The US capital looks like a crisis area these days: barriers, fences and 20,000 national guards are supposed to secure Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday. In the meantime, the President-elect is setting the tone.
By Katrin Brand, ARD Studio Washington
Washington DC is used to a lot. Roadblocks, circling helicopters, vehicle columns. The preparations for the inauguration of Joe Biden and the fear of further riots, however, have paralyzed parts of the city to an unprecedented extent. The White House and Capitol are enclosed with fences and concrete barriers. The government district and the National Mall, the elongated park area, are fenced in and divided into zones that are difficult or impossible to pass.
“We prepare for what we don’t know”
Mayor Muriel Bowser asked the residents for understanding. “We have a special responsibility to ensure that there is a peaceful handover in our country,” she said. And that means that a good dozen metro stations are closed, that from Tuesday the bridges over the Potomac will no longer be passable, that well over 20,000 National Guards have moved into the city. Demonstrations will only be possible in demarcated places and only on a very small scale.
They only hint at what kind of threat the security authorities fear. There is a lot of worrying chatter on the Internet, said Matt Miller, the FBI officer in charge of DC: “We’re preparing for what we don’t know.”
Rioting is feared all over the country
On Friday, a man was arrested at a checkpoint with a gun, ammunition and a forged ID card. The capitals of the states are also preparing for riots and have sealed off their government seats. So far, however, it has remained calm.
The Washingtoners, however, will have to adjust to lasting changes in the city. “We focus and on January 20th and January 21st and every day after that,” said Bowser. The city must reposition itself.
Biden’s first official act: Revise Trump decisions
Joe Biden, the future president, continues to prepare for the start of his term in office. He will proclaim a “message of unity” that will bring the country forward and that will be a message “to get things done,” said his future chief of staff Ron Klain on CNN.
On the very first day, he wants to reverse the exit from the Paris Climate Agreement and lift the entry ban for citizens from Muslim countries. In a memo from his chief of staff, it is also announced that Biden intends to temporarily introduce masking requirements for federal government buildings. Further orders should deal with help for Americans particularly affected by the pandemic.
