speaker Pelosi has tapped the commander of the D.C. National Guard, Maj. Gen. William J. Walker, to become the next House sergeant-at-arms, selecting the first African American for the post that is responsible for the chamber's safety.

Pelosi taps commander of D.C. Guard to become House sergeant-at-arms
Maj. Gen. William J. Walker, a former top DEA official, would become the first African American to occupy the post tasked with overseeing the chamber’s security.
washingtonpost.com
10:35 AM · Mar 26, 2021

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/capitol-riot-walker-national-guard/2021/03/26/acd08b20-8e47-11eb-aff6-4f720ca2d479_story.html

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has tapped the commander of the D.C. National Guard to become the next House sergeant-at-arms, selecting the first African American for the post that is responsible for the chamber’s safety, as Congress overhauls its security arrangements in the wake of the Capitol riot.

Pelosi asked Maj. Gen. William J. Walker, the commander of the D.C. Guard, to take the job in recent days, according to people familiar with the discussions. The previous occupant resigned in the wake of the insurrection on Jan. 6, which saw pro-Trump rioters storm the Capitol complex and threaten lawmakers in one of the nation’s biggest security failures since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Walker, a former special agent and top career official at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, as well as a longtime Guardsman, was leading the D.C. Guard during those events, and has criticized the Pentagon’s leadership in the days since for restricting his powers ahead of the event and taking too long to allow him to send available Guardsmen to the Capitol.

Top Defense Department officials have denied those accusations, saying they moved as quickly as possible, given that the Capitol Police, the force responsible for securing Congress, hadn’t asked the military to prepare a backup force in advance.

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