Members of Congress should demand an apology from Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., after his suggestion that members of the National Guard on duty in Washington, D.C., providing security for Wednesday's inauguration ceremonies could pose a threat to President-elect Joe Biden, ex-acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said Tuesday.
"From my perspective, [his] comments are offensive, they're disgusting, and every member of Congress should be demanding that he apologize for those comments," Wolf said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "What he's saying is that whether you work for the National Guard, law enforcement, FBI, or any other law enforcement agency, that if you voted for one candidate, you're unable to do your job and protect any individual that comes within your job duties."
Cohen suggested in a CNN interview Monday that supporters of President Donald Trump within the National Guard's ranks "might want to do something" to Biden.
"The Guard is 90 some-odd percent male, and only about 20% of white males voted for Biden," he told CNN. "You've got to figure that in the Guard, which is predominantly more conservative … there's probably not more than 25% of the people there protecting us that voted for Biden. The other 75% are in the large class of folks that might want to do something."
Wolf called the comment out of bounds and said it's nothing new for troops to be vetted before a major event like an inauguration.
"The Secret Service, the FBI, and others are going to vet any individuals that are going to have close proximity or to have access to some of these sensitive locations around D.C., so I don't know that it's anything different than what normally would occur," said Wolf, adding that the main thing that is different is that there are about 20,000 troops in town.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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