Rachel Maddow highlights National Guard mystery: Why did the Pentagon go to Pence, not Trump?

On MSNBC Wednesday, Rachel Maddow focused on a key point from new reporting: That the Pentagon went to Vice President Mike Pence, rather than President Donald Trump, before sending the National Guard to keep order amid violent pro-Trump protests in Washington, D.C.

"The decision to activate the entire D.C. National Guard — about 1,100 troops in the D.C. National Guard — was made after consultation with Vice President Mike Pence," said Maddow. "The vice president is a lot of things in our constitutional system, but not the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces."

"Why is the vice president being consulted? We don't know," said Maddow. "What was the president's input into that decision? We don't know. Now it seems the vice president has consulted with Congress in terms of restarting the process of certifying the election win of President-elect Biden. It looks like they are committing to being there tonight."

Watch below: