The Army's shifting story about its response to the Capitol response continued today. A thread: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/flynn-national-guard-call-riot/2021/01/21/943854be-5c36-11eb-aaad-93988621dd28_story.html

First: You may recall that Lt. Gen. Piatt, the director of Army staff, previously issued a written denial that he ever told officials from other agencies during the assault on the Capitol that he had concerns about the visuals of National Guard responding.

“I did not make the statement or any comments similar to what was attributed to me," Piatt said Jan. 11 in response to former Capitol Police Chief Sund's on-the-record recollection of events.

Today, he said this instead:

“What we’re getting from some of the note-takers in the room is that I may have said that. I don’t recall saying ‘the optics.’ I recall saying that my best military advice is that we formulate a plan.”

That brings us to Lt. Gen. Flynn. As we first reported yesterday, he was in the room for the key call in which Capitol Police and others pleaded for National Guard help, and Army generals expressed reservations about immediately jumping in.

That came after numerous false denials otherwise.

"HE WAS NOT IN ANY OF THE MEETINGS!” one Army official even said on Jan. 12 in an email to The Post.

Expanding on his written admission yesterday, Flynn said today that he was in the room for about four minutes. Asked if spoke during that meeting, he didn't have a clear answer.

“I do not recall saying anything in the conference, but I may have, and I just don’t recall saying anything to the audience on the other end,” Flynn said.

Flynn and Piatt spoke today during a conference call arranged by public affairs. It came after the Army approached The Washington Post in the morning with an offer for an interview with Flynn and Piatt that fell through and was replaced with the phone conference.

Reporters on the call today asked very pointed questions.

I asked if Flynn or Piatt ever lied to staff about the call (they said no).

@nancyayoussef asked why the public should trust the Army's story.

@helenecooper expressed exasperation about Piatt's shifting comments.

The Army's response: They did not intend to mislead anyone.

Asked how it happened, repeatedly over a span of multiple days, they blamed the chaos of the attack, which lasted a couple of hours and ended days ago.