Ron DeSantis has denied President Joe Biden’s request to send National Guardsmen to Washington ahead of his State of the Union address.
In addition, to request him state guardsmen, the Capitol Police Chief, Thomas Manger announced that a fence would be erected around the Capitol building.
“Last week, the Biden Administration requested the assistance of State National Guards to deploy to Washington D.C. I have rejected this request — there will be no @FLGuard sent to D.C. for Biden’s State of the Union,” the Florida governor said in a Tweet.
The Pentagon however has approved 700 National Guardsmen to be deployed to D.C. The federal government cites trucker convoys currently en route to the capital. Organizers of the convoy have noted that they do not plan to rally outside the Capitol building, but rather the Whitehouse.
“This doesn’t even need to happen. If the president said, ‘Mandates are over and the state of emergency is over. Let’s get back to the world and let’s do our thing,’ then we’re not even coming.” An organizer named Kyle Sefcik told CBS 9.
The convoy that Sefcik has organized is reportedly 38,000 strong and looking to protest in front of the president’s executive home.
“We have to get the attention in the most peaceful way and this is our way of doing it. Do we want to stop businesses from being able to be open and people being able to get to work and school? No. We don’t want to cause this at all which is why we’re telling the president ahead of time to end this now. We don’t even have to come.” He said.