Michigan state Rep. Beau LaFave (R) urged Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) to call National Guardsmen home on Friday.
The chairman of the House Committee on Military, Veterans & Homeland Security wrote:
The National Guard can be tasked with ensuring a peaceful transition of power. An unprecedented number of troops were sent to Washington, even more service members than are currently stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. You all did a tremendous job, and we are very proud of the job you did. But the way you have been treated in D.C. is simply unacceptable. You don’t deserve to be resting on concrete or marble floors. You were sent to ensure the violent rioting that happened in 2017 when Trump was inaugurated wasn’t replicated on January 20th, 2021 with President Biden’s ceremony. Mission accomplished.
“I call on Gov. Whitmer, who has now returned from D.C., to do the right thing and bring our brave Michigan troops home so they can sleep in their own beds tonight,” LaFave said.
Michigan Congressman Bill Huizenga (R) posted several photos of his visit with Michigan’s contingent, which had been staged at FedEx Field:
Yesterday, I had the honor of meeting the nearly 700 men and women of the Michigan Army National Guard serving to secure…
Posted by Rep. Bill Huizenga on Friday, January 22, 2021
Huizenga told Breitbart News on Friday evening that he agreed Michigan’s Guardsmen, which numbered about 700, should ship out.
“Their job is done, so yes,” he said.
“They did their job, and short of a threat or some other reason to stay, they should go home.”
He said troops were staying in sky boxes at the football stadium.
Governors from Texas and Florida have already recalled their guardsmen after a Breitbart News report that troops were kicked out of the Capitol and forced to sleep in a parking garage after a Democrat congressman complained.
“I have instructed General Norris to order the return of the Texas National Guard to our state,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced Thursday.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) was more sharp in his criticism.
Last night, I ordered our Adjutant General to bring Florida National Guard soldiers home from the National Capital Region.
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) January 22, 2021
“They’re soldiers. They’re not Nancy Pelosi’s servants,” DeSantis said Friday on Fox & Friends.
“And this comes on the back end of them trying to investigate the backgrounds of our guardsmen,” he continued.
“[In] Florida, we did not let them go into their political beliefs. I thought that was totally inappropriate. I thought it was very disrespectful for people who are clearly patriots,” DeSantis said.
Kyle Olson is a reporter for Breitbart News. He is also host of “The Kyle Olson Show,” syndicated on Michigan radio stations on Saturdays–download full podcast episodes. Follow him on Parler.