"The fence will go up a day or two before, and if everything goes well it will come down very soon after," Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger told reporters in the Capitol.
The comments came just moments after Manger, along with the sergeants-at-arms in both chambers, had prepared the top congressional leaders on the intelligence gathered by law enforcement ahead of Saturday's "Justice for J6" rally at the Capitol, which will oppose the treatment of the hundreds of people arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 riot.
Leaving the intelligence advice, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) refused to talk on the threat level posed on Saturday. But he said he's certain there won't be another security debacle like that of Jan. 6.
"They seemed very, very well prepared — much better prepared than before Jan. 6. I think they're ready for whatever might happen," he said.
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The briefing was held just hours after the U.S. Capitol Police officers seized a 44-year-old California man for supposedly holding onto a bayonet and a machete just outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters, which sits just south of the Capitol building. Both items are prohibited in Washington.
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The man was driving a truck laden with white supremacist slogans, and said he was "on patrol," according to Capitol Police.
The original Capitol security fence was built in the days following the deadly rampage at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and quickly became a symbol of both the failure of law enforcement to prepare for violence that day and the ongoing effort by former President Trump to overturn his election defeat.
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Furthermore, it angered Republicans in Congress, who accused Democrats of politicizing Jan. 6 by overstating the violent threat posed by Trump's supporters. Closer to home, neighbors near the Capitol Hill also struggled hard to have the fence taken off.
Heading into the intelligence briefing, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) agreed with Schumer's assessment that law enforcement was taking the threat of potential violence more severely than they did before Jan. 6.
"I think there's much better preparation and knowledge about what to expect," she said. "I do observe much better communication."
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The Capitol Police Board also issued an emergency declaration that will allow USCP to deputize law enforcement officers from other departments as USCP special officers during the Sept. 18 demonstration.
“It’s hard for me to criticize them for being what I think is over-prepared,” D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton told DCist/WAMU. Norton has been highly critical of police in the past for leaving up fencing for more than six months following Jan. 6. insurrection, and has introduced a bill to ban permanent fencing. But in this case, she said, “I think I can understand their reaction this close to Jan. 6.”
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