Fox News’s Tucker Carlson questioned why so many federal troops are still in Washington, D.C., a week after the inauguration they were sent to secure.
“There are nearly 10,000 federal troops in our capital city tonight,” Carlson said during his monologue Wednesday evening. “Why are they there? How long will they be staying? No one is being very specific about any of that, so you’re left to draw your own conclusions, which people naturally are.”
Nearly 26,000 National Guard troops were sent to Washington ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of President Biden. The move came after supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, with fears that protests or violence could erupt again in the nation’s capital.
“By the way, it’s not making anyone more moderate. If you’re really worried about extremism, you probably wouldn’t put 10,000 federal troops in your capital city, making everyone more radical and crazy,” Carlson continued.
Carlson said the reason the troops are still there hearkens back to a quote from the communist founder of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong.
“The point of this whole highly militarized exercise is to remind you of what Chairman Mao once famously said: ‘Political power grows from the barrel of a gun,’” he said.
The entire D.C. National Guard will be deployed in the city until March 31 in the event of anticipated “civil disturbance,” according to a memo.
Carlson also pointed to Sen. Chris Murphy’s comments that the National Guard will remain in the capital as long as Trump has allies in Congress.
“The threat to the country is not over. We still have 5,000 National Guard members surrounding the Capitol complex. Why? Because there are still existing threats, present threats to the security of the Capitol,” Murphy said. “And so, so long as Donald Trump is empowered by Senate Republicans, there is still the chance that he is going to incite another attempt at the Capitol. … The threat is still very real to American democracy.”
Carlson said of Murphy’s comments: “So as long as there are people in this country who persist in disagreeing with Chris Murphy, explains Chris Murphy, we’re going to need to keep thousands of heavily armed soldiers on the scene. Why specifically? Because ‘the threat is still very real to American democracy.’”
