Congress briefed on fresh security threats ahead of Biden inauguration

Members of Congress have been warned that there remain serious threats against their security on inauguration day when they plan to gather in Washington to usher Joe Biden into office as the 46th US president on 20 January.

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Details of the further threats came amid word that an FBI office in Virginia had reportedly issued an internal warning a day before the deadly riot at the Capitol last week that extremists were preparing to travel to Washington and commit “war”.

Democratic congressman Conor Lamb, one of several politicians given a law enforcement briefing on Monday evening relating to security concerns, said that the threats the government is receiving are “very specific”.

One domestic terrorist plot uncovered ahead of next week’s inauguration involved thousands of people surrounding the US Capitol building.

“They were talking about 4,000 armed ‘patriots’ to surround the Capitol and prevent any Democrat from going in,” Lamb, of Pennsylvania, told CNN earlier on Tuesday.

He said they were painting themselves as patriots on a mission to reclaim the country as if they were overthrowing the British colonial power in the American revolution prior to the United States declaring independence in 1776.

“They have published ‘rules of engagement’, meaning when you shoot and when you don’t. So this is an organized group that has a plan. They are committed to doing what they’re doing because I think in their minds, you know, they are patriots and they’re talking about 1776 and so this is now a contest of wills,” Lamb said.

He said that law enforcement departments in and near Washington were taking the threats seriously and planning for them.

Meanwhile Ro Khanna, Democratic congressman of California, told CNN that some Republican members of Congress as well as Democrats have received death threats.

And Lamb added, “We are not negotiating with or reasoning with these people. They have to be prosecuted. They have to be stopped. And unfortunately, that includes the president, which is why he needs to be impeached and removed from office.”

The House of Representatives will on Wednesday debate the impeachment article introduced against Donald Trump on Monday and are expected to vote to impeach the president for an unprecedented second time.

Washington mayor Muriel Bowser, told ABC on Tuesday the pro-Trump mob that invaded the US Capitol last week seeking forcefully to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory are “white supremacist rioters”.