American intelligence agencies fear armed clashes on the eve of and on the day of Joe Biden's inauguration, which is scheduled for January 20.
In particular, FBI Director Christopher Ray told reporters that department officials are analyzing numerous messages on the Web with calls for citizens to go to protests with weapons.
“We are concerned about the likelihood of violence at the many protests and rallies planned over the coming days here in Washington DC and in state capitol districts across the country, during which armed individuals could find themselves in close proximity to government buildings and government officials,” Ray said. at a press briefing with US Vice President Mike Pence at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
"Incitement to mutiny"
According to some sources of the Politico edition, due to security problems, the rehearsal of Biden's inauguration, scheduled for January 17, was postponed.
Earlier, US intelligence agencies informed the president-elect of potential security threats during his inauguration ceremony, and congressmen were informed of planned armed attacks on the White House, the Capitol and the Supreme Court.
Fences have already appeared near these buildings.
Since January 11, an emergency regime has been in effect in Washington.
The streets adjacent to the Capitol are closed.
To prevent unrest, National Guard units are being deployed to the US capital.
At the moment, there are more than 7 thousand military personnel in the capital, who are accommodated in hotels in the business part of the city.
The total number of troops in Washington by January 20 is expected to exceed 20 thousand people.
Local residents and businessmen, fearing clashes and pogroms, are booting up shop windows, windows and doors of their establishments.
Barricades and National Guard fighters: Washington prepares for Biden's inauguration
The United States is currently under investigation into the riots that broke out on January 6, when supporters of the incumbent President Donald Trump broke the resistance of law enforcement officers and broke into the Capitol.
Five people became victims of clashes, more than 50 policemen were injured.
To date, over 100 people have been arrested on suspicion of participating in the riots.
Joe Biden and Democratic leaders blamed Trump for the tragic incident.
Amid accusations against the current president, the administration of social networks Twitter, Facebook and Instagram blocked his accounts.
In addition, the capture of the Capitol served as a pretext for launching a new impeachment procedure for Trump.
On January 13, the House of Representatives of the US Congress by a majority vote approved a resolution to remove the incumbent from power under the article "incitement to rebellion."
Trump completely denies his guilt in what happened.
"Political intent"
As Pavel Feldman, deputy director of the RUDN Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts, said in an interview with RT, a very tense situation has developed in Washington due to the threat of armed uprisings.
At the same time, the expert does not expect riots comparable in scale to the BLM (Black Lives Matter) stocks last summer.
“The Capitol incident came as a surprise to many.
Apparently now the American power structures are trying to prevent a repetition of the scenario.
But, from my point of view, the deployment of troops to Washington is more of a political intent.
This is an attempt to once again accuse Trump of allegedly going to organize an uprising based on right-wing radicals, ”Feldman argues.
The expert stated that the incident with the capture of the Capitol caused a wave of inadequate reaction and absurd suspicions from the Democratic Party, some of whose representatives began to put forward conspiracy theories and explanations of what happened.
So, on January 12, a member of the House of Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shared on her Instagram suspicions that she had regarding her colleagues in parliament, with whom she was hiding from the anger of the crowd that burst into the Capitol.
According to her, at the time of the assault, she was allegedly close to the supporters of "white supremacy theory" and QAnon, a marginal movement that believes that Trump is waging a secret struggle against pedophiles from the American political establishment and business elite.
"The evacuation site was attended by supporters of QAnon and the theory of white supremacy, and, frankly, supporters of white supremacy among Congressmen, who, it seemed to me, could reveal my location and create opportunities for me to be harmed, kidnapped, and so on." - said Ocasio-Cortez.
Another Democratic Congresswoman, former federal attorney Mickey Sherrill, took the Capitol visitor tour that her colleagues conducted on January 5 as part of the intelligence activities organized by the future assault participants.
National Guard soldiers at the Capitol building
© Screenshot from video: Ruptly
Sherrill does not rule out that some of the legislators incited and helped the protesters.
Along with three dozen other Democrats, she signed a letter addressed to the Capitol police leadership, in which it was suggested that the protesters "had very detailed information" about the interior of the building.
The document claims that on January 5, the flow of visitors to the congress building exceeded the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic last March.
It also notes the need to investigate a possible connection between these groups in the Capitol compound and the attacks on the building on 6 January.
“Many of the congressmen who signed this letter, including those of us who served in the military and trained to recognize suspicious activity, as well as a number of our other employees, saw an extremely large group of unauthorized persons on the territory of the complex on Tuesday 5 January,” the document says. ...
At the same time, Ocasio-Cortez and Sherrill did not name the names of those congressmen whom they suspect of helping the participants in the storming of the Capitol.
However, not all Democrats refrained from specifying the charges.
For example, Congresswoman Nancy Mays said that Republican Party member Lauren Bobert, in her Twitter post on the morning of January 6, allegedly deliberately disclosed the whereabouts of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose office was subsequently occupied by protesters.
Bobert denies any involvement in the attack on the protesters and claims that Pelosi had already left her workplace at the time of her tweet.
In addition, the Republicans were accused of not wearing medical masks during the evacuation on January 6, thereby allegedly endangering the health of the Democratic Congressmen.
“It's very unsettling that this is a combined threat — a threat from within and a threat from outside,” said Rep. Anne McLain Custer, a Democrat.
"Settle the scores with the unwanted"
Pavel Feldman is convinced that the Democrats are deliberately making absurd accusations, hoping to label their ideological opponents as conspirators on the wave of indignation at the storming of the Capitol.
In this way, Biden's supporters expect to push their opponents to the sidelines of the political life of the United States, the expert believes.
“Democrats are now reveling in a period of impending tyranny.
After all, they will soon gain control over the White House.
And, of course, they can't wait to use this power in order to take revenge on Trump personally and settle scores with unwanted Republicans.
This is such a moment of revenge, ”Feldman explained.
In turn, American political scientist Malek Dudakov believes that the tense situation in the United States on the eve of Biden's inauguration is largely a consequence of the policies of the Democrats themselves, who justified the pogroms and attacks by BLM activists on the police.
In an interview with RT, the expert noted that by their behavior, Trump's opponents actually "legitimized political violence."
“Naturally, the democrats are not going to admit their mistakes, which have increased the polarization of society.
And now they are telling voters about conspiracy theories like QAnon, trying to make the most of the so-called administrative resource, ”Dudakov summed up.