First lady Jill Biden delivered cookies to National Guard troops on Friday after some had to sleep in a parking garage on Thursday.
She visited some troops outside the Capitol to express her thanks and deliver the baked goods made by White House staff.
“I just wanted to come today to say thank you to all of you for keeping me and my family safe,” she said. “The White House baked you some chocolate chip cookies.”
With all my heart — thank you to the National Guard for your continuous commitment to keeping our nation safe. pic.twitter.com/L7VRqWTfyc
— Jill Biden (@FLOTUS) January 23, 2021
Many lawmakers have done the same, bringing pizzas, donuts, and coffee to members of the Guard.
Thousands of troops were brought to the Capitol to provide protection for President Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday. While members of the National Guard do have hotel rooms, they can be on duty for one or two days at a time, working shifts that are a few hours long. In between those shifts, the Guard members nap wherever they can as they don’t typically have the time to get back to their rooms.
Guard members who spoke to the Washington Post said hundreds of service members were moved to a parking garage at the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building.
It is unclear what the reason for the transfer was.
The National Guard said on Thursday that the move was at the behest of U.S. Capitol Police due to increased foot traffic in the Capitol, but acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman said in a Friday statement that “police did not instruct the National Guard to vacate the Capitol Building facilities.”
Biden’s late son Beau Biden was a member of the National Guard. The president called the National Guard Bureau to apologize following the incident, the Washington Post reported, although it is unlikely that the president was directly involved in the decision.
