Mistreatment of US National Guards at Capitol draws ire

ANKARA

The US National Guard members were allowed back into the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. late Thursday after some lawmakers voiced their concerns of guards' designated resting area being a nearby parking garage.

Thousands of National Guard members have recently been using a parking garage for rest between shifts while protecting the Capitol complex since the Jan. 6 riots.

They were earlier told they could no longer use certain places inside the Capitol complex as resting area, such as the Senate cafeteria.

"Unreal. I can’t believe that the same brave servicemembers we’ve been asking to protect our Capitol and our Constitution these last two weeks would be unceremoniously ordered to vacate the building. I am demanding answers ASAP," Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat, wrote Thursday on Twitter.

She later said all Guardsmen were out of the garage, according to her correspondence with a Guard commander.

"We honestly just feel betrayed ... After everything went seamlessly, we were deemed useless and banished to a corner of a parking garage," a guardsman told CNN.

Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, said on his Twitter late Thursday he is "very upset" with the situation and his staff will be investigating it.

The Pentagon authorized up to 25,000 National Guard members for President Joe Biden's inauguration after supporters of former President Donald Trump clashed with the police and stormed the Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 riots that left five people dead.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on his personal Twitter account late Thursday he has instructed the return of the Texas National Guard to the Lone Star State.