According to two sources, for security reasons, President-elect Biden will not choose to take Amtrak to the inauguration ceremony in Washington, D.C. next week.
According to CNN on the 13th, relevant sources said that Biden decided not to arrive in Washington by a 90-minute train from his hometown Wilmington, Delaware this week.
Biden was worried that there might be risks along the way, after getting off from Union Station in Washington, a few blocks from the tightly defended U.S. Capitol.
CNN reported that Biden’s transition team said in a statement on the 13th that Biden heard briefings on the FBI, senior Secret Service officials and key members of the national security team on the same day and learned that more extremist violence could occur in the next few days.
Previously, Biden had instructed his team to continue to advance the inaugural plan, including taking Amtrak to the inaugural place, instead of being scared by the riots on January 6 in the U.S. Congress and the spread of the coronavirus.
The report said that taking a train from Biden’s hometown to Washington, D.C., was one of the inauguration ceremonies. During Biden’s previous career, whether as a congressional senator or vice president, he took a train from his hometown to Washington to work, with a total of nearly 8,000 round trips.
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will still hold a swearing-in ceremony on the west side of the Capitol, but the ceremony will be greatly reduced, according to the report. Biden said this week that he was “not afraid to take the oath outside”.
Recently, the U.S. military sent about 15,000 National Guard soldiers to Washington, D.C., to protect Washington from “domestic terrorists” as Biden is about to take office.
