After the Capitol riots on January 6th, the National Guard was called in to blanket Washington, D.C. to secure the city in order to protect lawmakers and the incoming Biden-Harris administration in advance of Inauguration Day.

But a week after Joe Biden’s inauguration, the troops are still there – and reportedly will be through at least mid-March.

That has Republican lawmakers demanding answers as to why thousands of National Guard troops are still fortressing the city, and why the city can’t return to some sense of normalcy instead of looking and feeling like a warzone.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) appeared on Tucker Carlson’s program on Fox News last night to discuss the National Guard’s continued presence in D.C. Apparently mindful that his words could be used against him in this toxic political climate where everything a Republican says can be misconstrued as “incitement” or “stoking conspiracy theories”, Kennedy – noting he wasn’t accusing anyone of anything – speculated on what “a cynic might think” about the National Guard being kept in D.C. beyond Inauguration Day and for at least the next two months:

If you ask our Democratic leadership, which is in charge, they don’t tell you, well, we have all this here to keep you safe.

I’m a pretty simple guy, Tucker. I like breakfast food and straight answers. And I’m not accusing anybody of anything. But Washington, D.C. being Washington, D.C., a cynic might think there’s a political angle here. A cynical person might surmise that the Democratic leadership with the news media is trying to send a message to the American people and that message might be the Republicans couldn’t keep you safe, but we, the Democrats can.”

Kennedy then further speculated that the “second message” that the cynic might see is that the “uber-elites” in Washington, D.C. might be trying to send the message that they are “very important people”, “very virtuous”, and that you “need to be very, very afraid of anybody who didn’t vote for Joe Biden and that’s why we need to call in the National Guard.”

Watch the two-part segment between Carlson and Kennedy below:

The latest from @SenJohnKennedy: "Parts of [Capitol Hill] look like a scene from Mad Max….I'm a pretty simple guy, Tucker. I like breakfast food and straight answers. And I'm not accusing anybody of anything, but…a cynic might think there's a political angle here." pic.twitter.com/Edd6CvXE2s

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 27, 2021

More from @SenJohnKennedy, a great American, calling out the elites using Jan. 6 and image of troops to silence non-Biden voters: "I probably just blew any chance I ever had of having Katie Couric be a friend of mine on Facebook, but I think that's a legitimate point of view." pic.twitter.com/UaNbcPlJNH

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 27, 2021

Sen. Tom Cotton (AR) is another high-profile Republican who is calling on Democratic leaders to provide an explanation for the National Guard remaining in D.C., as my colleague Brandon Morse reported earlier. In a piece published by Fox News, Cotton stated that “though access to the Capitol will remain limited for a while longer because of the pandemic, it should not become a fortress because of security fears” and said that “with the inauguration behind us, the Capitol should return to normalcy.”

Related: Tucker Carlson Triggers CNN by Pointing Out Their COVID Death Tracker Now Frequently Goes Missing