I’d really like to know, and I’m really asking.
Is there a level of threat that exceeds the ability of security people to protect against?
If we imagine that the threat of violence to undo the consequences of our recent presidential election is much greater than usual, does it rise to the level that the Secret Service, and the FBI, and other agencies could not reliably keep Joe Biden safe while he takes the Oath of Office and then delivers an Inaugural Address?
Do all these agencies — which have been in the Executive Branch of our government ruled by Donald Trump and Trump appointees — have all the competence and integrity that they would need to protect the new President as we’d expect such people and organizations to do?
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I admit, again, I don’t know how to assess the risk.
But I do feel this: this is not a time when any substantial risk should be taken.
So if the answers to those questions say that there’s risk, I think that an alternative manner of accomplishing the transition of power and the delivery of the Inaugural Address should be found.
I admit also, that there’s a downside. At least a potential one. Perhaps Biden would be considered cowardly.
(That happened to Abraham Lincoln, when he went to some lengths to avoid what intelligence indicated was a real threat that he’d be assassinated in Baltimore if his train — headed toward Washington from New York — stayed true to its planned itinerary. He was ridiculed for “sneaking into Washington.”)
But I think well-chosen words could go far to frame such a decision — to avoid that exposure, at this moment — so that it looked like the protection of American democracy it would be, rather than an act of cowardice.
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I hope that my concerns reflect only my ignorance and my imagination, and that they are unwarranted. But I surely hope that decisions on this important day are being made wisely.