SALT LAKE CITY - Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) issued the following statement Friday after D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser evicted 200 Utah National Guard specialists from their hotel just hours after the soldiers came off duty protecting the people of D.C.

“Evicting Utah National Guard personnel from their hotels after a late-night shift risking their lives to protect Washington is a shameful, petty, discrediting decision by Mayor Bowser.

“Our Utah guardsmen are consummate professionals who are not complaining in the slightest. But their labor and sacrifice on behalf of Washingtonians deserves better than this embarrassing spectacle. If Mayor Bowser has a problem with President Trump she should take it up with him, not take it out on National Guard personnel in the middle of a dangerous deployment in her city,” Sen. Lee finished.

The 200 Utah National Guard specialists, who were deployed to Washington on short notice earlier this week, finished their all-night Thursday shift protecting D.C. at 3 am on Friday. They were forced out of their hotel by 11 am. They have another shift Friday evening at 6 pm until 2 am Saturday morning.