Washington, DC – South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster deployed nearly 500 members of the South Carolina National Guard to DC in support of President Trump’s steadfastness to protect the nation’s capital.
While staying at the Marriott Marquis Hotel while deployed, several members of the unit decided to order pizza from a local restaurant, according to the Washington Examiner.
Using Uber Eats for delivery, the soldiers eagerly awaited their dinner after a long day in the heat providing security and support for DC Metro cops.
Their pizza arrived, they opened the box preparing to eat, only to find that one of the pizzas had been baked with glass shards in the crust cheese. Fortunately, they were able to discover this potentially deadly scenario before taking a bite of their pie.
“The command says that the soldiers are OK, and that this was the only incident to their knowledge,” said Capt. Jessica Donnelly, a spokeswoman for the S.C. National Guard, according to the Post Courier.
Donnelly said the troops were told to file a police report over the incident. According to Metro police, no report was filed.
While Department of Defense personnel have seen an increased level of threat over the past months, the DOD did not say that any threats had been leveled at military members by the protestors, looters or rioters.
As no police report was filed, there has been no investigation into the delivery or the pizza restaurant that made the pie. It is not known whether it was intentional or a horrific accident.
Dear @MayorBowser :
Your anti-military rhetoric and actions—including proudly booting out of DC hotels in the middle of the night exhausted soldiers putting their lives on the line to protect our nation’s capital—incites this type of violence. https://t.co/XAuGBz6mlD
— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) June 11, 2020
According to the Post and Courier, regarding the presence of National Guard troops in Washington:
“Their presence was criticized by protesters and lawmakers, who said the National Guard’s deployment to the nation’s capital was an excessive show of force. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser also spoke out against their presence and the Guardsmen had to move out of their hotel later in the week because of a budgetary issue with the city and the guard.
While they faced little physical confrontation from protesters, two S.C. National Guardsmen were hospitalized after lightning struck near Lafayette Square, where they were providing security near the White House early Friday morning.”
The soldiers were reportedly told to leave the hotel after DC mayor Muriel Bowser said that the city would not be paying the bill.
That did not sit well with Senator Mike Lee of Utah.
On the same day that Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser pulled what some say was the childish stunt of the year by having “Black Lives Matter” painted on the street leading to the White House, some say she also showed what an anti-American hack she is.
According to Breitbart News, out of town members of the National Guard were ordered by Bowser to leave a Washington, D.C. hotel they had been staying at.
Perhaps Bowser thought that by painting that on the street it would somehow trigger President Trump, but what it proved more than anything was that it appears President Trump lives 24/7 in the heads of liberal Democrats.
The hotel, the Marriot Marquis in downtown had been initially designated for the National Guard to be used during their coronavirus response to the nation’s capital, but now that the coronavirus has apparently been cured by the riots, the rooms had pretty much remained vacant. Guard members deployed to the Washington as part of the “peaceful riots” mission began to stay in the hotel.
Bowser was apparently triggered that the military had set up temporary residence at the hotel, so she told them to vacate.
Bowser’s directive resulted in Guard members who had worked the overnight shift now looking for new quarters instead of being able to rest up for their next shift, a National Guard official told Breitbart.
The Guard said in a statement:
“Some National Guard responders were quartering in hotel accommodations which had preexisting contractual agreements with the District.
Out of respect for existing agreements those facilities have with the city government, those service members have relocated. For further information, please contact city government.”
U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) slammed Bowser’s order, which affected 200 Guardsmen from Utah.
“Just heard that Mayor Bowser is kicking the Utah National Guard out of all DC hotels tomorrow. More than 1200 troops from 10 states are being evicted. This is unacceptable.”
Just heard that Mayor Bowser is kicking the Utah National Guard out of all DC hotels tomorrow. More than 1200 troops from 10 states are being evicted. This is unacceptable. 1/2
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) June 5, 2020
“These brave men and women have risked their lives protecting DC for three days. Rioting, looting, arson, and vandalism have all disappeared bc these soldiers served.
And now they are being kicked to the curb by an ungrateful mayor. This must be stopped.”
These brave men and women have risked their lives protecting DC for three days. Rioting, looting, arson, and vandalism have all disappeared bc these soldiers served. And now they are being kicked to the curb by an ungrateful mayor. This must be stopped. 2/2 pic.twitter.com/YYyctKvUqN
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) June 5, 2020
In a released statement, Lee said:
“Evicting Utah National Guard personnel from their hotels after a late-night shift risking their lives to protect Washington is a shameful, petty, discrediting decision by Mayor Bowser.
Our Utah guardsmen are consummate professionals who are not complaining in the slightest. But their labor and sacrifice on behalf of Washingtonians deserves better than this embarrassing spectacle.
If Mayor Bowser has a problem with President Trump she should take it up with him, not take it out on National Guard personnel in the middle of a dangerous deployment in her city.”
Military Times said that Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy confirmed the statement issued by the Guard.
“The way it was described to me, by [D.C.] Police Chief Peter Newsham—she wanted to keep that pure and get those personnel out of those hotel rooms,” McCarthy said.
“So, we made the accommodation, obviously, and we’re moving them to a different location.”
The guardsmen have been staying at the hotel, located downtown and across from the convention center, and was designated for them to sleep in while they were working either in local hospitals or at a COVID-19 overflow facility, located within the convention center.
“It was very sudden to me, too,” McCarthy said. “I heard about it this morning. It was not communicated to us directly.”
In order to pay for new accommodations, the Army will need to take funds that are used to support drill periods, as well as field exercises. Utah is one of 11 states that sent troops to the nation’s capital to help with riot control during the past week.
Not happy with merely booting the guardsmen out of the hotel, Bowser followed up by sending a letter to President Trump on Friday requesting the removal of the National Guard troops from the district.
I request that @realDonaldTrump withdraw all extraordinary federal law enforcement and military presence from our city. pic.twitter.com/AvaJfQ0mxP
— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) June 5, 2020
Since the city is federal territory, Bowser basically has no authority to order their removal from the city, while the federal government can request troops from other states. Bowser has zero authority over the troops.
Given the president’s strained relationship with Bowser, it is highly unlikely he will accommodate her request. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising if he brought in more troops.
Sen. Lee confirmed that the 200 Utah guard troops finished their shift at 3:00 a.m. Friday morning, and were forced out of the hotel by 11:00 a.m. They were to report back on Friday evening for a 6:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning shift.
President Trump had activated the D.C. National Guard and requested assistance from other states to deal with the rioting that overtook the nation’s capital this past week. He had also asked for active duty troops to be in the area on standby if needed.
Amazingly, after the president threatened the use of the military through the Insurrection Act, violence in the city dropped dramatically. Unfortunately, prior to that stores were looted, a historic church had its basement burned, and numerous national monuments were defaced, including the Lincoln Memorial, the World War II Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial.
Late Friday evening, ABC News reported that the National Guard had secured another, unidentified hotel.
In a statement, the D.C. National Guard said, “The soldiers will be relocated to a new hotel today.”
Bowser tried to cover herself later Friday as well, telling reporters that “at no time did we intend or certainly would we be able to affect evicting any Guardsman from any hotel.”
“So, our message to the hotel was that if they are going to use the rooms that we reserved, then they are going to have to pay for them, and you have to refund us our money.”
The threat by President Trump and the housing of the National Guard in the hotel has led some Democrats to cry foul claiming it violates the Third Amendment to the Bill of Rights. Which is interesting since Democrats seem to have no problem violating either the Second or First Amendment rights, the latter of course except when it comes to looters stealing and rioters vandalizing property and shooting and killing people.
President Trump has glossed over the possible use of invoking the Insurrection Act, which has triggered liberals and Democrats far and wide, as if the Act had never been used before. In fact, the Act has been used numerous times over the past 120 years, including most recently by President George W. Bush after 9/11 and President George H. W. Bush during the 1992 riots after the acquittal of Los Angeles police officers after the Rodney King incident.
ABC reported that on Friday, a U.S. official confirmed that the units that were put on standby in Washington were sent home.
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