“Pence was not the ranking authority of anything.”
Oh, as President of the Senate he has some authority, but it is limited to very specific acts.
In the case of Washington, D.C., Trump would be CIC over the D.C. Guard (though historically a president would hand over direct control to the Commandant of the NG). But calling up the D.C. Guard is not solely reserved to POTUS (though once called up POTUS would — as I mentioned above — be the CIC).
But, from what I am now hearing Pence wasn’t involved at all with anything to do with the Guard, but that Pelosi and the Dem mayor called for it, and Guard units from Virginia and Maryland were requested by Pelosi and the mayor, as well; and the respective governors complied, and coordinated specifically with Pelosi, Schumer, and the mayor, apparently excluding any Republican officials.
Sounds a lot like a cluster f**k, anyway.
SecDef has control of the Guard, per an EO.