WASHINGTON (AP) – President-elect Joe Biden will no longer take an Amtrak train to Washington for his inauguration due to security concerns, a person informed of the decision told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
The president-elect’s decision reflects growing concerns about potential threats on Capitol Hill and across the United States in preparation for Biden’s inauguration on January 20.
Security in Washington increased considerably in preparation for inauguration after the violent uprising at the US Capitol last week by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump, and the FBI warned over the weekend of plans for armed protests in all 50 capitals and in Washington, DC, in the days leading up to the event.
The person informed about Biden’s decision spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal affairs. The news was first released by CNN.
The move to abandon the 90-minute train ride from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware to Washington was probably not an easy one for the president-elect. Biden’s preference for riding a train during his 36-year career in the Senate was such a central part of his public personality that he returned home with Amtrak on his last day as vice president and took a train ride through Ohio and Pennsylvania during the presidential campaign as part of an effort to attract blue collar workers.
Biden has been known to ride a train since his early days in the Senate, when he made a point of returning home almost every night to help raise his children, after his wife and daughter died in a car accident in 1972. His embrace from Amtrak – and from the friends he made among the drivers and the regular team – was featured in a short film that aired during the Democratic National Convention last August.
Train travel is not the only security-related development around the grand opening.
On Wednesday, Biden received an instruction from FBI officials, the Secret Service and his national security team on the potential for further violence in the coming days.
“In the week since the attack on Congress by a crowd that included domestic terrorists and violent extremists, the nation continued to learn more about the threat to our democracy and the potential for further violence in the coming days, both in the National Capital Region and in cities from across the country, ”according to a statement from the Biden transition team. “This is a challenge that the president-elect and his team take very seriously.”
In Washington, but mainly around the Capitol, the National Mall and a few nearby federal buildings, security has increased considerably, with non-scalable walls and raised metal gates, closed streets and a new contingent of National Guard troops camped in the Capitol.