On Saturday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) defended ordering his National Guard troops to return from Washington, D.C. by stating that it’s his job as governor to ensure his National Guard members aren’t in “deplorable” circumstances and that “we weren’t just being part of a broken system.”

Sununu said, “Obviously, some of the images that we saw over the past week were more than disturbing. This isn’t a hot combat zone by any means. This is our nation’s capital. And it was actually happening in the Capitol. I think that’s what took a lot of us governors by surprise. And I simply said, look, they don’t complain, but it’s my job to really protect the team and make sure they’re not put into those substandard conditions. So, we pulled them out. … I just needed to make sure that we weren’t just being part of a broken system.”

He added, “Again, as a governor, when you see some of those conditions, it was disrespectful. In some cases, it was just deplorable that it was happening to our own men and women.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett