Here’s the thing about the dozen National Guard members who were just removed from the inauguration
Over the weekend it was announced that every National Guard member assigned to Washington DC for the inauguration would be heavily vetted for any possible ties to the January 6th Capitol attack or domestic terrorism in general. Now NBC says that about a dozen guard members have indeed been removed. But here’s the thing.
NBC is reporting that these guard members weren’t removed for being extremists or terrorist sympathizers, but rather for “routine” reasons such as criminal background checks or disconcerting remarks that they’ve made. So this appears to be a matter of being overly cautious, which they should be, as opposed to having uncovered some kind of plot.
Interestingly, Texas Governor Greg Abbott threw a tantrum last night about these background checks, insisting that the Texas National Guard members he sent to DC were being “disrespected.” Yet now a dozen National Guard have been removed for disqualifying reasons. Abbott never misses an opportunity to be on the wrong side of things.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report