Biden's inaugural rehearsal postponed, security concerns cited

Joe Biden’s inauguration rehearsal has been postponed due to security concerns. The rehearsal scheduled for Sunday has been moved to Monday, according to Politico. A ride on Amtrak from Wilmington to Washington planned for Monday with Biden and his staff has been canceled.

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There have been no comments from the presidential inaugural committee, the Secret Service, or the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. After the violence on Capitol Hill last week, security concerns are being taken seriously. There are ongoing investigations by the FBI and other agencies looking into those who participated in the riot as the building was stormed by protesters. There is a threat of an armed protest on Sunday at noon. The FBI is warning of plans in all 50 states for armed protests in response to the Biden inauguration. After a briefing by the FBI Wednesday, the transition team released a statement.

“In the week since the attack on Congress by a mob that included domestic terrorists and violent extremists,” Biden’s transition team said in a statement, “the nation has continued to learn more about the threat to our democracy and about the potential for additional violence in the coming days, both in the National Capital Region and in cities across the country. This is a challenge that the President-elect and his team take incredibly seriously.”

The House Oversight Committee sent 27 letters out to transportation and lodging companies asking them to screen customers for potential involvement in domestic terrorism. The letter cites Airbnb as an example of a corporation working to try to prevent violence during the days leading up to the inauguration and on the day itself. Also, Chair Carolyn Maloney asks that companies “retain all January records for potential sharing with law enforcement and to inform the panel of the plans it implemented by the end of the month.”

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Lisa Monaco, Biden’s choice for deputy attorney general, is being brought in as a temporary adviser on security around the inauguration. She’s an Obama Homeland Security re-thread.

“Ms. Monaco will assist the President-elect and work with the incoming national security advisor, the incoming homeland security advisor, and current security and law enforcement officials, including with the United States Secret Service on their plans for the inauguration,” a spokesperson for the transition said in a statement. “Given the existing threats, Ms. Monaco’s temporary role will be focused solely on the period leading up to the inauguration.”

The inauguration activities are curtailed due to COVID-19 restrictions. D.C.’s mayor has asked visitors to not come to the city for the inauguration. In conjunction with FBI Director Christopher Wray’s warnings of reports of armed protests in all fifty states being planned, as many as 20,000 National Guard troops have been deployed for the inauguration. The photos of the troops resting on the Capitol’s marble floors has brought a call for cots to be provided for them by the Army from two Democrat lawmakers, Reps. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and Betty McCollum of Minnesota.

A flashback was posted by NewsBusters today on Twitter, a little reminder that just four years ago, the Trump inauguration brought about violence and mayhem in Washington, D.C. The capital is on high alert, true, but let’s not forget that previous inaugurations have faced security concerns, too. Usually, the threats don’t come true, as they did not during the Obama inauguration, but in 2017 they did. Six officers were injured in violent protests on Inauguration Day 2017.

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Black-clad activists among hundreds of demonstrators protesting Donald Trump’s swearing-in on Friday clashed with police a few blocks from the White House, in an outburst of violence rare for an inauguration.

At least 217 people were arrested in the melees, police said.

In the violence, knots of activists in black clothes and masks threw rocks and bottles at officers wearing riot gear, who responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades as a helicopter hovered low overhead.

At one flash point, a protester hurled an object through the passenger window of a police van, which sped away in reverse as demonstrators cheered. Earlier, activists used chunks of pavement and baseball bats to shatter the windows of a Bank of America branch and a McDonald’s outlet, all symbols of American capitalism.

Multiple vehicles were set on fire, including a black limousine. A knot of people dragged garbage cans into a street a few blocks from the White House and set them ablaze, later throwing a red cap bearing Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan into the flames.

Violent protests coming from the left is nothing new. That has been happening for as long as I can remember, including as a girl during the summer of 1968, and during the bombings done by the Weathermen Underground in the 1960s ad 1970s. That is why it was so particularly jarring to see Trump supporters resort to violence and destruction of federal property, it’s not how those on the right side of the aisle act.

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We have no way of knowing what will happen on January 20. It is now being reported that President Trump will leave the White House for the final time that morning, before the inauguration ceremony. He wants to leave before he is the ex-president. The report says he will fly to Mar-a-Lago on Air Force One. If he waits until after Biden is officially sworn-in, he would have to ask Biden for permission to use Air Force One. On Air Force One, he will travel with the “nuclear football” until Biden is sworn-in. A second nuclear football will be in Washington for Biden’s use after he is sworn-in and Trump’s codes are deactivated.

The White House is working on the optics of his departure.

Instead, CNN said, Trump plans to leave the White House before the midday swearing-in ceremony. His team is working on gathering a large crowd to see him off, the network said.

According to CNN, Trump plans to depart the White House for the final time as president in Marine One from the South Lawn. He’s hoping for a military-style send-off, the network reported, citing an unnamed source who had spoken about the plan with Trump.

Let Trump be Trump one last time?

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