The U.S. federal government is significantly increasing security at the Capitol so lawmakers can count state election votes without a repeat of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the Secret Service said Wednesday. Washington Post In his announcement.
The Department of Homeland Security has declared the vote count for the upcoming election, scheduled for Jan. 6, 2025, a special national security event, so the post-election gathering will have the same level of security as presidential inaugurations and political conventions, the Secret Service confirmed.
“National security incidents are incidents of major national importance,” said Eric Ranagan, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service.
The United States Secret Service, working with our federal, state and local partners, is committed to developing and implementing a comprehensive and integrated security plan to ensure the safety of the event and its attendees.
He added.
The designation, at the request of Washington Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and recommended by a House Select Committee investigating the case on Jan. 6, is intended to free up money and law enforcement resources from across the federal government to protect members of Congress while they certify the election results. That’s exactly what lawmakers were doing when a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
But Congress, locked in a fierce battle over government funding, must act to ensure the Secret Service has enough money to cover national security events and protect Donald Trump and Kamala Harris for the remainder of the election.
Action is necessary because of Donald Trump
According to the newspaper, the Department of Homeland Security's decision is just the latest step in an attempt to prevent “a repeat of the chaos caused by Trump's lies” in the 2020 election.
Lawmakers, aides, lawyers, activists, political strategists and law enforcement officials, who aim to protect the peaceful transfer of power next January, have spent much of the past few years preparing for “a dizzying array of post-election nightmare scenarios.”
Countless variations of their concerns have been expressed in legal briefs, internal conversations, and secret law enforcement plans. Some fear that House members will fight for weeks to elect a speaker, making it impossible to verify the election results. Others fear that a handful of lawmakers will delay the inauguration of elected representatives, leaving the people voters elected to represent their districts paralyzed with no authority or ability to handle basic business.
Scenario planners acknowledge that they cannot anticipate all the potential risks that could threaten the peaceful transfer of power. According to the Washington Post, the fact that Trump has refused to express regret for his actions on January 6, 2021, during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, and has continued to make unfounded claims of election fraud, will make forecasts for the November election even more difficult for the period afterward.
