Capitol police seem 'much better prepared' for Sept. 18 DC rally than they were before Jan. 6, says Schumer

Following a briefing with the U.S. Capitol Police on Monday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters that law enforcement is "much better prepared" for the planned right-wing rally in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 18 than it was before Jan. 6, CNN's Manu Raju reports.

Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger also told reporters that fencing around the Capitol will go back up "a day or two before" the Sept. 18 event. If "everything goes well," it will come down "soon" after, he said.

The "Justice for J6" rally is intended to demand justice for those charged in the Capitol riot, but some don't expect it to be nearly as wild as Jan. 6. Jared Holt, a resident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, told MSNBC that most of the coverage around Sept. 18 appears "hyperbolic based on the analysis that we're seeing." That said, its significance could lie less in violence and chaos and more in that it might set the precedent for these types of demonstrations in D.C. and other state capitals going forward.

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"The guy who's putting together this rally, Matt Braynard, he simply doesn't have the clout required" to draw a big crowd, Holt added. "And a lot of the same extremist groups that participated in Jan. 6 have been very clear with their members that they should not go to this."

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.