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WASHINGTON – President Biden phoned the National Guard bureau chief on Friday to express dismay after troops deployed to protect his inauguration were ordered a day earlier to rest in an unheated garage after being evicted from the Capitol, administration officials said.
Photographs of dozens of guards resting in parking lots created a public relations debacle in the early days of Mr Biden’s tenure, with some governors demanding that their states’ troops be sent home.
During a phone call with General Daniel R. Hokanson, the head of the National Guard bureau, Mr. Biden asked what he could do about the situation, officials said. The two men also spoke of Mr. Biden’s personal connection to the Guard; Mr. Biden’s son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015, served as a major in the Delaware National Guard.
Officials said the White House may also organize an appeal with state officials to thank them for their state’s contributions to deploying more than 25,000 National Guard members to the nation’s capital to provide security before and during Wednesday’s inauguration.
Early Friday morning, the DC National Guard said the soldiers had been driven back to the Capitol from the parking lot. Guard officials said troops were temporarily moved out of Capitol Hill Thursday afternoon at the request of Capitol Police due to increased foot traffic as Congress returned to session.
But photographs of soldiers resting on the parking lot floor, coupled with reports that they had access to scarce toilets and were breathing car exhaust fumes, sparked public outcry.
The scene contrasted starkly with photographs taken of Guard soldiers sleeping on the ground or in cradles inside the Capitol just before Mr Biden’s inauguration, which led to a surge of support for the soldiers.
The number of Guard soldiers mobilized to provide security for the inauguration rose sharply after the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill, reaching 15,000 on January 12 and finally surpassing 20,000 on January 20. A spokesperson for the Bureau of the National Guard said Thursday that the DC Guard was responsible for their accommodation.
A joint statement from the National Guard Office and Capitol Police released Friday afternoon did not explain why soldiers were sent to a parking lot, but suggested it would not happen again.
The statement by Major Matthew Murphy, a spokesperson for the National Guard, said the two organizations were coordinating their efforts to ensure that members of the Guard stationed on Capitol Hill were given “appropriate spaces in Congress buildings” to “duty breaks”.
“Soldiers who are not on duty are housed in hotel rooms or other comfortable accommodation,” said Major Murphy.
About 19,000 troops deployed in Washington have started packing and returning to their home countries, a process that will take about five to ten days, officials said.
The remaining troops – about 7,000 of them – are expected to stay in Washington at least until the end of January to provide support to federal agencies and guard against the possibility of another riot at the Capitol.
As images of the parking lot spread across social media Thursday afternoon, lawmakers on both sides quickly condemned the situation and vowed to bring the soldiers back to Capitol Hill. Some have offered to let the Guards take breaks in their private Senate and House offices.
With the troops safely back on Capitol Hill Friday morning, several lawmakers – including Senators Chuck Schumer of New York, the Majority Leader, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the senior Republican – were keen to meet with soldiers on Friday. .
“I have told those in charge of Capitol Hill security that this can never happen again and I promise every member of the National Guard that it will not happen again,” Schumer said in a delivered speech.
“It breaks your heart,” Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota told reporters. “I mean, these are people who are here to serve the country, protect us, protect our freedom and our democracy and there is absolutely no excuse for that.
In a speech to the Senate, Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the situation was the result of a “uniformed police officer who issued an order without authorization or passing through the chain of commanders. “
“It’s not a blame game,” he added. “But I want to know what happened to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Ahead of a meeting with Kentucky National Guard troops, McConnell called for finding “the right balance between the unacceptable failures of three weeks ago and the extraordinary short-term measures that have been put in place since. And in the meantime, we need to make sure that we take care of the men and women who care for us.
After 2 p.m. on Friday, First Lady Jill Biden visited the Guard soldiers at the Capitol and gave them a basket of chocolate chip cookies. Dr Biden thanked them for protecting her family, which she said was a National Guard family.
“The National Guard will always hold a special place in the hearts of all Bidens,” said Dr Biden, who took a group photo with some of the soldiers before returning to the White House.
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