Two U.S. Army National Guard members removed due to security reasons
Two U.S. Army National Guard members are being removed from the security mission to secure Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration.
It is not clear at this time if the two are connected or what incident triggered their removal but the news comes as there are now approximately 25,000 National Guard troops on the ground in Washington, DC, according to spokesman Major Aaron Thacker.
The Army official and the intelligence official spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity due to Defense Department media regulations. They did not say which fringe group the Guard members belonged to or what unit they served in.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Tuesday that National Guard members must be vetted.
“It’s prudent to make sure that they are being vetted, and anyone who cannot pledge allegiance to their mission and may be pulled by other views needs to not only be removed from this duty, they need to be removed from the Guard.”
Contacted by the AP on Tuesday, the National Guard Bureau referred questions to the U.S. Secret Service and said, “Due to operational security, we do not discuss the process nor the outcome of the vetting process for military members supporting the inauguration.”
The Secret Service told the AP on Monday it would not comment on if any National Guard members had been pulled from securing the inauguration for operational security reasons.