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With the FBI screening National Guard troops for potential animosity toward Joe Biden, Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen reckons the soldiers' gender and skin color are proof enough to suspect them of plotting "insurrection."

Following the pro-Trump riot on Capitol Hill earlier this month, Biden's inauguration on Wednesday will take place in a locked-down Washington DC, behind security fencing and a human wall of more than 20,000 soldiers. And, in an unprecedented move, both the army and FBI are vetting each and every one of them for links to right-wing extremism.

© Rod Lamkey / Reuters
Members of the US National Guard pictured outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, January 18, 2021

Speaking to CNN on Monday, the Tennessee Representative stated that the National Guard is "90 some-odd percent male," and the fact that "only about 20 percent of white males voted for Biden" is enough reason to suspect dissent among the ranks deployed in Washington. Cohen claimed that "75 percent" of the troops "might want to do something" during the inauguration.

Guardsmen, like any other military personnel, take an oath to defend the Constitution of the US, and not a political loyalty test. Cohen's suggestion that the majority of troops should be viewed with suspicion was a step too far even for CNN, whose host, Don Lemon, compared President Donald Trump's supporters last week to the "Klan" and "Nazis."

"To have voted for Trump does not make you an insider threat," CNN's chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto responded. "Is there anything you've seen to substantiate just how broad this insider threat may be, if it exists?"

Cohen admitted he hadn't seen any evidence to back up his claims, but went on to say that "if you draw a circle" around "people who were for Trump and not for Biden," everyone in that circle would be "folks that you'd be suspect of (sic)."

Online, conservatives hammered Cohen's narrow vision of Biden's promised "unity and healing."

"They just can't help themselves," one wrote. "Our troops are defending the Capitol but Dems still hate them."

That Cohen made his racially charged statement on Martin Luther King Jr. Day added an extra layer of irony, given King's exhortation that his fellow Americans be judged not "by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

The mainstream media has been suspicious of Trump's supporters for a long time, and since the events on Capitol Hill, reporters have described them as "extremists," and "domestic terrorists," and a movement that should be "cleansed" from public life. Much like Cohen, journalists have called Trump's most vocal supporters "white supremacists" who voted for Trump out of "toxic masculinity." Even Trump's black and minority supporters were described in a Washington Post op-ed last week as suffering from "multiracial Whiteness."

Freshman Representative Ritchie Torres has introduced a bill that would "direct the Architect of the Capitol to design and install an appropriate fence around the perimeter of the United States Capitol, including the East Front and the West Front."

© Reuters / Joshua Roberts
Razor wire is seen on a fence around the US Capitol as National Guard members stand guard ahead of US President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, in Washington, US, January 17, 2021

Torres was elected in November to represent New York's 15th Congressional District, and the "first gay Afro Latino" in Congress has since sponsored a slew of bills, including measures to grant statehood to Washington, DC, to impeach President Donald Trump, to move toward granting reparations to African Americans, and to establish a commission to "investigate the seditious attack on the United States Capitol."

The proposal - which attempts to revive a previously rejected scheme dubbed the 'Capitol Gateway Plan' - was met with skepticism by netizens, some suggesting the ramped-up security perimeter would turn "Capitol Hill into a supermax" prison. "Notice the fence to keep people in, not out," one joked.

Another commenter submitted a possible model for the Capitol's fence design, arguing the one used at Guantanamo Bay's Camp Delta detention center "looks very safe."

Others saw hypocrisy in Torres' plan, recalling that, for many Democrats, proposals for a border wall between the US and Mexico were deemed "brutally repressive in 2017," yet suddenly became a "matter of urgent national security in 2021."

The intense security measures around the nation's capital following the violent disturbance on January 6 have drawn comparisons to a theater of war, with the Secret Service even dividing the city into "Green" and "Red" zones, reminiscent of the heavily fortified area in Baghdad set up to ward off suicide bombings after the US invasion of Iraq.

The FBI also says that it observed people downloading and sharing maps of locations in the District, and discussed how they could be used to interfere in security.

However, the briefing did not identify specific plots to attack the inauguration that would be similar to the Jan. 6 riot.

The FBI declined to comment on the briefing to The Hill but referred to remarks that FBI Director Christopher Wray gave on Jan. 14.

"We're monitoring all incoming leads, whether they're calls for armed protest, potential threats that grow out of the January 6 breach of the Capitol, or other kinds of potential threats leading up to inaugural events and in various other targets," he said in part. "We're latched up with all of our partners in that regard."

The Secret Service, which is taking over security for the inauguration, said in a statement to The Hill that it "takes all threats seriously and will continue to work with our federal, state, local and military partners to continue securing the 59th Inauguration based on the relevant intelligence available to the security community."

More than 100 people have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 riot, including members of law enforcement and former military personnel.

Acting defense secretary Christopher Miller said that while the military and FBI are pulling out all the stops for security ahead of Inauguration Day, including an intense vetting process for the 25,000 Guard troops to be deployed around Washington, DC, there is no indication of any plans for an inside job.

© Reuters / Caitlin Ochs
National Guard troops stand watch outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, January 18, 2021.

"While we have no intelligence indicating an insider threat, we are leaving no stone unturned in securing the capital. This type of vetting often takes place by law enforcement for significant security events. However, in this case the scope of military participation is unique," Miller said in a statement on Monday.

The secretary added that the Guard would provide "additional training" to troops taking part in the DC security detail, telling them to report to their superiors "if they see or hear something that is not appropriate" among fellow troops, and that the FBI is helping the Pentagon in the vetting process.

"We're continually going through the process, and taking second, third looks at every one of the individuals assigned to this operation," McCarthy said, though added that so far, there has not been any sign of a real threat.

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