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Among the most shocking images to emerge from Wednesday’s attack on the US Capitol were members of the pro-Trump mob with baseball bats and “Keep America Great” banners rampaging through the inaugural platform on the west front of the building. where four years ago Donald Trump took the oath of office.
The sight of the rioters going berserk amid clouds of tear gas in the same place where their beloved leader vowed to “preserve, protect and defend the United States Constitution” was not only symbolically chilling. He underscored the enormous security challenge now facing the US government as it heads toward the next inauguration, that of Joe Biden, just days away.
As with any inauguration in modern times, Biden’s ascent to the presidency on January 20 has been declared a “special national security event.” That gives you the highest level of security readiness, with all the phenomenal firepower that federal agencies run by the Secret Service and the FBI can muster.
In the wake of the attack on the Capitol, that already high level of security is now being increased significantly. The risk that the incoming president and vice president, three former presidents, all nine members of the United States Supreme Court, and the majority of members of Congress, all of whom are expected to attend the inauguration, will be exposed to attack Repeated mob incited by Trump is beyond contemplation.
“There will have to be major reviews of what happened and changes made in terms of tightening security,” Amy Klobuchar, the Democratic senator who sits on the joint congressional committee that oversees the inauguration ceremonies, told CBS News.
Within hours of the carnage on Wednesday, that reinforcement was in sight. A 7-foot-tall “non-scalable” fence is being erected in a giant circle around the Capitol grounds, where it will remain for at least 30 days.
In Washington DC a state of emergency has been declared that will last until the day after the inauguration. More than 6,200 members of the National Guard will be in town this weekend, according to Mayor Muriel Bowser.
What drives the fight to increase security is the realization that what happened on Wednesday represented a security breach of immense proportions. The Capitol Police Chief and Senate Sergeant-at-Arms resigned accordingly.
But the phrase “security breach” by itself does not come close to the threat contained in the assault on the Capitol. The most dangerous aspect was not in the mob itself, but in who was behind it.
Never before has the incumbent president incited his followers to attack the heart of American democracy.
As Michael Chertoff, George W Bush’s former homeland security secretary, put it: “What Donald Trump did was a betrayal of the public trust and a violation of his oath of office. There is no doubt that what we saw this week was prompted by the rhetoric that he has been using for weeks and that inspired and mobilized right-wing extremists and conspiracy theorists. “
Chertoff compared the riots on the Capitol to 9/11. “On September 11, we were concerned that one of the planes would hit the Capitol building. In this case, the Capitol building was hit. It was domestic terror and absolutely shocking. “
Chertoff was instrumental in the preparations for Barack Obama’s first inauguration in January 2009. That event presented its own enormous challenges, given Obama’s status as the first black president in a country with a long history of racial violence amplified by the vast crowds of nearly 2 million. people who met in Washington to cheer him on.
But he said the nature of the threat had changed significantly since then. The focus has shifted away from foreign terrorism planning large-scale attacks such as September 11 to domestic incitement channeled through social media.
“Get people to crack down on conspiracy theories or ideological extremism, and encourage them to use whatever they have on hand to carry out a terrorist act. It creates a different type of security challenge – it must detect many different types of people and threats. “
The change presents the Secret Service with a difficult task, Chertoff said. “As unfortunately we now know, there are people who are willing to participate in national terrorism. Unlike dealing with foreign terrorists that you can exclude from the country, in this case you don’t know if your next door neighbor could be a threat. “
A blessing has been delivered to current acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and the Secret Service as they seek to control this year’s inauguration from an unexpected place: the pandemic.
Roy Blunt, the Republican senator who chairs the Congressional committee preparing for the opening ceremonies, has estimated that the number of participants who will be allowed to enter secure perimeter areas at the inauguration will be drastically reduced to less than 3,000, compared to to the approximately 200,000 that are normally included.
With these numbers so diminishing, the key will be to keep anyone who hasn’t been fully vetted away from the newly installed president and vice president.
Given the scale of resources available to the most powerful government on Earth, that task should not be insurmountable. But Chertoff cautions that the inauguration will be just the beginning.
“There will be a persistent challenge over the next several months, depending on how active Donald Trump is when out of office, in terms of internal terrorism inspired by him directly or by conspiratorial groups and right-wing extremists. This will be the security challenge for the foreseeable future. “
