National Guardsmen in the Capitol

A CBS 60 Minutes Interview with Acting United States Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cucinelli

TRANSCIPT taken from Securing the Capitol for the Biden-Harris Inauguration:

Scott Pelley: Who does the National Guard answer to?

Ken Cuccinelli: They answer through DOD. They can have–

Scott Pelley: To the president?

Ken Cuccinelli: That’s the chain of command. The whole executive–

Scott Pelley: If he orders them to stand–down–will they stand down?

Ken Cuccinelli: Well, you’re gonna have to ask them, but that’s unimaginable.

Scott Pelley: If the president orders DHS to stand down, will you stand down?

Ken Cuccinelli: We’re gonna complete our jobs. There’s not– there’s not a stand down. We have a statutory mission we’re going to perform under all circumstances. And I think that hypothetical is– not going to happen. It’s unimaginable.

Muriel Bowser: It is. But it is necessary. And I’m glad that it happened. But we, as Americans, have to stop thinking– that we can take for granted that every American has pledged his allegiance to the Constitution. What we saw in plain view, were too many Americans who have pledged allegiance to Donald Trump.

Scott Pelley: The military has taken the decision to give combat weapons to the National Guardsmen who will be providing security for the inauguration. Are you glad about that, or are you worried about it?

Muriel Bowser: It’s a place in our history that I’m sad that we’ve come to. American troops should not have to be armed against their fellow Americans. But what we saw was an unprecedented attack on our democracy, in the cradle of that democracy.

The Secret Service is in charge of what the government calls a national special security event — a designation for high-risk gatherings, for example the Super Bowl after 9/11 and political conventions.

Ken Cuccinelli: The Secret Service leads it, but there are, available to them, 10,000 to 20,000 security personnel.

Ken Cuccinelli is acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security which oversees the Secret Service. He told us inauguration security planning has been going on eight months.

Scott Pelley: On social media, the terrorists seem to see the attack on the Capitol as a win. And I wonder if you’re picking up intelligence that they’re emboldened by that.

Ken Cuccinelli: There is a lot more online chatter, if you will, that has come up since January 6th. But I would point out that a lot of that chatter isn’t capital– nation’s capital focused, it’s more general across the country.

Ken Cuccinelli: Because the professionals we have in law enforcement in the federal government, in the Secret Service and across the Department of Homeland Security and beyond, DOJ and all the rest that we work with, are lifelong, career professionals. That’s 99.9% of the people creating and executing the plans to ensure the safety of incoming President-elect Biden and none of them are going anywhere.

Scott Pelley: But there’s also the dilemma that the security is commanded by President Trump who encouraged the attack on the Capitol and has relentlessly worked to stop the inauguration of Joe Biden.

Scott Pelley: A lot of things are unimaginable in Washington these days. And we don’t have a very good track record taking the president’s word on things, so–

Ken Cuccinelli: In the Department of Homeland Security–

Scott Pelley: My– my point is are you going to– are you gonna follow–

Ken Cuccinelli: –you know, we’re–

Scott Pelley: –the president or are you gonna follow the Constitution–

Ken Cuccinelli: We all swore an–

Scott Pelley: –in your role now?

Ken Cuccinelli: We all swore an oath to the Constitution. That is first and foremost. And we take Homeland Security very, very seriously. We deal with a lot of curveballs of all kinds. And yet, we march forward to keep the American people as safe as we possibly can.

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/joe-biden-presidential-inauguration-60-minutes-2021-01-17/