Security Fence Goes Up Around Same Congress That Fought One on the Border Last Year
After Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, objected loudly about President Donald Trump building and improving the border wall with Mexico, fencing has been erected around the U.S Capitol Building.
The reason they did so is the same as at the border: to keep unauthorized people out and to maintain security.
ABC News reported that security measures have been sharply stepped up around the Capitol following last week’s incursion by rioters.
“The National Guard will deploy over 6,000 guardsmen to the city by the weekend and will finish setting up the 7-foot-tall fencing around the Capitol, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said,” the outlet reported.
The Capitol grounds are now completely surrounded with fencing. pic.twitter.com/OkBdUU1YBy
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) January 8, 2021
It was a wise move and an admission of the efficacy of walls or strong fences, properly manned.
There is little doubt that if the White House were not surrounded by walls and fencing, and backed up by heavily armed Secret Service agents, its grounds would have been stormed during last May’s violent protests, much as the Capitol was.
And if the rioters had been able to lay their hands on Trump, God knows what they would have done.
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Bloomberg reported in May that the president was taken to White House bunker when a condition “red” was declared and the complex went into lockdown.
“Multiple” Secret Service agents were injured in the melee with agitators around an outer ring of temporary fencing near the White House.
Coronavirus, Riots, White House Siege: unfolding simultaneously in the US… And Trump is hiding from protest in underground bunker. pic.twitter.com/8exN1A0CKT
— Rula Jebreal (@rulajebreal) June 1, 2020
MSNBC’s Brian Williams described the unfolding scene as “an absolute chaotic mess.”
He identified the area around the White House as a “fought-over piece of property” between the Secret Service and the protesters.
Williams also noted the White House security personnel shining floodlights down on the North Lawn, apparently making sure no agitators breached the fence line.
CNN’s Alexander Marquardt pointed out the decision by the Secret Service to reportedly move Trump to an underground bunker showed “that there was a significant fear of the situation that was unfolding out here.”
Amid protests Friday night, President Trump was taken to the White House underground bunker for a little under an hour, according to a White House official and a law enforcement source. CNN’s @MarquardtA reports. https://t.co/JZGZc5O7HI pic.twitter.com/by96tJ6vt7
— CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) June 1, 2020
CNN host Don Lemon shared that assessment, saying Trump would not have been taken to the bunker unless there was a “real emergency” at the White House.
As an aside, what I did not find in any of the news outlets that I quoted above is the notion that the protesters were engaged in an “insurrection” or “coup,” which is the language often employed by many establishment media outlets regarding last week’s rioters at the Capitol.
Pelosi, who called Trump’s border wall with Mexico an “immorality” and an “old way of thinking” in January 2019, no doubt was happy to see the fencing go up around the Capitol.
Two years ago, a federal judge shot down efforts by the Democrat-controlled House to block Trump from using Department of Defense funds to build the wall.
The Supreme Court backed up the ruling in July.
On a visit to the border in Alamo, Texas, on Tuesday, Trump celebrated the completion of 450 miles of the new wall.
“In every region that we’ve built the wall, illegal crossings and drug smuggling have plummeted,” Trump said.
“In the Rio Grande Valley, crossings have dropped nearly 80 percent,” he added.
“In Yuma, Arizona, illegal entries have been slashed by 90 percent.”
The truth of the matter is that walls and fencing, properly manned, work.
I’m glad those providing security to our lawmakers in Congress will be utilizing this time-tested method.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
