Fox News contributor Juan Williams appeared to blame former President Donald Trump for the debacle that left National Guard troops stranded in a parking garage.
Williams joined Friday’s broadcast of “The Five” to discuss the photos of soldiers camped out in a parking garage after being told to vacate the Capitol — photos that sparked outrage among Americans on both sides of the political aisle. (RELATED: Juan Williams Condemns Capitol Riot, Says There Is ‘No Moral Equivalence’ Between Targeting Capitol And Trageting Private Property)
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Williams began by saying that everyone was thankful that the National Guard had been standing by to help. “Their presence was a great thing for America during the inauguration, and they deserve to be treated with all the dignity in the world.”
“Absolutely,” Sandra Smith agreed. “Worth pointing out, though, some veterans and current soldiers are pointing out pretty quickly, ‘Don’t feel bad, they have slept in worse places,’ but there should have been a plan. There’s nobody looking at these pictures and saying ‘This was the plan, this was a good idea.'”
Smith went on to say that no one seemed to be able to nail down who had been responsible for the order that sent the troops to the garage — especially since a number have tested positive for coronavirus since deploying to protect the Capitol.
“There’s a lot of problems here, and questions need to be answered. Lindsey Graham today put out a statement, ‘Whoever directed this needs to be held accountable,'” Smith added.
“That’s a good point,” Williams replied, turning the focus to Trump. “So Dagen, in fact, in the back and forth now, even though both sides, Republican and Democrat praised the troops and say this was outrageous, there’s questions about how the Trump Pentagon wasn’t working with the Biden administration on how the troops were supposed to be —”
“It’s Trump’s fault …” Jesse Watters laughed.
Williams pushed ahead, asking how long the troops were expected to stay and noting that the date March 4 had been floated.
“Yeah, bring Trump into it. That’s part of what is at play, in my opinion,” Dagen McDowell replied. “You’re going to keep 7,000 troops there until — for another couple of months maybe, because this has turned into some sort of Pelosian theater of panic trying to send a message of ‘We need troops here because of the evil Trump and his minions, who might come back and attack the Capitol again.’ Essentially, let’s not use our National Guard troops as props.”