Defense Secretary Mark Esper reversed an earlier Pentagon decision to send a couple hundred active-duty soldiers home from the Washington, D.C.
THE MOVE KEEPS THE TROOPS IN THE REGION
Trump said this week he could use military forces in states that fail to crack down on sometimes violent protests over the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis.
“The option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations. We are not in one of those situations now,” Mike Esper had told a news briefing. “I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act.”
The military has pre-positioned 1,600 active duty forces on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., to deploy if needed.
