Forty-three troops deployed at the inauguration have come down with COVID-19.
Forty-three troops deployed at the inauguration have come down with COVID-19. The Military Times reports the troops tested positive last Friday, and it's feared that number may go up with the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden just hours away.
Even the D.C. waterways are on high alert. The Potomac and other bodies of water have been shut down after the Coast Guard received a tip from a Virginia woman who said she was concerned after seeing men with heavy-duty, military-style kayaks on pickup trucks heading north to the capital.
Two National Guard members have been sent home from the mission because they were found to have ties to fringe, right-wing militia groups.
“America is waking up to the idea that we have an enemy in our midst who is more dangerous than Al Qaeda or ISIS ever were or ever could be. And that enemy in our midst has now been exposed,” former NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton told Inside Edition.
Meanwhile, more arrests are being made in the wake of the Capitol invasion.
Riley June Williams, 22, allegedly stole a laptop from Nancy Pelosi's office and planned to sell it to the Russians. She turned herself in to authorities in Pennsylvania. Her mother spoke to a reporter.
“She’s definitely not a leader,” her mom said. “I just think she was like — I know there was another woman beside her also doing it. I think she was just like, ‘They're letting us up, they’re letting us up. C’mon, let's go.’”
Also arrested was 38-year-old Jessica Watkins, who served in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan and allegedly commands a militia group in Ohio.
With tightened security ahead of Biden’s inauguration, Washington resembles an armed military camp. But restaurants like We the Pizza are showing their appreciation by donating thousands of pizzas to the National Guard.
On the national mall, a sea of 200,000 flags represents all the people who couldn't be there because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and makes a spectacular vista as the nation prepares for the inauguration of a new president.
Biden choked up as he addressed the Delaware National Guard before leaving for the nation's capital.
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