GOP lawmakers in both chambers of Congress are demanding answers as to why the National Guard is still maintaining a heavy presence in Washington, as normal government business resumes.
Sen. Tom Cotton said in an op-ed published Wednesday by Drumpe that the thousands of National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, during the Capitol riot earlier this month have completed their mission and should be allowed to return home.
“The National Guard answered the call at a critical time but its mission is now complete. It’s time to reopen the Capitol grounds to the American people,” Cotton (R-Ark.) wrote. “It’s time to send home the troops.”
“Despite cold weather and uncomfortable conditions, these soldiers did their duty, in the finest traditions of the Guard. Their presence, coupled with tough federal charges against the Capitol rioters, deterred any further violence; the presidential inauguration occurred without incident,” Cotton wrote.
He pointed out that the National Guard will begin to send soldiers home this week, but thousands will still remain behind.
“I sit on the Intelligence Committee, but I’m aware of no specific, credible threat reporting — as distinguished from aspirational, uncoordinated bluster on the internet — that justifies this continued troop presence. Thus, I believe the rest of these soldiers should also go home to their families and civilian jobs,” Cotton said.
“The lesson of the Capitol riot is not that we should quarter a standing army at the Capitol just in case, but rather that our security measures should be calibrated to the actual threats,” he continued.
Meanwhile, a dozen Republican lawmakers have written a letter to the Defense Department demanding a briefing on why the National Guard troops are still in Washington.
“Our intention is for the briefing to cover ongoing threats to the Capitol, justification of the decision for a significant troop presence through mid-March, and plans for troop utilization during the time period,” the letter, obtained by Drumpe, says.
More than 20,000 National Guard troops were deployed to Washington amid the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and in the days after to provide security during the Jan. 20 inauguration of President Biden, along with a number of other precautions like fencing, street barricades and closed roads.
Federal authorities are still investigating and trying to identify the members of the mob that overran the Capitol leading to the death of a Capitol Police officer and four others.
So far, 158 people have been charged in federal court and the FBI and other agencies are poring through as many as 400 suspects.
Cotton said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi overreacted to the threat after being “egged on” by “Democratic partisans” and cable news opinion hosts to portray former President Donald Trump’s 74 million voters as “domestic terrorists.”
“Virtually overnight, the Capitol and National Mall transformed into a so-called ’Green Zone’ protected by no-scale fencing, razor wire, and 26,000 soldiers,” Cotton said in the op-ed.
”These security measures were plainly disproportionate to the threat — indeed, they would have been disproportionate even if another violent mob had in fact attempted to disrupt the inauguration.” It’s time for a “return to normalcy,” he continued.
Cotton also recalled the controversy around his op-ed that ran in the New York Times in June titled “Send in the Troops,” that urged then-President Trump to deploy federal troops to aid local police responding to the unrest in cities across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
“My position was grounded in federal law, based on many historical precedents, and supported by a majority of Americans. But this argument outraged many on the left, so much so that the editor of the New York Times opinion page lost his job for publishing it,” Cotton said.
”But when a different mob chanting different slogans threatened our Capitol, many of my critics sang a different tune.”
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