The aftermath of last week's attempted siege of the U.S. Capitol has almost been as explosive as the event itself. Since then, the House has been pushing to impeach Trump for inciting the violence (for a second time), the FBI has arrested a number of individuals involved in the rioting, and major preventative steps are being taken to stop more violence from taking place at next week's inauguration. In more developments since the riots, new viral photos of hundreds of National Guard troops sleeping in the hallways of the Capitol building display just how historical the storming on the hill was.
Believed to be the first time troops have camped in the building since the Civil War, viral images on Wednesday morning show the battle-ready soldiers sleeping on the marble floors of the building, most of them with their assault weapons nearby.
The troops slept there overnight after being called in late Tuesday evening. In the images, lawmakers stepped over the sleeping bodies of their protectors as they arrived to impeach the President for the very same reason the troops were sent in. Close to 15,000 National Guardsmen are expected to be deployed in D.C. on the day of Biden's inauguration to protect federal officials and buildings.
A House security official told reporters that it was the “first time troops have bivouacked in the Capitol since the US Civil War.” The troops are expected to maintain a heavy presence in federal buildings well into inauguration week.