The Guard will now be allowed to rest in the US Capitol Visitor Center, the guardsman said.
The change comes after thousands of National Guardsmen were moved to a parking garage after they were told they could no longer use space within the US Capitol Complex, including areas like the cafeteria of a Senate office building, as a rest area, multiple Guardsmen told CNN.
Prior to Thursday morning, several areas throughout the Capitol Complex were designated as authorized rest areas where members of the Guard could take breaks from their shifts protecting Capitol. By Thursday morning, all those areas had been cleared out and their designations removed, the Guardsmen said.
Updated: 10:33 AM EST Jan 22, 2021 WXII12.com Web Staff North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn showed his appreciation for the U.S. National Guard units stationed at the U.S. Capitol by delivering pizza to them Thursday night.National Guard troops who protected the Capitol for President Biden s inauguration were told to sleep in a parking garage after they were told they could no longer use space within the U.S. Capitol complex.Outraged by the sight, Rep. Cawthorn posted on social media overnight, I just visited the soldiers who have been abandoned & insulted by our leaders. I brought them pizza and told them that they can sleep in my office. No soldier will ever, ever sleep on a garage floor in the US Capitol while I work in Congress. Our Troops deserve better. Cawthorn represents North Carolina s 11th congressional district, which includes most of western North Carolina, after winning the 2020 election. After Cawthorn and other lawmakers voiced their outrage
National Guard troops rest in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center two days before the 59th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Following reports that National Guard troops had been booted from the Capitol Complex in D.C. and told to use a parking garage as a rest area, acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman said Friday that her agency ordered no such thing.
“I want to assure everyone that, with the exception of specific times on Inauguration Day itself while the swearing-in ceremonies were underway, the United States Capitol Police did not instruct the National Guard to vacate the Capitol Building facilities,” Pittman said in a statement emailed to WTOP. “And on Inauguration Day, the Guard was notified and encouraged to reoccupy the spaces in the Capitol and CVC at 2 p.m.”
We ve been in the Washington, D.C., area for the past five weeks. I lived and worked here not so many years ago, just a couple of blocks from the National Mall, at the State Department. My final year as a foreign service officer was spent working as a liaison with Capitol Hill, taking ambassadorial nominees to meet senators and helping them through their confirmation hearings. I worked the Hill in my subsequent job as well.
In photos: US Capitol in lockdown as preparations underway for President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration Published January 18, 2021 Updated January 18, 2021
The U.S. Capitol complex was shut down for about an hour on Monday out of an abundance of caution after a small fire broke out nearby, underscoring security jitters days before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.
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