FBI vetting National Guard over concerns of “insider attack”

The FBI is reported to be vetting all 25,000 National Guard personnel serving in Washington, DC, due to concerns of an “insider attack” on the Inauguration. These are the wages of professional political disinformation. Every political actor inside or outside of government who has helped Trump to spread his big lie about the election, or other baseless lies about “communists”—lies which have been used to radicalize people to commit acts of terror and intimidation—bears responsibility for this dangerous situation.

Part of the concern stems from apparent participation of people with military training in the attack on the US Capitol. Beyond that, one defense official told the Washington Post:

the Pentagon received 143 notifications of extremism-related probes last year from the FBI, 68 of which were related to suspected domestic extremism among current and former service members — a category that includes white nationalism, anti-fascist, antiabortion and anti-government beliefs. Most of the cases were related to veterans, the official said.

After President Trump declined to send aid to the Capitol, for at least 2 hours, there is concern that the DC National Guard answers to the President, rather than to the governor of a state. It is unclear at this writing precisely how decision-making about National Guard responsiveness will be handled, in the hours leading up to the formal handover of the powers of the Presidency.