Ex-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund reflects on 1/6, Hamlin wakes up: 5 things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Ex-U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund reflects on January 6

Former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund looks back on the Jan. 6 attack and talks about his new book, “Courage Under Fire: Under Siege And Outnumbered 58 TO 1 On January 6.” Plus, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy fails to rise as speaker on the 11th ballot, Tech radio host and columnist Kim Komando tells you what to know about your data privacy, USA TODAY Money and Personal Finance Reporter Medora Lee talks about forgotten 401(k)s, and Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin wakes up.

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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Friday, the 6th of January, 2023. Today, former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund two years after the January 6th riot. Plus, there's still no Speaker of the House, and we look at how much tech companies actually know about your data.

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Courage Under Fire: Under Siege and Outnumbered 58 to 1 on January 6. That's the gripping personal account by former United States Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund that takes readers inside the events leading up to the attack on the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. Producer PJ Elliott got a chance to speak to former Chief Sund about his book two years after the riot.

PJ Elliott:

Chief Sund, I want to thank you for your time in joining 5 Things today.

Steven Sund:

My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

PJ Elliott:

Let's start with this, why did you write your book Courage Under Fire?

Steven Sund:

I wrote my book because when January 6th happened and I began to find out what the truth behind why we appeared to be so ill prepared, I first went and wrote a eight-page letter to Congress. I got zero responses talking about the issues that I saw that led up to the problems with January 6th. People don't realize when I'm talking about in the book, when they had the combined Senate hearing, they initially didn't want to call me. They didn't want myself, Stinger or Irving to testify, and I actually had to go to the Rules Committee and request to testify and actually push, saying, "I will come in person." And I was. I was the only person there in person.

And still it's not getting out. Went to "60 Minutes." But needless to say, I'm worried something like this could happen again. I think my men and women did a phenomenal job. Law enforcement saved the day that day, but there's critical things that are broken that need to be fixed.

PJ Elliott:

What do you want people to know about what happened on January 6th?

Steven Sund:

Well, first of all, I want them just to understand a little bit about the Capitol Police. Capitol Police is a very unique law enforcement agency. We're the only law enforcement agency of the legislative branch. And what people don't realize is there's a oversight structure that's set up over the Capitol Police that's a recipe for disaster. It's all politically aligned. I've got a four-member Capitol Police board. I'm the fourth member. That's made up of the Sergeant at Arms of the House, Sergeant at Arms of the Senate and the Architect of the Capitol. Three politically appointed people who are the voting members. I have no vote and I'm not politically appointed. So they report to their respective leadership and push their policies.

Then I have an oversight committee that's all politically aligned to the staff, to their respective political parties. That's a recipe for disaster. I'm the only chief in the United States that has a federal law, think about this, that prevents me from calling in resources before an event like January 6th. On January 3rd, I went and requested the National Guard, but this federal law required that I go to the Capitol Police Board, which denied me.

Then on January 6th, while we're under attack, I still have to go and request permission to call in federal resources because, when a law enforcement agency's overrun and I dial 911, I'm calling the National Guard. 71 minutes I had to wait while my men and women fought very hard on the West Front. You saw all that on national TV. 71 minutes, only then to find out the National Guard - who was positioned less than a half mile away from the Capitol with all their gear, 150 of them - wouldn't move for three and a half hours to help me.

PJ Elliott:

Why do you think that is? Why do you think that you were denied those resources?

Steven Sund:

Well, the initial denial on January 3rd from Paul Irving was because of the look, the optics, so he said, of the National Guard on the Hill. I think that goes back to the concern that Speaker Pelosi talked about the look of federal officers and National Guard on the city streets during the 2020 riots. She referred to them as stormtroopers. I believe there was a lot of reluctance for her to have National Guard deployed on Capitol Hill, and I was only looking for unarmed National Guard. And on the day of the event, Paul Irving could have given me direct approval for National Guard, but he didn't. He wanted to run it up the chain and that took 71 agonizing minutes.

PJ Elliott:

So now I want to ask you about the days leading up to January 6th. Were you aware that there was the potential for an attack on the Capitol of this magnitude?

Steven Sund:

Absolutely not. I wasn't aware, the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, Robert Contee wasn't aware. What's interesting is all the research that I've done since January 6th, and you'll find there's significant intelligence that's listed in the book, you find that the intelligence community had some significant intelligence talking about a coordinated attack on the Capitol. You find that the military, which makes up nine of the 18 intelligence community agencies, had such significant concerns on January 3rd and 4th, they talked about locking down Washington DC and revoking the permits on Capitol Hill. You know who signs those permits on Capitol Hill? I do. You know who didn't get notified of the intelligence? They didn't notify me and left me out there, my men and women unprepared.

PJ Elliott:

Is the Capitol more secure now than it was two years ago?

Steven Sund:

So the chief that's there now, he's a very knowledgeable chief. He's working on some of the issues that he can, like equipment. I've been talking about and I talk about the equipment. I tried to get the officers in there and the budget constraints I faced. His budget has been almost doubled compared to what I had. So he has all the money to get it done. Training still, he's still having difficulty getting some people trained.

What I'm concerned about is the overall structure, the politically aligned security structure that oversees it is still there. I'm still worried that the National Guard won't follow their directives for defense support for civil authorities and fail to support law enforcement if they need help again.

PJ Elliott:

The book is Courage Under Fire: Under Siege and Outnumbered 58 to 1 on January 6, and is out now. Chief Sund, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. It was great talking to you.

Steven Sund:

I certainly appreciate it, PJ. You take care

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Taylor Wilson:

Well, another day and still no speaker of the House. History was made yesterday when lawmakers failed to elect GOP leader Kevin McCarthy as speaker on the 11th ballot, the most ballots cast in the procedure since before the Civil War. The House adjourned again last night until noon today.

McCarthy told reporters yesterday, "It's not how you start, it's how you finish." But what that finish looks like is still unclear. A core of some 20 Republicans continue to say they'll oppose him, though a deal might still be struck to get their support in exchange for significant concessions. McCarthy is 18 votes off the number needed for the speakership, receiving 200 votes on the most recent ballot, the same as the previous one. The next closest GOP congressman was Byron Donalds with 12 votes. All 212 Democrats backed Hakeem Jeffries again, but that's not enough for him to win.

Meanwhile, the House remains essentially unable to function. Members elect still not sworn in, cannot form committees, conduct hearings, or demand federal agencies answer their requests for assistance.

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How much do tech companies know about you? More than you can imagine. But there are some things you can do to help protect your data privacy. For more on that, I'm now joined by syndicated radio host and columnist for USA TODAY and other outlets, Kim Komando. Kim, welcome to 5 Things, and thanks for coming on.

Kim Komando:

Oh, anytime, Taylor. What's going on?

Taylor Wilson:

I just read about a huge data breach at Twitter where 200 million user email addresses were leaked because of a hack. What should users on Twitter know, Kim?

Kim Komando:

Let me ask you. How much do you think, on the dark web, that you could buy 200 million Twitter users' email addresses? How much do you think that would cost?

Taylor Wilson:

God, the entire... Millions. I would assume.

Kim Komando:

$2.

Taylor Wilson:

What?

Kim Komando:

What? Right? Isn't that crazy? Obviously somebody in the hacker community, they don't like Elon Musk to put out 200 million email addresses, which means if you have a Twitter account, I know this is on a side note, just make sure that you watch out for any phishing scams because that's probably what they're going to be used for. You should actually have a different email address for all your social media, but here nor there.

As far as with Twitter, what did they track? Your tweets, your retweets, the links that you click on, your location, your device internet connection, anything that you do on and off the platform. And by the way, they keep your tweets forever, even if you do buy that little blue check mark.

Taylor Wilson:

I saw a stat this week that says one in three people in the US have an iPhone, maybe even more than that. So it seems like a pretty important issue to know what kind of data Apple is taking from us. What do they know about us, Kim, and how can we find out about what Apple knows?

Kim Komando:

Well, Apple is an interesting company because they always come out and say, "We protect your privacy." They actually have something called app tracking transparency. This is Apple's way of letting anybody who has an iPhone or used as an iOS device to decide which apps can access what type of data. And so Apple still collects this massive amount of data. They have your Apple ID details, data that's stored in your photos and your emails, anything that you've purchased on iTunes, the App Store, the Apple Store, and you can download a copy of all your personal data. And I've done this myself. Keep in mind that it can take up to a week, maybe even longer for you to get your data, but you go to privacy.apple.com, and then once you're there, there's a big button that says, request a copy of your data. Just go ahead and complete all the boxes, check all the boxes, and then you'll get this report of all your data.

Taylor Wilson:

So how about Google? This is obviously the search engine of choice for so many.

Kim Komando:

Oh gosh, yes.

Taylor Wilson:

But what are we giving up every time we use this, Kim?

Kim Komando:

You're giving up everything. With Google, it really rings true. If it's free, then you are the product, and everything that Google gives us is what? Free, right? So again, you are the product. Google tracks a lot of things. Of course, your search terms that you've entered, the websites that you visit, the ads that you click on. They may also collect probably your location, what device you're using, what type of internet connection you have, maybe your activities and your interests both on and off the platform. And again, doing this to personalize all of that. If you do go to myactivity.google.com, it's a little fascinating for you to do this because Google will show you in one of these boxes what they think about you.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Kim Komando, fantastic insight on data privacy in the world of tech. Thank you so much for coming on.

Kim Komando:

Oh, any time.

Taylor Wilson:

Kim also gave me some tips on how you can generally keep your data safe. First, consider using a virtual private network or VPN to mask your IP address. Second, you might want to use a different search engine than Google. Brave.com is one option or DuckDuckGo. Third, be more selective about which apps you download and read the fine print on what data an app will collect. And finally, limit the amount of personal information you share online.

You can find out more about what data companies might have on you with some links in today's show description. And for more from Kim on how technology has transformed your life, tune in to her daily podcast, Kim Komando Today, wherever you get your pods.

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If you quit a job, got fired, or were let go over the past few years during the pandemic, you may own one of the millions of forgotten 401(k)s. Producer PJ Elliott spoke with USA TODAY Money and Personal Finance Reporter Medora Lee to find out how much unclaimed money is sitting out there and how you can find out if any of it is yours.

PJ Elliott:

Medora, thank you so much for joining the podcast.

Medora Lee:

Thanks for having me.

PJ Elliott:

So we saw a ton of Americans switch jobs during the great resignation. You wrote that people, while looking for higher paying jobs, left a lot on the table by not taking their 401(k)s with them. How much are we talking that was left behind?

Medora Lee:

So as of May 2021, there were 24.3 million forgotten 401(k)s accounts holding about $1.35 trillion in assets. And every year they estimate about 2.8 million more left behind just because people leave their jobs, they're so excited to start a new job, and there are a lot of emotions involved either looking for a job and finding a new job. And there's so much involved in starting a new job and learning, that they forget sometimes that they need to finish up at their old job and bring along their retirement funds.

PJ Elliott:

So what happens to those forgotten 401(k)s? They just sit there and accrue nothing and just go unclaimed?

Medora Lee:

So there was a law that was passed in 2001 that allowed companies to roll over these forgotten accounts. They'll "terminate" these accounts and they'll roll them over into basically safe harbor IRAs. And these are just the small ones that have balances between $1,000 and $5,000. And so they roll them over into these IRAs and you don't lose it forever, but they're basically sitting in IRAs in cash or money market accounts. And because the fees are usually higher than the returns that you can get on cash or money market accounts, you start to actually lose money.

PJ Elliott:

Is there a way for people to find out if they have sitting money somewhere?

Medora Lee:

Well, right now it's pretty complicated to find that money. You have to kind of think, oh, I had this job three jobs ago or two jobs ago. What you're going to have to do is you're going to have to research that company and locate their HR department and find out what your balances are and how you can get access to that money. The good news is that once you find the HR department, they should have ready access with all that information for you and then you can contact the plan administrator and get that money moved.

But there is good news on the horizon. Later this year, Vanguard and Fidelity are joining up with some other companies and they're starting a program called Auto Portability. If they actually hold the records for your 401(k) plan, they can see who has forgotten their 401(k)s, and periodically they'll do a search for you to try to find you. And if they find you, they'll let you know that they're holding this money for you.

PJ Elliott:

Medora, thank you so much. Really appreciate the time.

Medora Lee:

Well, thank you very much for having me, and hopefully everyone will be reunited soon with their lost retirement funds.

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Taylor Wilson:

Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin continues to make progress after going into cardiac arrest during Monday's game against the Cincinnati Bengals. He woke up in the intensive care unit Wednesday night after being sedated, and his first question, in writing was, "Who won the game?" His doctor at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center said, "You won the game of life."

Hamlin remains in critical condition as of early this morning with a breathing tube and he can't speak yet, but his doctor said his neurologic condition remains intact. Doctors credited members of the Bills' medical staff for immediately recognizing Hamlin's condition when he did not register a pulse, and for responding appropriately with CPR and a defibrillator.

Hamlin still has a long road to go, including breathing on his own before he can be discharged. Doctors say there's no timetable for his recovery and that it's too early to even discuss whether he can play football again.

As for the Monday night game that was suspended when he collapsed, the NFL has announced that it will not be rescheduled and both teams will finish the season with one fewer game played than every other team in the league.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us every morning right here, wherever you're listening right now. And I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ex-Capitol Police Chief releases book, Hamlin wakes up: 5 Things podcast