Republican West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey on Friday denounced the Left’s efforts to blame President Donald Trump for the Wednesday shooting of two of his state’s National Guardsmen deployed to Washington, D.C.
The shooting immediately prompted a deluge of prominent liberal commentators and activists blaming Trump on social media. Morrissey said on “The Ingraham Angle” that blaming Trump was disrespectful, highlighting that the more than 150 West Virginia National Guardsmen serving in the nation’s capital are volunteers for the mission. (RELATED: CNN’s Charles Ramsey Questions National Guard Training Immediately After 2 Guardsmen Were Shot In DC)
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“[I]t’s outrageous and shows a level of disrespect to the people that put their lives on the line every single day. So, I want to make sure people understand what we’re dealing with here,” Morrisey said. “Right now, in the District [of Columbia], there are about 160 to 170 West Virginia National Guardsmen, and they are here on a voluntary basis. That means that they sign up for the mission of protecting the city. They believed in the mission. They want to support their state. They want to support their country.”
“And, by the way, the mission is working. By all accounts, crime is way down in D.C. And the Guardsmen will tell you, by and large, that what they’re doing is working … They were protecting people,” he added. “And for folks to try to point them out and somehow give them some responsibility of what happened, that’s outrageous. That’s politics that needs to be rejected. But, that’s what we have seen coming from the Left in recent years. But now, we have to say, ‘Absolutely not.’”
Trump ordered National Guardsmen to Washington in August 2025 to mitigate violent crime in the nation’s capital following a series of high-profile incidents, including the July 3 fatal shooting of a congressional intern. Democrats long opposed Trump’s deploying the National Guard to American cities, calling each an overreach of presidential authority while attributing nefarious reasons for the deployments.
“Trump put them in harm’s way, fash, [sic]” former ESPN and MSNBC host Keith Olbermann posted Wednesday on X.
“Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are culpable for endangering the National Guard by putting them in harm’s way,” author and activist John Pavlovitz posted on BlueSky the same day.
Morrisey on Wednesday initially said the two National Guard members had been killed, but promptly walked the statement back, asserting his office was “receiving conflicting reports.”
West Virginia Army National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died Thursday, Thanksgiving Day. The other victim, Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, remains in critical condition at the time of publication.
“Andrew is fighting for his life. His parents are unbelievably great people, highly religious people, and they’re praying — and they want everybody to pray for Andrew,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as they returned Sunday to Washington.
.@POTUS on Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe: “Andrew is fighting for his life. His parents are unbelievably great people, highly religious people, and they’re praying — and they want everybody to pray for Andrew.” pic.twitter.com/NSD8odg0x7
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 30, 2025
The shooting was allegedly perpetrated by Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national brought into the U.S. under the Biden administration following America’s 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
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