Biden dismayed after troops sent to cold garage

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday telephoned the chief of the National Guard Bureau to express dismay after troops deployed to protect his inauguration were ordered a day earlier to rest in an unheated garage after being booted from the Capitol, administration officials said.

Photographs of guard members resting in parking spaces created a public relations debacle in the first days of Biden’s term, with some governors demanding that troops from their states be sent home.

In a telephone call with Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, Biden asked what he could do about the situation, the officials said.

Early Friday, the D.C. National Guard said the soldiers had been moved back to the Capitol from the parking garage. Guard officials said that the troops had been temporarily moved out of the Capitol on Thursday at the request of Capitol Police because of increased foot traffic as Congress came back into session.

More than 25,000 National Guard personnel were mobilized to the nation’s capital to provide security ahead of and during the inauguration on Wednesday.

A joint statement from the National Guard Bureau and the Capitol Police released Friday did not explain why soldiers were sent to a parking garage 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. The remaining troops are expected to stay in Washington at least through the end of January.

As the images from the parking garage spread on social media Thursday afternoon, lawmakers in both parties were quick to condemn the situation and pledged to get the soldiers back in to the Capitol. Some offered to let Guard soldiers take breaks in their private Senate and House offices.

With the troops safely returned to the Capitol premises by Friday morning, multiple lawmakers — including Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the top Republican — made a point of meeting with soldiers on Friday.

Sen. James Inhofe, ROkla., said the situation was the re

sult of “one uniformed police officer who issued an order without authority or going through the chain of command.”

“This isn’t a blame game,” he added. “But I do want to know what happened to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Jacquelyn Martin / AFP via Getty Images First lady Jill Biden brings chocolate chip cookies to National Guard members outside the U.S. Capitol as a gesture of thanks for their service during inauguration ceremonies in Washington.