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There will be heightened security for Congress on Jan. 6, 2025, the U.S. Secret Service said Wednesday. The new plans are an effort to prevent a replay of the disastrous events four years ago when Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol as part of an attempt to stop the certification of electoral votes.
The Department of Homeland Security has designated the election certification as a “National Special Security Event” for the first time, at the request of Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, the Secret Service said. The designation opens up a raft of federal, state and local resources to increase security for the process. (Other major events with the designation include presidential inaugurations, the parties’ national conventions, the United Nations General Assembly and the Super Bowl.)
The heightened security around the certification process is being put into place amid fears of yet another damaging response to the presidential election results. In 2021, Trump urged his supporters to march to the Capitol building to protest the electoral certification, during which a riot broke out, resulting in five deaths.
At Tuesday’s presidential debate against Kamala Harris, Trump refused to take responsibility for the violence, saying he had “nothing to do with that, other than they asked me to make a speech.” He has also called the Jan. 6 rioters “hostages” and “patriots” and vowed to pardon them if re-elected.
Nearly four years on from the Jan. 6 riot, the political landscape has arguably become even more toxic and polarized. Election workers and government officials have reported a huge surge in threats and abuse. Trump’s fearmongering about election fraud is a constant refrain. With much of Republican Party now behind him, his latest gambit is to falsely accuse Democrats of trying to get noncitizens to vote for them, which is illegal and incredibly rare.
Trump also continues to reject the 2020 election results, falsely blaming widespread voter fraud for his loss. In recent months, he has repeatedly declined to commit to accepting the election results in November, setting the stage for potentially even more post-election tumult.