Washington: The US First Lady Jill Biden paid a surprise visit on Thursday afternoon to a group of military personnel on duty in Congress, offering them chocolate chip cookies and posing for photos.
She also said “The National Guard will always hold a special place in the hearts of all the Bidens”. President Joe Biden’s late son, Beau, was a member of the Delaware National Guard. Echoing the recriminations over responsibility for letting hundreds of violent supporters of then President Donald Trump crash the Capitol on January 6, National Guard officials said Capitol Police told them to move to the garage, and the Capitol Police denied it. But on Thursday afternoon, after the legislature resumed work a day after the Biden inauguration, someone decided instead to force them out to a nearby parking garage.

Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman in a statement said that they “did not instruct the National Guard to vacate Capitol building facilities”. “As of this morning, all Guardsmen and women have been relocated to space within the Capitol complex”. A number of the 25,000 troops standing guard around the US Capitol in recent days in the wake of the January 6 insurrection had been allowed to take breaks and naps in between long shifts on the floors of the building housing the US Congress.