Officials with the Massachusetts National Guard on Friday released a statement identifying and correcting falsehoods in a report that suggested a Massachusetts congressman was responsible for Guardsmen being sent to a parking garage.
Without mentioning the source of the report, the statement appears to reference an article published by the conservative Breitbart website on Thursday. The authors said a source told them Rep. William Keating had “complained about one National Guard member not wearing a mask at a cafe in the building” and linked that to troops being “forced to evacuated the Capitol building grounds.”
“It makes no sense and quite frankly could not be farther from the truth,” Maj. Gen. Gary Keefe, the Adjutant General of the Massachusetts National Guard said in a statement.
“The relocation of National Guardsmen within the U.S. Capitol building grounds has nothing to do with Congressman Keating reminding a soldier of the requirement to wear their mask,” the general wrote.
The statement explains that Capitol building officials asked the Guardsmen to move their break area to a garage because the Senate was in session.
Keefe also said that photos of the Guardsmen in the garage have been taken out of context.
“What the stories failed to mention was that they were on a break, resting between shifts,” Keefe said in his statement. “At the end of the duty day, soldiers returned to their hotel rooms.”
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