DC officials ask incoming Democratic governors to pull Guard troops

DC officials ask incoming Democratic governors to pull Guard troops

Washington, D.C., officials are calling on incoming Democratic governors in five states that flipped blue to recall their National Guard troops from the nation’s capital.

During a D.C. Council hearing on Thursday, council member Brooke Pinto (D) — the chair of the public safety committee — said she would soon send a letter on behalf of the council to ask the governors-elect in Iowa , Georgia, Nevada, Ohio and Texas to “immediately” withdraw their soldiers back to their states.

“It’s something they can do their first day in office,” she said.

“While we have asked all of the governors across the country in the past to pull back their troops, we’ve been met with a lot of resistance and a lot of governors who are following the lead from President Trump,” Pinto noted. “But we now have the opportunity , with Tuesday’s election results, to turn the tide of what we’re seeing in Washington, D.C., and to have some real accountability to the federal government.”

Some 3,100 National Guard troops are deployed in Washington as part of President Trump’s “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful” mission, which was announced last summer.

Of that number, just fewer than 760 troops are part of the D.C. National Guard — which is controlled by the sitting president — and 2,341 have been sent to the city by states and territories, nearly all of which are currently controlled by Republican governors, according to the mission’s joint task force .

While Texas, Ohio and Nevada currently only have one or two guard troops sent from each of their states, Georgia and Iowa can make a far bigger dent if they pull their 514 and 110 troops, respectively.

Should Alaska also flip to a Democratic governor — the race has yet to be called but has former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins (D) currently leading — it would mean an additional 34 guard members could be recalled.

That means a total of 662 troops could be recalled from D.C. on come January.

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