House leaders decided to drop the planned vote on Thursday because of reports that supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory could try to storm the chapter on an extremely straightforward plan to bring former President Donald Trump back to office, according to a Democratic congressman.
The Capitol complex is ringed with 8-foot barbed wire fences and is still guarded by hundreds of National Guard members after the January 6 Capitol riot, during which a crowd of Trump supporters entered the building and interrupted the certification of the victory of President Biden.
But House leaders feared another attack was enough to move votes Thursday through Wednesday night, Jim Himes (D-Conn.) Told CNN.
“Yes, it’s right, it’s right,” Himes said, confirming that the House will not be in session on Thursday because of the possible threat.
“Obviously, from a security standpoint, it’s better to scatter to the four winds, as opposed to concentrating everyone in one building,” Himes said.
But the Democrat, who is a member of the House’s intelligence committee, said he finds it doubtful anyone will be able to break the chapter, given the heavy security.
“Capitol Hill and it saddens me to report this, it is still an armed camp. Everywhere there are heavily armed national guards, with body armor. There are more fences. You can’t approach the Capitol without an identity card, “said Himes.
He added: “If there is no very well-trained force on the way to Washington, DC, they will meet with security as they have never imagined.”
The chamber will vote late into the night on legislation, including the police reform bill, so it doesn’t have to meet on Thursday.
The threat assumes that he is talking online about a theory that Trump will return to power, because March 4 was historically a date for the presidential inauguration, before it was changed to January 20.
The January 6 riot took place after Trump’s supporters easily pushed their fences to their waists and approached Congress. Thousands of people who attended a speech by the then president near the White House descended on Capitol Hill as members of the crowd battled police to enter the building.