(NewsNation) — Congress is expected to certify the election results on Monday, Jan. 6, officially granting Donald Trump a second non-consecutive term as president four years since the 2021 Capitol riots.
The counting of ballots is now considered a national security event, and police are preparing for potential unrest on the fourth anniversary.
The anticipated day comes after two other violent events occurred on New Year’s Day. In New Orleans, a man, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, drove his car into a crowd of tourists on Bourbon Street on New Year’s Day, killing 14 and injuring dozens of others in what the FBI deemed a terrorist attack. Protective barriers were not in place on the streets.
Also on New Year’s Day, Army veteran Matthew Livelsberger caused a Tesla Cybertruck to explode outside of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas as a “wakeup call” to society. Seven people nearby were injured, and the suspect died.
With the two attacks, protests during Trump’s first inauguration in 2017, the Capitol riots and Trump’s two assassination attempts in mind, the Secret Service and other security officials are on high alert.
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NewsNation national security contributor Tracy Walder joined “Morning in America with Hena Doba” Sunday morning to discuss the possible security preparations.
“One of the things that they will have is an extra police presence and sort of a heightened presence, which we have already seen in the nation’s capital as a result of this,” said Walder, a former CIA officer and FBI special agent.
Walder said she expects the perimeter will be farther back than in the past.
Trump will hold a celebratory victory rally on the eve of his inauguration. The inauguration ceremony will be Jan. 20.
Unlike in New Orleans where bollards were not in place, there will likely be ones in D.C. for the upcoming presidential events.
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“I think you’re going to have more than one security checkpoint. You may have a metal detector entering, then in the original perimeter, the farthest out one. And then you’re going to have ones once people enter the arena as well,” Walder said. “And I do think the bulletproof glass in this case, we have to remember there’s been two assassination attempts against President Trump. I think that’s a good idea here.”
The FBI warned law enforcement last week of potential copycat attacks in an internal bulletin.
“I suspect that there will be copycats,” Walder said.
The dead suspect in the New Orleans attack supported the terrorist organization ISIS, according to the FBI.
“The former director of the FBI has been talking a lot about these vehicle-type attacks that ISIS was engaging in, and ISIS told us that they were going to do it back in 2015,” Walder said. “I think we just sort of forget that they really are encouraging individuals to do this because it’s very cheap, it requires basically no training, and it doesn’t require individuals who have to go overseas to take part in training.”
