Authorities are preparing to hire additional personnel to help protect the country’s capital in the coming days. An official in the Department of Homeland Security told CNN that the violation of the Capitol will sharpen the response and planning for the inauguration.
“Now that it has happened, people are going to take this much more seriously,” said the official, referring to last week’s violence. “Now, planners, everyone is going to take this much more seriously.”
At the request of the Capitol Police, DHS helped install a fence, which was seen rising around the Capitol on Thursday.
At the Pentagon, officials are assessing whether there is a need to increase the number of National Guard forces to up to 13,000 guards for President-elect Joe Biden to take over, according to a defense official with knowledge of planning. Before the violation of the US Capitol, the estimated need required about 7,000 guardsmen.
More than 6,000 members have already been mobilized after the Capitol was invaded by pro-Trump protesters to work 12-hour shifts on Capitol grounds and work at traffic control points across the city.
At the state level, security officials have been working closely with federal partners as they prepare to increase online conversation by calling for protests in all 50 states, in addition to Washington, DC, said a state law enforcement officer with direct knowledge conversations between federal and state partners.
“Trump WILL be sworn in for a second term on January 20 !!”, said a commentator on thedonald.win, a pro-Trump online forum, on Thursday, the day after the siege. “We must not let the Communists win. Even if we have to burn DC to the ground.”
DC seeking additional assistance
In response to Wednesday’s breach of security on Capitol Hill, authorities arrested dozens of people linked to the protests after pro-Trump protesters attacked barricades, attacked police and smashed windows.
The president’s supporters were in Washington, DC, to protest Trump’s defeat in the elections in response to Trump and his deputies urging his supporters to fight the ceremonial count of electoral votes that confirmed Biden’s victory.
“The police were ill-prepared for an event that the whole country knew was coming, and that POTUS had been signaling for weeks,” said Brian Harrell, former DHS assistant secretary for infrastructure protection. “The normal ‘security layers’, with each inner layer being more difficult to breach, were almost nonexistent. It is shocking that, in a post-9/11 world, we witness the ‘people’s home’ being easily breached and looted. “
Layers of security, detachment and waiting tactical teams will be used to minimize the violence around the inaugural events, he said, adding that the biggest concerns should be an active sniper scenario, running over vehicles and deliberately targeting critical infrastructure.
In light of the week’s events, Bowser asked the Trump administration for an emergency statement for DC and asked the Department of Homeland Security to extend its preparations. Intelligence suggesting more violence is likely during the inaugural period, she wrote in a letter to Trump on Sunday.
“I will tell you that, given the events of last week, the preparation for this inauguration has to be different from any other inauguration,” said Bowser in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” program on Sunday.
The mayor asked DHS to extend the “Special National Security Event” period from 11 to 24 January in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf – an extension of the original plan from 19 to 21 January.
The inauguration is designated as a National Special Security Event, which allows for greater federal security cooperation and law enforcement resources.
In addition, Bowser asked Wolf for DHS to cooperate with the Department of Defense, Congress and the Supreme Court to establish a security perimeter with federal forces around federal properties, releasing the local Metropolitan Police Department to focus on normal functions in the city.
Bowser added that DC regularly works with federal partners on intelligence sharing, but will work to improve that relationship before taking office.
DHS’s second-in-command, Ken Cuccinelli, said Wednesday’s violence would be a “one-time event” and assured Americans that the inauguration day would be safe.
“You will see immediate improvement, a totally aggressive stance by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice as well, because we do not accept violence from anyone,” he said in an interview with Fox News on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Capitol Police asked DHS for additional police help, but by the time the request was made, “it was very close to when it all started to heat up,” said Cuccinelli.
The threat of more violence
White supremacists and extreme right-wing extremists are encouraged at this point, said Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks and combats hatred. “We hope that this violence can get worse before it gets better.”
A former DHS official told CNN that, from an extremist perspective, the aim of an attack like last week’s is not necessarily to destroy the Capitol. “It is to show that a relatively small number of people can actually take control of the system. It is supposed to be a rallying cry for – ‘join us, or you will be the enemy’.”
The former official pointed to images of members of the white power movement in the crowd during the takeover of the Capitol, adding that they were exploiting the electoral protest for their own purposes.
“We can begin to see many lives lost because of the moment that occurred on Wednesday, very, very concerned about the ripple effects,” said the former official. “It is a very worrying moment.”
Protests taking place across the country
Outside Washington, DC, local officials also had to deal with threats and increased security needs.
The illegal assembly was declared about an hour and a half after pro-Trump and counter-protesters met near the beach, according to a CNN affiliate KGTV.
On the same day of the siege in Washington, DC, the Texas State Capitol building and grounds were closed to the public “as a precaution,” according to a statement from the Texas Department of Public Security. Protesters stormed the Capitol grounds after an “Operation Occupy Texas Capitol” event was created on Facebook.
Washington Democratic Governor Jay Inslee announced on Friday that he was mobilizing up to 750 members of the National Guard to provide security for the start of the state’s legislative session, which begins on Monday.
“The actions we saw in Washington, DC and Olympia earlier this week were completely unacceptable and will not be repeated in our state again,” said Inslee in a written statement.
Protesters occupied the steps of the state capitol on Wednesday, and dozens of people invaded the grounds of the governor’s mansion before being peacefully rejected by state troops.
“In light of the most recent insurrection activity, the state cannot tolerate any actions that could result in damage, chaos or disruption to democratic institutions,” said Inslee on Friday night. In addition to the guards, the governor says that “a large number of Washington State Patrol soldiers will be available”.
In New Jersey, state homeland security officials are tracking the events planned for January 17 and 20, as well as “several one-off protests that we are still determining credibility,” said a New Jersey law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the efforts. state security.
“Part of the online rhetoric calls for protests in all 50 capitals plus DC,” said the official. “The FBI, in particular, has continued to place our threat assessments and we are at the state level as well.”
“I think DC is preparing for large-scale protests and potential violence,” said the official, adding that the reports that state officials received “outlined a much larger scale prevention and response to minimize last Wednesday’s recurrence. “
CNN’s Pervaiz Shallwani, Patricia DiCarlo, Mark Morales, Nicky Robertson, Barbara Starr, Curt Devine, Kay Jones and Andy Rose contributed to this report.