Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday morning announced that he has ordered back home Florida National Guard troops sent to Washington, D.C., to secure the inauguration of President Joe Biden, which took place on Wednesday.
DeSantis called the “mission” in D.C. “half-cocked” and blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for treating troops like her “servants.”
“[Governor Ron DeSantis] says he ordered the National Guard to come home from the U.S. Capitol because ‘they’re not Nancy Pelosi’s servants’ and ‘this is a half-cocked mission at this point and I think the appropriate thing is to bring them home,'” reported Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau Chief Mary Ellen Klas.
.@GovRonDeSantis says he ordered the National Guard to come home from the U.S. Capitol because "they're not Nancy Pelosi's servants" and "this is a half-cocked mission at this point and I think the appropriate thing is to bring them home."
— Mary Ellen Klas (@MaryEllenKlas) January 22, 2021
A stunning 25,000 troops from across the nation were ordered to D.C. to secure the inauguration of Biden.
As noted by The Daily Wire, disturbing photographs circulated Thursday evening revealed our National Guard troops sleeping in cold parking garages.
“Thousands of National Guardsmen were forced to vacate congressional grounds on Thursday and have been photographed having to sleep in parking garages while temperatures in the nation’s capital were set to dip down to near-freezing temperatures,” The Daily Wire reported. “The photos of the living conditions that the National Guardsmen were forced to endure come after Democrats took complete control of the federal government this week following Joe Biden being sworn in as the nation’s 46th president.”
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott (TX) reacted quickly to the report, too, ordering on Thursday night that members of the Texas National Guard return from D.C. back to Texas, The Daily Wire reported.
“I have instructed General Norris to order the return of the Texas National Guard to our state,” Abbott said on Twitter.
Earlier in the week, the Abbott ripped into the so-called “loyalty” screening of the tens of thousands of National Guards troops sent to D.C. for the inauguration.
Linking to a piece from The Washington Post concerning the excess screening of 25,000 National Guard troops, Abbott posted: “This is the most offensive thing I’ve ever heard. No one should ever question the loyalty or professionalism of the Texas National Guard.”
Notably, service members are already screened for ties to extremism or other potential flags. Thus, the latest screenings seem to be excessive and perhaps linked to suspicion directed at supporters of President Donald Trump after the Capitol riot. The Associated Press in a Monday report on the screening, for example, named supporters of the president as potential threats to a Biden inauguration.
“No one should ever question the loyalty or professionalism of the Texas National Guard,” the governor said via Twitter on Monday. “I authorized more than 1,000 to go to DC. I’ll never do it again if they are disrespected like this.”
This is the most offensive thing I've ever heard.
No one should ever question the loyalty or professionalism of the Texas National Guard. @TexasGuard
I authorized more than 1,000 to go to DC.
I'll never do it again if they are disrespected like this.https://t.co/STZDMz7PGm
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 19, 2021