Utah Senator Slams D.C. Mayor For Kicking National Guard Members From Their Hotel Room

On Friday, Utah Senator Mike Lee responded with a statement condemning the D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser for evicting 200 Utah National Guard members from their hotel just hours after the soldiers came off duty from patrolling D.C.

“Evicting Utah National Guard personnel from their hotels at a Marriott in the downtown Washington area after a late-night shift risking their lives to protect Washington is a shameful, petty, discrediting decision by Mayor Bowser.

The 200 Utah National Guard specialists were sent to Washington earlier this week in the wake of the Black Lives Matters protests. After completing their all-night Thursday shift at 3 am on Friday, personnel were forced out of their hotel by 11 am the following morning, despite having another patrol shift to do on Friday at 6 pm until 2 am Saturday morning.

“Our Utah guardsmen are consummate professionals who are not complaining in the slightest. But their labor and sacrifice on behalf of Washingtonians deserves better than this embarrassing spectacle. If Mayor Bowser has a problem with President Trump she should take it up with him, not take it out on National Guard personnel in the middle of a dangerous deployment in her city,” Senator Lee declared.

National Guard Major Jaime Thomas confirmed to Fox News that another hotel was located, and the service members will relocate Friday.

D.C. Mayor Bowser said that they didn’t have the authority to “evict anybody from a private hotel.” However, the mayor did say that the city would not be paying for the National Guard housing, a move that Senator Lee has referred to as “ungrateful.”

Just heard that Mayor Bowser is kicking the Utah National Guard out of all DC hotels tomorrow. More than 1200 troops from 10 states are being evicted. This is unacceptable. 1/2

— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) June 5, 2020