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Capitol assault reshapes Biden inauguration

08 January 2021
Dan Ackermann

Authorities are hoping a nightly curfew and far smaller crowd will keep President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration from descending into a repeat of Wednesday's Capitol chaos.

Why it matters: The fact that a crowd of Trump supporters breached the Capitol and scaled the platform where Biden is slated to take the presidential oath has led to criticism by political leaders, calls for investigations and reflection about how it will alter a normally festive da.

  • House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said today the performance by Capitol Police was a massive failure.
  • The chief later announced his resignation, as did the Senate sergeant-at-arms, and the Secret Service reminded everyone it would be in charge that day.

Sen. Roy Blunt, chair of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, told reporters "the Capitol Police will and should really do a quick review here of what went wrong, and what they need to do to be sure nothing like that could happen again.”

  • The inauguration “is always a high-security moment,” he added, because it's outside and “has so many different targets to it.” Blunt expressed hope, though, because "we're gonna have … less than 3,000 people in the secure area, as opposed to 200,000, so that part gets easier."

The changes already made: Washington will be under a state of emergency until 3pm on Jan. 21, the day after Biden’s inauguration.

  • The state of emergency gives officials heightened powers to tap into funds, coordinate between agencies and enlist special police help. It also gives the mayor power to announce a new curfew, if needed.
  • Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy said today that military personnel are erecting a 7-foot-tall “non-scalable” fence around the Capitol grounds, a fence that will remain in place for at least 30 days.
  • The Metropolitan Police Dept. said at least 6,200 National Guardsmen from D.C. and surrounding states will be deployed to the city by this weekend.
  • The troops will be on a 30-day mobilization plan extending beyond the inauguration.

Go deeper: Listen to Dan Primack discuss the Capitol insurrection on the Axios Re:Cap podcast.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.