National Guard troops who were brought in to protect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s tenure as president found themselves sleeping in an unheated garage hours after being expelled from the Capitol on Thursday, causing an uproar among lawmakers who struggled to remove him. them.
The troops were among more than 20,000 members of the National Guard who provided security for the inauguration on Wednesday. They were relocated on Thursday afternoon to the Federal Judiciary building Thurgood Marshall, said Captain Edwin Nieves Jr., a Washington, DC, spokesman for the National Guard.
On Friday morning, the DC Guard said the soldiers were transferred back from the parking lot to the Capitol. Captain Nieves said they would take future breaks “near the Emancipation Hall”, a part of the Capitol complex.
Captain Nieves said that Guard troops were temporarily removed from the Capitol on Thursday afternoon at the request of the Capitol Police because of “increased pedestrian traffic” when Congress returned to the session. He did not specify how many soldiers were moved.
Capitol Police were not immediately available for comment on Friday morning.
Two Guardsmen, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were relocated without explanation and that they lacked adequate electricity, heating or toilets. One soldier estimated that there were 1,000 soldiers sharing a portable toilet outside the garage.
“Zero mission guidance, mission duration, nothing,” said the soldier.
The soldiers also said that their companions were breathing exhaust fumes because the garage at the Thurgood Marshall center was still in use.
Captain Nieves said the garage had heating and toilets.
Reports of the move sparked protests by lawmakers from both parties, including a minority leader in the House Kevin McCarthy, a Republican and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York. Some offered to host Guard troops in their offices.
“This is unacceptable and must be fixed,” wrote Sen. Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, on Twitter.
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On social media, some lawmakers said they were making efforts to move troops back to the Capitol.
In a tweet, Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, said he spoke to the acting Capitol Police chief about the matter.
On Tuesday, the Pentagon said 12 Guard soldiers were removed from office in Biden’s possession after officials found they had written texts and posts on social media that made threatening comments to political officials.