WASHINGTON (AP) – Elected President Joe Biden will no longer ride an Amtrak train to Washington for his inauguration, a person informed of the decision told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The president-elect’s decision reflects growing concern about potential threats in the Capitol and across the U.S. in the run-up to Biden’s inauguration on January 20.
Security in Washington has increased significantly in preparation for the inauguration following the violent uprising last week at the US Capitol by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump, and the FBI warned over the weekend of plans for armed demonstrations at all 50 capitals and in Washington, DC, in the days leading up to the event.
The person who was informed about Biden’s decision spoke about anonymity to discuss internal matters. The news was first reported by CNN.
The move to abandon the 90-minute train ride from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, to Washington was probably not easy for the president-elect. Biden’s preference for the train during his 36-year career in the Senate was such a central part of his public persona that he rode home on his last day as Vice President Amtrak, and during the presidential campaign he train tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania used. part of an effort to address blue-collar workers.
Biden became famous because he rode the train from his earliest days in the Senate, when he wanted to return home almost every night to raise his young sons after his wife and daughter died in a car accident in 1972. His embrace of Amtrak – and the friends he regularly made among the train conductors and staff – can be seen in a short film that was broadcast last August during the Democratic National Convention.
The train ride is not the only safety-related development around the inauguration.
On Wednesday, Biden received a briefing from FBI officials, the Secret Service and his national security team about the possibility of additional violence in the coming days.
In the week since the attack on Congress by a mob that included domestic terrorists and violent extremists, the country has continued to learn more about the threat to our democracy and the potential for additional violence in the coming days. , both in the national capital Region and in cities across the country, ”according to a statement from the Biden Transition Team. “This is a challenge that the elected president and his team are taking incredibly seriously.”
Across Washington, but especially around the Capitol, the National Mall, and some nearby federal buildings, security increased significantly, with incalculable walls and metal gates, streets closed, and a new contingent of National Guard troops stationed at the Capitol.