Biden apologises after troops made to sleep in carpark
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Members of the National Guard resting in the Capitol Visitor Centre on Capitol Hill in Washington on Friday. Photographs of troops sleeping on the floor of an unheated carpark on Thursday have sparked an uproar.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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WASHINGTON • United States President Joe Biden called the chief of the National Guard Bureau on Friday to apologise after troops who had been brought in to protect his inauguration were ordered to sleep in an unheated carpark after they were booted from the Capitol on Thursday, administration officials said.
The issue has generated controversy in the first days of Mr Biden's term. Several governors and members of Congress have criticised the move, even as the reasons for the troops' relocation remain murky.
First Lady Jill Biden visited some of the troops stationed outside of the US Capitol on Friday afternoon, thanking them for their work and handing out chocolate chip cookies.
"The National Guard will always hold a special place in the hearts of all the Bidens," she said, noting that their son Beau, who died in 2015, was a member of the Delaware Army National Guard.
Photographs of the troops sleeping on the floor of the carpark on Thursday night at the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building, where they had scant toilet facilities and were breathing in exhaust fumes, sparked an uproar.
A joint statement from the National Guard Bureau and the Capitol Police released on Friday afternoon did not explain why soldiers were sent to a carpark but suggested it would not happen again.
About 19,000 of the troops deployed to Washington have started packing up and returning to their home states, officials said.
The remaining troops - about 7,000 of them - are expected to stay in Washington at least through the end of this month.
NYTIMES
