25,000 National Guard troops, huge show of force ahead of Wednesday’s Inauguration

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Barbed wire, security checkpoints and 25,000 national guard troops to keep the U.S. Capitol secure -- not how Washington DC’s mayor pictured the inauguration.

“We don’t want to see fences, we don’t want to see armed troops on our streets, but we do have to take a different posture,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser.

That posture is a reaction to a violent mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6th.

Kurt Vied is a former Naval Intelligence Officer and Massachusetts State Trooper. He is now the director of operations for Signal 88, a local security company, and he said the idea is to set up a show of force immediately.

“They get in early, they saturate it with security, physical security barriers,” Vied said.

That show of force is intentional.

“They’ve beefed up the numbers to the point where there should be no problem,” Vied said.

The Commander of D.C.’s National Guard unit is Maj. Gen. William Walker.

“We are part of the layered defense to make sure the bubble that will be around the VP-elect and President-elect, so that we can have a peaceful transfer of power,” Walker said.

Vied said what we see out front is only part of the picture.

“There’s quite a bit going on behind the scenes. Everything from monitoring internet chatter to physical security, undercover agents,” said Vied.

And he added while the National Guard is the main force you see, law enforcement is everywhere.

Cox Media Group