DC's delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton on Capitol barriers: Congress ‘afraid of its shadow’

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Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said on Monday morning that Congress is "afraid of its shadow" after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as she panned the idea of a permanent fence or military presence around Capitol Hill. 

Norton, the Democratic non-voting congressional delegate for Washington, D.C., made the comments in an interview on WMAL's "Mornings on the Mall" radio show. She highlighted the fact there was no effort to breach the Capitol on March 4 despite warnings of a potential attack by QAnon conspiracy theorists that day. 

"As you may have heard on March the 4th, the House left early because of a threat for March 4. You will note that nothing happened on March 4. Now we have a Congress afraid of its shadow," she said. 

"Fortunately, we're going to have recommendations as you indicated as to how to guard the Capitol," Norton continued. "I'm almost certain that will involve no permanent fencing around the Capitol as the acting police chief had recommended. She had recommended that there be permanent fencing."

Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of Columbia delegate to the House of Representatives, speaks during a press conference to mark the anniversary of the House passage of the 19th Amendment and women's right to vote, on Capitol Hill May 21, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

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The draft report on security recommendations from retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, which was obtained by Fox News last week before its final publication Monday, suggested "a mobile fencing option that is easily erected and deconstructed and an integrated, retractable fencing system in the long term to secure both the Capitol and office buildings."

The report said that "solution could enable an open campus while giving security forces better options to protect the complex and its members should a threat develop."

Norton Monday on WMAL suggested that Congress is overreacting to the spectacular security failures of Jan. 6 and that there are ways to keep the Capitol and members of Congress safe without militarizing Capitol Hill. 

"There are all kinds of state-of-the-art ways to protect the Capitol," she said. "The Capitol Police didn't do their job on January the 6th. On Jan. 6 there was plenty of notice from Trump that people would be coming to the Hill. Instead of calling on the dozen or so federal police forces available to the Capitol Police, the Capitol was almost unguarded."

Norton added: "I don't think there is the kind of threat that could keep us away from the Capitol, razor wire on the Capitol or fencing on the Capitol... That's why Congress has got to step in itself so that... we don't militarize our Capitol."

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Norton further noted that as the United States is ceasing construction of a wall on the border with Mexico, the seat of its government in Washington, D.C., is surrounded by a fence. 

"If the United States of Americans has to have troops to defend its Capitol then how can it defend its border?" Norton asked. "The president is already pulling, stopping the fencing on the border and yet we're trying to fence in our Capitol. That can't be and I believe that when this announcement is made we will see that they do not dare call for permanent fencing."

Norton did say a National Guard unit stationed near the Capitol to react in case of emergency is "not something I would object to at least at the moment" because "what it amounts to is a gradual pulling back" of the militarization directly on Capitol Hill. She said that such a unit should not be stationed on Capitol grounds. 

The Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol came as Congress was in the process of certifying the results of the presidential election during a joint session, presided over by former Vice President Pence. 

Former President Donald Trump that morning held a large rally at which he encouraged his followers to march to the Capitol "peacefully and patriotically." Critics of the former president said he bears responsibility for the pro-Trump mob that violently breached the building, forcing Pence and hundreds of lawmakers into hiding. Some in the mob chanted "hang Mike Pence," because Pence refused to reject the Electoral College slates from some states. 

Trump was eventually impeached by the House of Representatives over the events of Jan. 6 for inciting an insurrection but House Democrats could not secure his conviction in the Senate. 

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Republicans have meanwhile criticized Honoré over comments he's made about Republicans, Trump supporters and the Capitol Police. 

"General Honore's notorious partisan bias calls into question the rationality of appointing him to lead such an important security review," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Sunday. "It also raises the unacceptable possibility that Speaker Pelosi desired a certain result: turning the Capitol into a fortress."

Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats have both expressed a desire to form a 1/6 commission based on the 9/11 Commission, as a way to generate nonpartisan findings about how to prevent the events of Jan. 6 from happening again. But they've differed on what the partisan makeup of the commission should be, apparently stalling progress on negotiations. 

Fox News' Jennifer Griffin, Lucas Tomlinson and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.