White House, May 24. Some 2,000 National Guard troops are pulling out of the Capitol grounds nearly five months after the force was deployed there to beef up security after the January 6 riot. The building won’t open to public due to police shortage. The troops will began their full withdrawal from the Capitol grounds on Sunday, retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, who is leading review of the Capitol security, confirmed to CBS’s Face the Nation in an interview aired on Sunday. The troops are heading home after the Capitol Police, despite reports of its ranks being severely depleted, did not request the extension of the mission past May 23 deadline, the DC National Guard spokesman told the media earlier this week.
The National Guard already stayed in the nation’s capital two months longer than originally planned. The troops were scheduled to leave the grounds on March 12, but the Capitol Police asked the Pentagon to extend the deployment, drawing criticism from the National Guard Association that blasted the enduring presence of soldiers around the city as “completely inappropriate at best, illegal at worst.”
While at the time Pentagon spokesman John Kirby defended the decision to keep the troops by saying that it would give Capitol Police “some time and space” to prepare to take over the protection of the Capitol, Honoré revealed that the police still won’t be able to ensure public access to the building.
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