Outraged Guv DeSantis calls National Guard home after shabby treatment in DC: ‘They are not Pelosi’s servants’
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has ordered more than 600 Florida National Guard soldiers to return home from Washington DC, following reports that troops were being forced out of the Capitol and into parking garages.
On Thursday, January 21, hundreds of National Guard members were forced from the U.S. Capitol and into a parking garage. The abrupt transfer came with no explanation as per two soldiers who spoke to The Washington Post. As per the report, the Capitol Police moved the Guard members off the grounds. However, acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman, said in a statement on Friday, January 22 that “police did not instruct the National Guard to vacate the Capitol Building facilities.”
The troops getting relocated to the parking garage put them in close quarters with moving cars and exhaust fumes. There were few toilets and troops could potentially get infected with the coronavirus, a soldier said. Nearly 26,000 National Guard members arrived after the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol to help secure the presidential inauguration.
“I’ve never in my entire career felt like I’ve been booted onto the curb and told, ‘Figure it out on your own’,” one soldier, who said he had served in Iraq and Afghanistan, told the Post. DeSantis slammed Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi over the treatment of soldiers during an appearance on ‘Fox & Friends’. Calling the move a “half-cocked mission at this point”, he said, “They are soldiers. They are not Nancy Pelosi’s servants.”
But DeSantis wasn’t the only one who criticized the move. Top lawmakers from both parties took to Twitter to criticize the Capitol Police for ordering troops to vacate Capitol buildings. They demanded the situation be remedied. Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, who lost both her legs in combat, wrote in a tweet, “I am demanding answers ASAP. They can use my office.”
By late January 21 night, following the outrage, the troops were allowed back into the Capitol. “I’ve ordered the immediate return of all New Hampshire National Guard from Washington DC. They did an outstanding job serving our nation’s capital in a time of strife and should be graciously praised, not subject to substandard conditions,” New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu said.
“I have told those who run the security of the Capitol that it can never happen again, and I pledge to every National Guard member that it will not happen again,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer said from the Senate floor.
Aside from taking a dig at Pelosi, DeSantis also took issue with reports that the FBI was vetting soldiers for extremist political beliefs ahead of Biden’s inauguration on ‘Fox & Friends’. He said, “[In] Florida, we did not let them go into their political beliefs. I thought that was totally inappropriate. I thought it was very disrespectful for people who are clearly patriots.”
A dozen members of the National Guard were removed from inauguration duty on January 20, as the federal government screened troops involved for security concerns. The troops include at least two with possible sympathies for anti-government groups. “These are vetting efforts that identify any questionable behavior in the past, or any potential link to questionable behavior not just related to extremism,” said Jonathan Rath Hoffman, chief Pentagon spokesman, adding that the Defense Department is proactively removing people “out of an abundance of caution.”