taken on March 05, 2020 Acting Homeland Security Security Chad
Wolf, announces measures against online sexual exploitation during
a press conference at the Department of Justice in
Washington,DC. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP)
US Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf
announced his resignation unexpectedly Monday as worries rose over
more violence during President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration next
week.
Wolf’s departure as head of the body in charge of security for
the January 20 event came five days after President Donald Trump’s
supporters stormed the US Capitol, hoping to prevent Biden from
replacing him.
The Homeland Security Department oversees several law
enforcement bodies including the Secret Service, the point agency
for security for the White House and the US president.
Wolf, who said he was stepping down for procedural reasons,
named Pete Gaynor, the administrator of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, to replace him.
But the move did not end questions over whether the US capital
city would be adequately secure over the coming week.
An internal FBI document warned of the possibility that armed
Trump supporters could hold protests in all 50 states between the
coming weekend and January 20, according to US media.
The White House issued a statement saying that Trump had
“declared that an emergency exists in the District of Columbia and
ordered Federal assistance to supplement the District’s response
efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from the
59th Presidential Inauguration from January 11 to January 24,
2021.”
It said the order gave the Department of Homeland Security the
authority to act “to save lives and to protect property and public
health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a
catastrophe in the District of Columbia.”
secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, resigned January
11, 2021, amid rising worries over the possibility of more violence
during President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration next week, a DHS
official said. (Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP)
Meanwhile, federal and city officials continued to point fingers
over who was responsible for the debacle at the Capitol last
Wednesday, when the Congressional police force was overwhelmed by
thousands of Trump supporters who succeeded in shutting down the
legislature.
More troops called up
The Pentagon said Monday it had authorized 15,000 National Guard
troops to be deployed for Biden’s inauguration.
Already 6,200 troops are on the ground in Washington, and a
total of 10,000 are planned by the coming weekend, said General
Daniel Hokanson, chief of the Defense Department’s National
Guard Bureau.
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Another 5,000 could be deployed by the day of the inauguration,
he said.
They will come equipped with riot gear and weapons, but so far
they have not been authorized to arm themselves while on the
streets of the US capital, he said.
Before he announced his departure, Wolf also ordered an
acceleration of preparations by the Secret Service, citing “events
of the past week and the evolving security landscape.”
Preparations for the event were moving quickly. A security fence
has been built around the entire grounds of the Capitol, where
Biden will take the oath of office as Trump’s successor.
‘Don’t come’
Still angry about last Wednesday’s violence, in which five
people died, including a protester shot dead by police and a police
officer who was attacked and died from his injuries, Washington
mayor Muriel Bowser appealed to Biden backers to stay away from the
capital on inauguration day.
Normally, hundreds of thousands of Americans — sometimes more
than a million — flock to Washington for the quadrennial event.
“We are asking Americans not to come to Washington DC for the
59th presidential inauguration on January 20 and to instead
participate virtually,” Bowser said.
Organizers said the Democratic president-elect would use the
occasion to foster national unity, faced by a country deeply
divided over politics and hobbled by the coronavirus pandemic.
He will be sworn in at the Capitol in front of the National Mall
filled with flags rather than the usual hundreds of thousands of
spectators.
Afterwards, he and three former US presidents — Trump won’t
attend — will travel to Arlington National Cemetery, where
thousands of US military war dead for veterans are buried, to lay a
wreath.
But the preparations come as Democrats, accusing Trump of
fomenting and applauding what they branded an “insurrection” and
“coup” attempt last week, seek to force Trump from office
prematurely.
That could further spark violence by Trump supporters, the FBI
warned in a new internal advisory.
According to US media, the document says that far-right groups
like the violent Boogaloo Boys are planning protests around the
country timed to the inauguration.
One group, the FBI said, “warned that if Congress attempts to
remove POTUS (Trump) via the 25th Amendment a huge uprising will
occur,” ABC News reported.
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