The National Guard has started to move into Washington en masse in an attempt to prevent violence in the run up to the inauguration of Joe Biden next week.
As Congress acted to impeach Donald Trump on Wednesday and the president urged his supporters to shun violence, the National Guard started to deploy 20,000 troops in the US capital.
At Trump’s inauguration in 2016, the figure was about 8,000.
The National Guard are on a 24-hour watch in the US Capitol after last week’s violence, with off-duty members catching naps in hallways and below the bust of General George Washington.
Riot shields and gas masks were piled in the hallways, with large numbers of Guard members in fatigues and carrying rifles stationed around the exterior of the building.
Troops have been present at the seat of Congress since at least Friday but more were due to arrive before inauguration day, according to the city’s acting police chief Robert Contee.
The preparations continued as Trump said in in a White House statement: “In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be no violence, no lawbreaking and no vandalism of any kind. That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for.”
New fencing and other security measures have also gone up around the building, a global symbol of democracy. A seven-foot (two-metre) high fence has been erected around the Capitol, with metal barriers and National Guard troops protecting the congressional office buildings that surround it.
Read more here: Washington DC braces as thousands of National Guard move in for inauguration day
The House of Representatives voted 232 to 197 to impeach president Donald Trump for a second time, formally charging him with inciting an insurrection. It was the most bipartisan impeachment vote in US history.
After an emotional day-long debate in the chamber, 10 Republicans joined Democrats to try and hold Trump to account before he leaves office next week. Here’s our video wrap…
Welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Thursday, where we expect to see further fall-out from yesterdays vote in the House to impeach the president. Again.
- Donald Trump became the first US president to be impeached twice. The House voted to impeach Trump on incitement of insurrection, after the president incited a violent mob to storm the Capitol last week, resulting in five deaths.
- Ten House Republicans voted in favor of impeachment. Their votes made this the most bipartisan presidential impeachment in US history, though 197 Republicans voted against taking action.
- Nancy Pelosi delivered an impassioned speech calling on members to support impeachment. “He must go,” the Democratic speaker said of the president. “He is a clear and present danger to the nation we all love.”
- Republican Kevin McCarthy said Trump “bears responsibility” for the Capitol attack but did not deserve to be impeached. Senate leader Mitch McConnell has said the impeachment trial will happen after Biden has taken office on 20 January.
- In an uncharacteristically low-key video last night, Donald Trump condemned violence without mentioning his indictment for inciting the attack at the Capitol
- The US recorded 232,943 new coronavirus cases and 3,848 further deaths yesterday, according to the figures from Johns Hopkins university. There were 130,383 people in hospital with Covid yesterday, stretching US healthcare resources.
- President-elect Joe Biden has said “We’re in the teeth of this crisis” and will today lay out his administration’s vaccination and economic rescue package plans.
- Biden said the senate must balance the impeachment trial with coronavirus response. “I hope that the Senate leadership will find a way to deal with their constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation,” he said.
- The Senate select committee on intelligence will hold an open nomination hearing at noon on Friday for Avril Haines, his nominee to be the director of national intelligence
Updated
at 5.03am EST