COLUMBUS, Ohio — At the request of the Trump administration, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has extended the state's National Guard troops' deployment to Washington, D.C. until the end of November.
This month, 150 troops were expected to come home from patrolling the nation's capital — but those plans just got delayed.
RELATED: Gov. DeWine extends Ohio National Guard's presence in D.C.
"I really think it damages morale," veteran and state Sen. Casey Weinstein (D-Hudson) said. "It really damages the institution."
Weinstein is disappointed in DeWine after he extended the 30-day surge in D.C. for 60 more days.
The original mission was to combat what President Donald Trump called a rise in crime.
"Over the last year, it was a very unsafe place," Trump told reporters Tuesday. "Over the last 20 years, actually, it was very unsafe."
Violent crime is at a 30-year low, according to D.C. police. Recently, troops have been spotted cleaning up trash and performing landscaping tasks. A Joint Task Force–District of Columbia Spokesperson told us that Ohio troops haven't been on trash patrol, though.
"Out there on a mission that they're not even clear is a real need, right?" Weinstein said. "Doing mulch or picking up trash — to me, that is a degradation of what the guard is supposed to represent."
But after a month, President Donald Trump said his mission of making the capital safer had been accomplished.
"Now, it's got virtually no crime," Trump said. "We call it 'crime-free.'"
So why are Ohio troops still there?
"I talked to the head of the Washington, D.C. National Guard," DeWine said Wednesday. "One of the things he said to me is: 'Governor, you having people out here allows my people not to have to work 14, 16-hour days.'"
Ohio troops being in the D.C. allows for the police to tackle violent crime, the governor's team said, while National Guard members are patrolling buildings.
"To me, that's a very good reason for us to continue to have the guard there to back the guard up there," DeWine said.
The governor has been standing by this decision because he said he tends to accept every ask for help, like he has done in the past for both Republican and Democratic leaders of other states during natural disasters or from mayors when there is civil unrest in Ohio cities.
"This is something that deserves extra scrutiny, particularly in the way that this deployment and this extension are being politicized," Weinstein said.
Trump’s emergency declaration to take over D.C. just expired, but that doesn't change anything with the National Guard as long as DeWine approved their deployment.
RELATED: Gov. Mike DeWine sent National Guard to DC. Is Chicago next?
