As we reported, people were outraged yesterday after finding out that thousands of members of the National Guard were forced to vacate the Capitol to be packed into a cold garage with one bathroom for their rest breaks while guarding the Capitol.

Many members on both sides of the aisle offered up their offices and demanded that the situation be changed. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) confirmed that the Guard was going to be allowed back into the Capitol. “Capitol Police have apologized to the Guardsmen and they will be allowed back into the complex tonight.”

The Guard was then ordered back to the Capitol Visitors Center.

Brig. Gen. Janeen Birckhead, Inauguration Task Force Commander, confirms in a statement to us that the
troops are out of the garage and back into the Capitol building as authorized
by the USCP Watch Commander. They will take their breaks near Emancipation Hall going forward.

— Lara Seligman (@laraseligman) January 22, 2021

From Fox News:

The U.S. Capitol Police put out a statement on the report saying, “The United States Capitol Police immensely appreciates the integral support of the U.S. National Guard in helping to secure the Capitol Complex leading up to, and including the Inaugural ceremony. The Department is grateful for their service and our strong partnership during this time.”

It continued, “The Department’s request for National Guard assistance included a specific number of personnel to allow the National Guard to provide, at a minimum, 12 hours of off-campus rest time for the troops, and understood that this would be carried out throughout their deployment. Recently, the Department requested that the troops’ schedules be changed so they work no more than 8-hour shifts to allow for more off-campus rest time post-Inauguration.”

So why did they toss them out then? That seems the critical question here. The initial comments from the Capitol Police don’t seem to make a lot of sense. The Capitol Police denied to Politico that they told them to leave. The National Guard said they were told to leave by the Capitol Police, indicating it was because of “increased foot traffic” in the Capitol. But there’s been increased foot traffic all the time they’ve been there and why would that make any difference? And obviously the Capitol Police did tell them to get out.

Politico reported that the first Guardsman they spoke to said it may have been a mask complaint against the National Guard. The National Guard said everyone of the Guard has been instructed to wear their masks.

But Breitbart is reporting that this may all have occurred because Democratic Rep. Bill Keating (D-MA) allegedly saw a Guard member without a mask in a cafe in the building. That when Keating said something about masks being required the Guard member said “I appreciate my freedom.” According to Breitbart’s “source,” they’re now looking for that Guard member. Now we will note that will this tailors with the Politico initial story, Breitbart is the only one reporting this so far, so we put out caveat in there about “source” reporting.

But if they got tossed out because of a Democratic complaint because someone had a mask off in a cafe (as in ‘place where people eat’), that’s just ridiculous and even more ridiculous if it’s true they’re trying to hunt down the poor guy.

So who is getting fired over the decision to move our national gaurd troops to a freezing parking garage with one outlet and once bathroom???

We want to know who made that call.

— Carl Higbie (@CarlHigbie) January 22, 2021

So there needs to be a little shake out as to why this all happened and at this point there needs to be a justification as to why they are still being keep at the Capitol at all.

Commander in Chief: Democrat
Speaker of House: Democrat
Majority Leader (you): Democrat

That narrow things down a bit? https://t.co/DaCqJeeQXY

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) January 22, 2021