Legislators on Capitol Hill got protection from a seven-foot border fence within 18 hours of the January 6 riot, according to Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy.
“At 9 am this morning, we began erecting a seven-foot non-scalable fence,” he said January 7, the day after a mass of protestors and rioters burst into the Capitol Hill building and forced legislators to temporarily stop counting the votes from the Electoral College that actually selects the winning presidential candidates.
The border wall will create a protective square around legislators on Capitol Hill. It will stand “from Constitution [Ave.], Independence [Ave.] and First Avenue, to in front of the pond right there in front of the Capitol,” McCarthy said.
The border fence will remain for at least 30 days, McCarthy said.
The extra protection on Capitol Hill includes 850 National Guard soldiers from the District of Columbia, who are part of 6,200 mobilized guard soldiers, he added.
McCarthy can act quickly because he has command authority over National Guard troops in the District of Columbia. Roughly 6,200 National Guard troops from D.C. have been mobilized to protect the Capitol from unrest, he said.
“Yesterday was a horrible and shameful day in our history,” McCarthy said of the temporary takeover of the Capitol.
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