Fox News host Tucker Carlson argued the arrival of thousands of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration is a “message about power.”
His 22-minute monologue on Monday made the case that the deployment, captured in harrowing images of the nation’s capital in lockdown ahead of a transfer of presidential power, is needlessly large.
“So, no matter what they are telling you, those 26,000 federal troops are not there for your safety,” Carlson said. “Instead, unmistakably, the Democratic Party is using those troops to send the rest of us a message about power. We’re in charge now. We run this nation from Honolulu to our colony in the Caribbean and everything in between, very much including where you and your family live. Do not question us. Men with guns enforce our decrees. We control the Pentagon.”
After the Capitol Hill siege by Trump supporters on Jan. 6, concerns increased that a bigger threat could be in store during Biden’s inauguration, which is set for Wednesday. In preparation, the Secret Service, which is the lead agency in charge of inauguration security, has coordinated thousands of National Guard troops be sent to the nation’s capital.
Carlson took the deployment as a sign of political corruption.
“Our military leadership, the very same generals who howled at the idea of deploying American troops to stop an invasion of our southern border, those same generals, sent tens of thousands of soldiers with rifles to Washington purely as a show of force on behalf of the political party they support,” he said.
Carlson added that National Guard members sent to Washington have been forced to undergo what he called a “political purity test.”
“Democrats in Congress demanded that the troops sent to Washington this week submit to a political purity test, ideological vetting as they put it, to make certain that every soldier professed loyalty to the new regime, not loyalty to our country, not loyalty to our Constitution but loyalty to the aims of a specific political party,” he asserted.
The host was likely referring to reports that members of the National Guard are being vetted by authorities ahead of the inauguration, but this is to address fears of defense officials about a possible insider attack.
“We’re continually going through the process, and taking second, third looks at every one of the individuals assigned to this operation,” Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told the Associated Press in a Sunday interview.
“If there’s any indication that any of our soldiers or airmen are expressing things that are extremist views, it’s either handed over to law enforcement or dealt with the chain of command immediately,” said Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau.
