Inauguration Day is usually one where hundreds of thousands of people from both parties pack the National Mall to celebrate the swearing in of the president. It’s marked by celebrations, parades, concerts, and other events.
But not this year.
President-elect Joe Biden and his team already announced the event would be scaled back due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Now the mayor of Washington, D.C., is looking to make it even smaller by asking everybody to stay put and avoid the capital city, and she is calling for a massive increase in the already significant federal security presence.
What did she say?
At a news conference Monday, Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser urged Americans to stay away from the Jan. 20 Inauguration.
The mayor said she was worried about a repeat of what the world saw at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday because, she said, “Trumpism won’t die on Jan. 20.”
“If I’m scared of anything, it’s for our democracy,” Bowser said, “because we have very extreme factions in our country that are armed and dangerous.”
Her statement echoed what she told CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday:
I think what we have seen is real domestic terrorism in our nation’s capital, and that’s what we need to call it. Who we saw charging the Capitol building were trained people in many cases — former military, former law enforcement. I think we may find other trained people, trained at marching and surging and sieging buildings. So we have to take it seriously. We, too, have to take seriously how we’re spreading our resources. That’s why we’re very focused on making sure that the federal government is providing enough coverage for federal facilities, including the Capitol, but many federal buildings across the district so that other law enforcement, our law enforcement can focus on other threats across the district’s eight wards.
With that mindset, the mayor declared, “Our goals right now are to encourage Americans to participate virtually and to protect the District of Columbia from a repeat of the violent insurrection experienced at the Capitol and its grounds.”
Bowser also asked the Department of Homeland Security extend the span of time and perimeter for the Inauguration’s “national special security event” designation and told CBS News that she want the president to “declare a pre-emergency declaration” for the district that will allow for greater federal coordination.
CNN reported that the Pentagon is considering boosting the number of guardsman in the city to 13,000 for the Inauguration, up from about 7,000 that were planned before Wednesday’s riots.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser: “We will get through this” but “Trumpism won’t die”
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(H/T: HotAir)