Demolition and infrastructure work is set to start this month at the Potomac Yard property where the $1 billion Virginia Tech Innovation Campus is set to be built, developer JBG Smith announced Thursday.
Virginia Tech and Chevy Chase, Maryland-based real estate investment, management and development company JBG Smith, which is overseeing the 20-acre project in Alexandria, as well as Amazon.com Inc.’s East Coast headquarters HQ2 in National Landing, about two miles away, received the city’s final approvals for the 1.7 million-square-foot campus in December 2020. The project will also include four office towers and two residential buildings with retail space.
The university is set to proceed this year with construction of the first phase of a 300,000-square-foot educational and research building, which is expected to open in August 2024. The 11-story academic building will include instruction and research space for master’s and doctoral students in computer science and engineering, as well as staff and faculty offices.
“It is a testament to the importance of this initiative, and the determination of our project partners, that we were able to navigate this complicated approval process in the midst of a global pandemic,” Kai Reynolds, chief development officer at JBG Smith, said in a statement Thursday. “We are grateful to our colleagues at Virginia Tech for presenting such a bold and compelling vision for its new urban innovation campus, and to the dedicated Alexandria City staff for embracing that vision, even as the world shifted around us.”
On Wednesday, Virginia Tech announced it had received a $10 million gift from the CEO of Reston’s Octo Consulting Group, Mehul Sanghani, and his wife, Hema, both alumni, for its Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics, which will be renamed the Sanghani Center. The center will move from Blacksburg to the Innovation Campus and will be supported by $7.4 million of the gift. An additional $1.5 million will go to a food access program for students.
State Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, faces censure after a Democratic colleague filed a resolution Thursday alleging that Chase “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S. Constitution when she participated in the pro-Trump rally Jan. 6 that led to the violent takeover of the U.S. Capitol.
The resolution has been sent to the Democratic-controlled Senate Privileges and Elections committee, which meets Tuesday. A censure does not include any further penalties, but it is relatively rarely used by Virginia’s Senate and is its harshest sanction against one of its own, except for expulsion, which requires a two-thirds majority vote. The last time a member was censured was in 1986, when Norfolk Sen. Peter Balabas was censured for unethical conduct — casting votes in violation of conflict of interest rules.
Chase, who is seeking the GOP’s Virginia gubernatorial nomination this year, “addressed a crowd gathered in Washington, D.C., to urge that action be taken to overturn the lawfully conducted 2020 presidential election,” says the resolution sponsored by Sen. John J. Bell, D-Loudoun, with support from co-sponsoring Democrats. The measure seeks to censure Chase for “fomenting insurrection against the United States.”
In the Senate’s noon session, Chase preemptively spoke against the proposed censure, saying it was “outrageous” and “hypocritical” that lawmakers who had participated in social justice protests last summer, which Chase characterized as violent, would consider punishing her for speaking at the Jan. 6 “Save America March” event that immediately preceded the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Last week, Chase’s official state Senate page was restricted by Facebook, not allowing her to broadcast live video or advertise for 60 days, or to post or comment on the page for a week.
Senate Democrats also called for Chase to resign following the breach of the U.S. Capitol, which led to five deaths, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer who was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher. She refused, defending her presence at the demonstration.
“If you’re going to call me out, I’m going to start calling people out in this room,” Chase warned Thursday as she stood inside a Plexiglas cubicle because she refuses to wear a face mask.
Chase said that she “will not be lectured about civility by the same politicians who remained silent while our cities and communities were burned and destroyed by domestic terrorists groups Antifa and BLM.” The senator then invoked the BLM slogan “Say her name,” which gained popularity in protests after Louisville, Kentucky, police shot and killed Breonna Taylor, a Black emergency room technician, last year in her apartment. However, Chase used the phrase in reference to Ashli Babbitt, a white California woman who was shot and killed by a U.S. Capitol officer while participating in the Capitol riots.
Chase also used the opportunity to promote her gubernatorial run, claiming, “The people of America had no one to fight for them until Trump; the people of Virginia had no one to fight for them until me,” Chase said.
The senator from Chesterfield further argued that she and other Republicans felt Virginia’s election laws had been degraded “under the pretense of COVID” and blamed state Democrats for creating loopholes for potential voter fraud, including ending the photo ID requirement at polling places and allowing ballots to be dropped off at unattended boxes.
She added that overwhelming numbers of Republican voters believe the election was stolen in favor of President-elect Joe Biden, although no evidence of widespread voter fraud has been proven in Virginia or other states. “I had to be there [at the rally] to represent those of us who believe the election was stolen from we the people.”
She described attendees at the Jan. 6 rally as “patriots” and said that the events she attended were “peaceful.” She said she did not support or call for violence. “I think it’s wrong what happened, and I stand against the violence.” In videos she posted that day on social media, Chase apparently left the area around the Capitol before the breach occurred and left Washington, D.C., entirely by mid-afternoon on Jan. 6.
“Repeating lies and conspiracy theories does not make them true,” said Sen. Adam P. Ebbin, D-Alexandria, one of the resolution’s co-sponsors, after Chase’s speech. “The reason some voters’ confidence has been impacted is because some so-called leaders use misinformation, fake news and lies. Leadership requires truth.”
Senate Minority Leader Tommy Norment Jr., R-Virginia Beach, also criticized Chase for using her Senate privileges to promote her governor campaign.
“The point of personal privilege is not to be prostituted for an individual of personal, political promotion that has previously been broadcast on social media to encourage people to watch,” Norment said, referring to a tweet by Chase on Wednesday, which promised “surprises” at the Senate session and encouraged her followers to tune in.
“I’m not a good person to throw the hatchet down in the ground in front of me, and I suggest that when we talk about lectures, I really don’t want a lecture on what’s going on with national politics,” Norment said. “I am more concerned about what we’re going to do here the next 27 or 28 days.”
Speaking at a news conference Thursday, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam issued a warning to anyone “with ill intent in your heart” to abandon their plans to come to Richmond as part of an armed protest of the state legislature.
The governor said the state government is prepared for security concerns around the General Assembly‘s annual Lobby Day event, which is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 18, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
As for the commonwealth’s capital, “Richmond is aware, and we have been planning for weeks about Lobby Day,” said Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, noting that the city has declared a state of emergency and also outlawed firearms in certain buildings. “The violence and the insurrectionist activities we saw at the nation’s Capitol will not be tolerated in Virginia’s Capitol.”
Capitol Square in Richmond will be closed through “at least” next Thursday, Jan. 21, said state Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran and fences are being erected on the Capitol grounds. He also said there will be additional precautions at the Science Museum of Virginia, where the Virginia State Senate is meeting during the General Assembly’s 2021 session, which began this week.
More than 2,400 Virginia National Guard members are in Washington, D.C., assisting with federal security efforts, noted Virginia Secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairs Carlos Hopkins. Guards also are participating in COVID-19 testing and vaccination efforts in the state, and National Guard members will be available in the Richmond area during Lobby Day, Northam said, although he did not have a specific number.
Last year’s Lobby Day brought approximately 22,000 people to the state Capitol area, many of whom were part of a gun-rights protest helmed by the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Because firearms were banned from Capitol Square ahead of the rally, many protestors stayed on the streets and sidewalks downtown. Only one person was arrested — a woman who was wearing a mask, although charges were later dropped. This year, VCDL is planning a “rolling caravan” with demonstrators driving decorated vehicles near the state Capitol, although Richmond police plan to shut down some roads Sunday and Monday.
Updated Jan. 18: A vaccine dose shortfall in the federal stockpile will likely lower the weekly number of doses Virginia receives, but state officials say they will continue with expansion of group 1b.
Earlier:
As part of a federal push to speed up the pace of vaccinations, Gov. Ralph Northam said Thursday that the state will immediately expand COVID-19 vaccination availability to Virginians ages 65 and older, as well as others with health issues.
With regard to the expansion of vaccinations, “this means about half of Virginia is eligible for the vaccine,” Northam said. He added that the Virginia Medical Reserve Corps is training volunteers to administer shots and called for anyone with medical training — including retired doctors and other providers — to volunteer.
State Vaccine Coordinator Dr. Danny Avula said that vaccination expansion is moving quickly but is not yet at the 50,000 doses a day that is needed to establish “herd immunity.”
Only 25.7% of all COVID-19 vaccine doses sent to Virginia had been administered as of Thursday, Jan. 14, according to the Virginia Department of Health. The average number of shots over the past seven days was at 11,835 — far below the governor’s short-term goal of 25,000 shots per day. Currently, 215,101 people in Virginia have received at least one dose, and 27,429 are fully vaccinated.
Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association President and CEO Sean Connaughton asked Northam in a Dec. 30 letter to “aggressively” expand “the commonwealth’s efforts to vaccinate Virginians as quickly as possible.”
Asked why Virginia’s vaccination pace is lagging behind that in other states, Northam chalked it up to complicated logistics and said the state’s vaccination rates are increasing each day. He also said that “all options are on the table” about enacting further COVID-19 regulations.
The federal government‘s Operation Warp Speed team said Tuesday that it would no longer hold back second doses of the vaccine and asked states to expand access to doses to larger portions of the populations. Northam said he is speaking with President-elect Joe Biden’s nominated federal vaccinations coordinator, Bechara Choucair, the chief health officer for Oakland-based managed care organization Kaiser Permanente, later today to coordinate the state’s response after Biden becomes president next week.
Washington D.C., Health and Human Services Department Deputy Mayor Wayne Turnage, former chief of staff for Gov. Tim Kaine, spoke at the news conference and sought to knock down myths and misinformation about the vaccine. As many as 60% to 70% of citizens need to be vaccinated in order to establish herd immunity, he said, adding that many Black people still have reservations based on historical wrongs committed by doctors and researchers.
Turnage added that COVID-19 vaccines are unlike vaccines against measles or chickenpox, which include live versions of the viruses. The new COVID-19 vaccines do not include the coronavirus, Turnage says, but instead include a molecule that “tricks” the body into creating antibodies to fight the coronavirus when a patient encounters it after full inoculation.
“There is no chance that these vaccines will transform into the actual virus and make you sick,” he said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Virginia was in the bottom 11 states in terms of vaccine doses administered per 100,000 people; as of Jan. 13, the state had administered an average of 2,552 shots per 100,000 residents — compared to 6,177 people per 100,000 in West Virginia, the top-ranked state.
Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19-related deaths continues to spike in Virginia, with 233 deaths just since Monday, VDH reported. That’s just over one fatality every 30 minutes in the past seven days.
According to a statewide poll conducted Dec. 11-30 by the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University, more than seven in 10 Virginians polled said they would likely get a COVID-19 vaccine, a significant improvement since the last poll in September 2020, when 58% said they were very or somewhat likely to get a shot. The December poll reports that 73% of minority respondents would agree to get vaccinated, compared with 69% of white people polled.
There are still large differences in opinion based on geography and political leanings, though — 88% of Democratic voters said they were very or somewhat likely to get the vaccine, but only 60% of Republican voters said the same. Also, people in western and northwestern regions of the state were less likely to get the vaccine, with 53% saying they were very or somewhat likely. By contrast, 87% of Northern Virginia residents said they would get the shots.
The Virginia Department of Education issued guidance about school reopenings Thursday afternoon, replacing guidelines last updated in October. Many school systems have extended remote learning longer than expected because of spikes in COVID-19 rates, although children are less likely to get the virus than adults.
The primary change is that schools are recommended to use CDC Indicators for Dynamic School Decision-Making to assess the risk of transmission of the virus in individual schools. “A school division’s capacity to successfully implement mitigation strategies and local community disease data should be factored into school operations plans,” the VDOE said in a statement. “But the risks of not opening schools need to be carefully considered and given proper weight.”
VDH also launched an online tool this week that allows Virginia residents to register for an alert when they can be vaccinated, based on age, occupation and medical status.
Metro will close 13 stations starting Friday, Jan. 15 and continuing through Thursday, Jan. 21, the days around the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority announced Wednesday.
Eleven stations — including Arlington Cemetery — will be closed on Friday, and Metro Center and Gallery Place stations will be closed Saturday through Thursday. Other stations are in the District of Columbia, including: Farragut North, Judiciary Square, Union Station, Archives, Farragut West, Federal Center SW, Capitol South, Smithsonian, Federal Triangle. Trains will operate on a Saturday schedule, every 12 minutes on the Red Line and every 15 minutes on other lines, and will pass through closed stations without stopping.
Buses will operate on normal schedules except for Inauguration Day, when they will operate on a Saturday schedule. However, 26 bus routes will be detoured around the expanded security perimeter around the Capitol on Friday through Thursday.
After the Jan. 6 pro-Trumpprotests that led to a violent breach and takeover of the U.S. Capitol for several hours, security has intensified around the center of the federal legislature. According to news reports, the FBI issued a bulletin warning of armed protesters going to the Capitol and all 50 statehouses from Jan. 16-20, prompting greater caution in Washington and state capitals, including Richmond, where Virginia Capitol Police are working with Richmond police and Virginia State Police to enforce boundaries at the closed Capitol Square. Streets around the state Capitol will be closed Sunday and Monday, according to the Richmond PD.
While the U.S. House of Representatives debated and ultimately voted to impeach Trump a second time on Wednesday, hundreds of National Guard troops were stationed in the Capitol Visitor Center for several hours overnight and even slept on the marble floors of the Congressional Visitors Center.
According to The Washington Post, 15,000 National Guard troops will be on hand at the U.S. Capitol and other federal government buildings, along with thousands of police and tactical officers, led by the Secret Service in an unprecedented inaugural security effort. The high alert started six days earlier than usual, after authorities received numerous threats of violence by groups supporting Trump, Capitol Police leadership told U.S. House Democrats.
In a unified message released Monday, Gov. Ralph Northam, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan urged residents not to come to Washington for the inauguration. “There will be a transition of power, and we will work together, and with our partners in the federal government, to ensure the safety of the National Capital Region. Due to the unique circumstances surrounding the 59th Presidential Inauguration, including last week’s violent insurrection as well as the ongoing and deadly COVID-19pandemic, we are taking the extraordinary step of encouraging Americans not to come to Washington, D.C. and to instead participate virtually.”
Every 39 minutes, a person died from COVID-19 in Virginia last week, according to reports from the state health department Monday.
The state’s COVID-19 numbers continued to climb, with 35,850 new cases over the past week and 261 deaths, according to the Virginia Department of Health’s Jan. 11 update.
The current seven-day positivity rate is 16.7%, up nearly one percentage point from last week, and the average daily number of new cases over the past seven days was 5,121, a new record in the state. Virginia has recorded 403,386 cases and 5,393 deaths since March 2020.
Meanwhile, 3,117 people are hospitalized with confirmed COVID cases or pending test results, the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association reported Monday, with 35% of all ventilators and 56% of ICU beds in use, including surge beds. Those percentages include COVID and non-COVID patients.
The state’s vaccination campaign — which was off to a slow start in early weeks, with less than 25% of all COVID-19 vaccine doses having been administered as of last Wednesday — is off to a faster clip as of Monday’s update. According to VDH figures, 189,283 total doses have been administered, out of 560,400 total doses distributed to hospitals, health districts and long-term care facilities; 15,130 people have received two doses and are considered fully vaccinated.
Last week, Gov. Ralph Northam said the state is averaging about 14,000 shots per day, but he wants to increase that to 25,000 daily shots quickly, with a goal of reaching 50,000 shots a day as soon as enough doses arrive in the state. To further this effort, he named Dr. Danny Avula, the director of Richmond and Henrico County’s health departments, as the state’s vaccine coordinator. On Friday, VDH announced that 11 health districts — primarily in Northern and Southwest Virginia, including the Roanoke and New River valleys — will begin offering vaccination to “frontline essential workers” including police, teachers and grocery employees starting Monday Jan. 11.
More details about who is eligible to receive a vaccine in group 1b, as well as which regions of the state have entered that phase, are available at VDH’s vaccine page.
As of Jan. 7, all of the state’s health districts have positivity rates above 10%. The state’s highest rates and/or sharpest one-week spikes are in the following districts:
Hampton — 25.2%, up from 21.8% on Dec. 31
Mount Rogers (cities of Bristol and Galax and counties of Bland, Carroll, Grayson, Smyth, Washington and Wythe) — 24.3%, up from 23.4%
Eastern Shore (Accomack and Northampton counties) — 23.8%, up from 19.5%
Chesapeake — 23.3%, up from 22.7%
Portsmouth — 23.0%, up from 19.4%
Lenowisco(Lee, Scott and Wise counties and the city of Norton) — 22.9%, down from 32.4%
Central Virginia (Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell counties and Lynchburg) — 21.7%, down from 24.3%
Peninsula (Newport News, Poquoson, Williamsburg, James City and York counties) — 21.6%, up from 16.6%
Piedmont(Amelia, Buckingham, Charlotte, Cumberland, Lunenburg, Nottoway and Prince Edward counties) — 21.6%, up from 18.3%
Cumberland Plateau(Buchanan, Dickenson, Russell and Tazewell counties) — 21.5%, down from 22.8%
Western Tidewater (Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the cities of Franklin and Suffolk) — 21.4%, up from 13.1%
West Piedmont (Franklin, Henry and Patrick counties and the city of Martinsville) — 21.0%, up from 19.0%
Chickahominy (Charles City, Goochland, Hanover and New Kent counties) — 15.1%, up from 10.0%
These are the 10 Virginia localities that have seen the most cases in the state, as of Jan. 11:
Fairfax County: 49,840
Prince William County: 28,532
Virginia Beach: 20,420
Loudoun County: 15,443
Chesterfield County: 14,778
Henrico County: 14,567
Chesapeake: 10,420
Richmond: 10,464
Norfolk: 10,176
Arlington County: 10,117
Globally, there are 90.4 million reported COVID-19 cases and 1,936,898 confirmed deaths, as of Jan. 11. The United States, which has the most confirmed cases and deaths worldwide, has seen 22.4 million confirmed cases so far, with 374,442 deaths attributed to the coronavirus since February.
On Monday, 11 Virginia health districts will begin COVID-19vaccinations of “frontline essential workers,” including police, teachers and grocery store workers, the Virginia Department of Health announced Friday afternoon.
Some regions will continue vaccinations of priority group 1a, which includes frontline health care providers and employees and residents of long-term care facilities. But the following health districts will move into the second phase of inoculations, for essential workers and others in priority group 1b, the week of Jan. 11:
Alexandria
Arlington County
Cumberland Plateau (Buchanan, Dickenson, Russell and Tazewell counties)
Fairfax County
Lenowisco (Lee, Scott and Wise counties and the city of Norton)
Lord Fairfax (Clarke, Frederick, Page, Shenandoah and Warren counties and Winchester)
Loudoun
Mount Rogers (cities of Bristol and Galax and counties of Bland, Carroll, Grayson, Smyth, Washington and Wythe)
New River (Floyd, Giles, Montgomery and Pulaski counties and Radford)
Prince William County
Roanoke County/Allegheny (Alleghany, Botetourt, Craig and Roanoke counties and the cities of Covington, Roanoke and Salem)
The announcement comes after Gov. Ralph Northam told hospitals, local health departments and districts, and other vaccination locations across the state “to empty those freezers and get shots in arms.” As of Jan. 6, only 116,247 doses of Moderna and Pfizer Inc. COVID vaccines had been administered in the state, out of 481,550 received. Northam warned that if facilities hold on to doses and don’t administer them promptly, they’ll receive fewer doses as more come in from the pharmaceutical companies — a “use it or lose it” model.
Dr. Danny Avula, director of the Richmond and Henrico County health departments and the state’s newly named vaccine coordinator, said in a statement Friday, “This is an important step that will provide increased flexibility to health districts across the commonwealth. The governor has made it very clear that the state should not be holding anyone back — if health districts are ready and able to begin Phase 1b vaccinations, they must be able to do so.”
The VDH COVID-19 vaccine page will be updated as more health districts move into Phase 1b, according to VDH.
In addition to frontline essential workers, group 1b includes people age 75 or older and people living in correctional facilities, homeless shelters and migrant labor camps. The following employees are included:
Police, fire and hazmat responders
Corrections and homeless shelter workers
Child care, K-12 teachers and other school staff
Food and agriculture (including veterinarians)
Manufacturing
Grocery store workers
Public transit
Mail carriers (USPS and private)
Officials needed to maintain continuity of government
Virginia has about 500,000 people in group 1a, which started receiving COVID-19 vaccinations in mid-December, and about 1.5 million in group 1b, Northam said this week. VDH anticipates it will take “several weeks to months” to vaccinate Virginians who fall into group 1b; currently, the state is receiving about 110,000 doses of the two vaccines each week, and all recipients require two shots to be fully inoculated.
Phase 1c, which will follow the second phase, includes people in these occupations:
Northam anticipates that all 8.5 million Virginia residents will have access to vaccination by the summer.
As of Friday, 148,909 doses have been administered statewide, and 6,848 people have been fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, the state has seen significant spikes in COVID-19 cases and deaths in recent weeks. The state has surpassed 5,000 new cases a day the past three days, and since New Year’s Eve, one person in Virginia has died each hour. Since March 2020, the state has recorded 5,312 deaths and 387,917 cases.
Virginians can find out more information about vaccination schedules by visiting their health district’s website, available here.
A federal judge said Friday that a dispute over the scheduled closing of the Pocahontas Building, the temporary offices for delegates and state senators during the General Assembly session, has been settled.
In December, Virginia state Sen. Bill DeSteph, R-Virginia Beach, sued Senate Rules Committee Chair Sen. Mamie E. Locke, D-Hampton, who announced that the building, which has been in use during extensive renovations of the General Assembly office building in Richmond, would be closed for the duration of the session starting Jan. 13 due to the COVID-19pandemic. House of Delegates Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn and the two bodies’ legislative clerks were also included in the suit, as well as the Virginia Division of Capitol Police.
After moving the suit from the Richmond Circuit Court to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the parties went into mediation and reached a resolution, according to U.S. District Judge David J. Novak’s order.
The agreement includes the following provisions: There will be four conference rooms secured at the Bon Secours facility near the Science Museum of Virginia, where the state Senate will meet during the session. Legislators can make appointments to meet with constituents in person during the 30-day session on weekdays, although more than 10 people will not be allowed in the room simultaneously and everyone must wear masks and stay at least six feet away from others.
Novak said the court finds the agreement to be “an adequate and reasonable alternative under the First Amendment to the blanket ban initially imposed by defendants on public access to the Pocahontas Building during the 2021 General Assembly session.”
State Sen. Ben Chafin, R-Lebanon, died from complications from COVID-19 on Jan. 1, the first Virginia state legislator to succumb to the coronavirus. Novak notes in his order that DeSteph “testified to the ‘stable’ condition of his colleague, Sen. Ben Chafin, who had recently contracted COVID-19 and was being treated at VCU Medical Center in Richmond. Yet, tragically, the very next day after this testimony, Sen. Chafin died due to complications caused by COVID-19. This is but one example of the unpredictable and devastating nature of this virus.”
The order concludes that “the parties and their colleagues in both the Senate and the House of Delegates must abide by the health and safety measures specified in the agreement, including the diligent use of masks and careful social distancing. … If [DeSteph] or his colleagues fail to comply with these provisions, defendants may return to this court and argue that the agreed-upon alternative is no longer feasible given a demonstrated disregard for the health of those attempting to safely complete the 2021 General Assembly session.”
Novak scheduled a status hearing for March 2, but that may be canceled if both parties consider the matter resolved.
The court order comes as concerns over security reached a fever pitch following the breach of the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump supporters on Wednesday, accompanied by ongoing concerns about the coronavirus. Although the state Senate will meet in person at the museum due to the pandemic, as it did during last year’s special sessions, the House of Delegates is meeting virtually for the 2021 regular session.
According to state Capitol police, there will be significant security in place at the Science Museum of Virginia, with Virginia State Police and the Richmond Police Department cooperating with Capitol officers, particularly on Lobby Day, which is scheduled Jan. 18. Public Information Officer Joe Macenka said Friday that last year, an estimated 22,000 people came to Capitol Square on Lobby Day, a time when constituents traditionally bring their concerns to their legislators.
The 2020 Lobby Day was overtaken by a gun-rights rally in the streets surrounding the Capitol, in part because guns were banned from the property itself by the Democratic-led General Assembly. Only one arrest — of a woman wearing a mask — took place during the Jan. 20, 2020, rally, which saw about 20,000 gun-rights supporters gather in the streets outside the Virginia State Capitol.
The General Assembly has not met in its traditional chambers since last March, out of concern for potential spread of the coronavirus. On top of COVID-19, which is spiking in the commonwealth and has claimed 5,312 lives statewide since the pandemic began, there is additional worry for the security of statehouses following the breach at the U.S. Capitol this week, when pro-Trump demonstrators occupied the offices and chambers of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Five people died this week due to incidents related to the breach, including a woman shot by a U.S. Capitol police officer, and a Capitol police officer who died Friday after sustaining critical injuries when someone hit him on the head with a fire extinguisher, according to reports from the U.S. Capitol police.
Recent events in Washington, D.C., are on the minds of Virginia’s Capitol Police, Macenka said. “We’re having literally daily planning meetings” about Lobby Day, and he expects there will be a perimeter set up at the Science Museum and that public access will be limited. “It’s typical of what we do at Capitol Square.”
Macenka and spokespeople for the Richmond police and the Virginia State Police declined to give logistical details for security reasons, but the Richmond Police Department said it would provide more information regarding road closures and preparations “as we get closer to Lobby Day. RPD is dedicated to ensuring public safety.”
Virginia Senate Democrats called Friday for the resignation of Republican state Sen. Amanda Chase, who spoke at the pro-Trump demonstration in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday that turned violent and led to a breach of the U.S. Capitol, but Chase says she “absolutely” will not leave her office.
Facebook placed restrictions on Chase’s Senate Facebook page for 60 days beginning Friday, Jan. 8. The Chesterfield County state senator who is running for this year’s GOP gubernatorial nomination, had posted video and photos from the pro-Trump demonstration near the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. In December, she made news for a Facebook post calling for Trump to declare “martial law” in order to remain in power after President Donald Trump‘s loss to President-elect Joe Biden in the November 2020 election. Based on a live video she posted Wednesday afternoon, Chase was headed back to Richmond during the siege on the Capitol.
However, a statement issued by Senate Democrats Friday says, “As we all watched in shock and disbelief at the insurrection in Washington, D.C., Senator and gubernatorial candidate Amanda Chase was horrifyingly empowering a failed coup d’état. She galvanized domestic terrorists who violated the United States Capitol on Wednesday afternoon through riots, destruction, and desecration, joining them on their march to Capitol Hill. For someone who defends herself and the insurrectionists she calls ‘patriots’ with the Constitution, she either willfully or unwittingly doesn’t understand what her sworn oath to defend it actually means. She has unequivocally committed insurrection, and the Fourteenth Amendment to that same Constitution charges us with the responsibility of holding her accountable.
“Senator Chase has not demonstrated either good judgement or leadership for Senate District 11 or the commonwealth of Virginia. It is in the best interest for the Senate of Virginia and her constituents [for Chase] to resign.”
The Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, which disinvited Chase to speak in July 2020, issued a statement Friday in support of the calls for Chase’s resignation: “As we continue to reflect on the attacks on the U.S. Capitol, we are unfortunately faced with the fact that Virginia must also act to prevent similar violence here. We want to state our unequivocal support for the calls for Sen. Amanda Chase to resign. Her rhetoric and actions caused us to cancel her planned appearance before our membership last summer, and she continues to espouse hate, spread lies and, now, incite violence with her presence at the protests of the Electoral College results in Washington, D.C. It is clear to all that Sen. Chase possesses neither the judgement nor composure to hold public office. … Sen. Chase poses a clear threat to the commonwealth and should step down immediately.”
In an exclusive interview with Virginia Business on Friday, Chase said she “will absolutely not resign.” She added that she left the rally at the end of President Trump’s address, during which he told the crowd to march on the U.S. Capitol. Chase said the head of her security team told her they needed to leave to get ahead of the crowds that they expected to disperse at the end of Trump’s speech, adding that she didn’t feel unsafe and did not hear the president encouraging people to go to the Capitol building.
Back at a hotel room Chase and her team had reserved, she says, “we turned on the TV, and that’s when we saw the press reports” of a breach at the Capitol, as well as the declaration of a 6 p.m. Wednesday curfew in D.C. At that point, Chase said, her team decided it was best to head back to Richmond.
Chase said she does not “approve of any violence that took place” at the Capitol and characterized the crowds that entered the building as “desperate people because their voices weren’t being heard.” She also continued to say without evidence that Antifa activists were possibly behind the breach at the Capitol.
In posts on Facebook, Chase claimed without evidence that anti-fascist, or antifa, activists had “infiltrated” the crowd breaching the Capitol. “Antifa is the culprit. Listen to Patriots who told them to stop,” Chase posted Thursday afternoon, the most recent post on her official Senate page. Facebook tagged a link to a tweet on the post as “False Information.”
Chase said Friday that she still has doubts about the legitimacy of Virginia’s 2020 ballots and said that “until we do a full audit here in Virginia, we’ll never know.” In November, Virginia Deputy Commissioner of Elections Jessica Bowman said in a statement that the state was “not aware of any substantiated allegations of widespread voter fraud in Virginia.”
According to a screenshot provided to Virginia Business by Chase, Facebook has restricted her state Senate Facebook page from going live or advertising for the next 60 days, and Chase has been banned from posting or commenting on the page for seven days.
Her personal Facebook page, however, is still active, and she spread the news of her restriction in a public post there Friday, saying, “Facebook continues to restrict free speech. Because what I have to say does not fit their narrative, my Senator Amanda Chase page has been silenced for 60 days. We no longer have free speech here in America.”
She said Friday that Facebook had removed two videos she had posted Wednesday, which she provided to Virginia Business. Both appear to be on the Washington Mall, with the Washington Monument in the background; the first features Chase speaking about the “Save America March” event, and the second shows fellow Trump supporters among the crowd, cheering. However, other videos from the event remained on her Senate and personal Facebook pages on Friday.
Chase said that she has emailed Facebook for a response and says that their earlier communication with her about the two removed videos indicated they “did not meet their community standards” and that her Senate page “was at risk of being unpublished.” As of Friday afternoon, Chase said she had not received a further response from Facebook, but that she had been busy fielding press calls since the morning.
The restrictions on Chase’s page come after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday that President Donald Trump has been indefinitely blocked from posting on his Facebook and Instagram accounts out of concern for public safety. “His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the U.S. and around the world. We removed these statements yesterday because that their effect — and likely their intent — would be to provoke further violence.”
On both her personal Facebook page and her Senate page, Chase posted videos from Washington, D.C., during Trump’s “Save America March” event, which drew about 30,000 supporters of the president. Trump addressed the crowd for about an hour and encouraged them to march to the Capitol building, where Congress was starting the certification of Biden’s Electoral College ballots. Chase’s postings on Facebook indicate that she left either shortly before or during the breach of the Capitol building that led to evacuation and lockdown of legislators, staffers and journalists before control was regained around 6 p.m. Wednesday.
In a two-minute live video Chase posted on her Senator page at 3:32 p.m. Wednesday, Chase speaks from inside a vehicle saying she is being “taken to safety” after Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser “has put the city on lockdown,” referring to a curfew that went into effect at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Chase mentions “people who are storming the Capitol right now” and that she has heard about shots being fired.
“Everything that I saw earlier today was very peaceful,” Chase said in the video, adding that she spoke around 10 a.m. at the rally. After seeing the president speak in the early afternoon, she says in the video that her team told her they needed to leave for safety reasons, although in her interview with Virginia Business, she says they left just to get ahead of the crowds after Trump’s speech. In the video, Chase asked her viewers to “say a prayer” for those in the crowd that entered the Capitol.
In the interview, Chase said “it’s very tragic what happened” regarding the death of a U.S. Capitol Police officer who was taken off life support Friday after sustaining critical injuries during the breach. Officer Brian D. Sicknick, a Northern Virginia resident, was a military veteran and an officer for 12 years. “My thoughts and prayers go to their family,” Chase added.
Earlier Friday, Gov. Ralph Northam issued a statement about Sicknick’s death, which occurred after someone struck him on the head with a fire extinguisher, according to a release from the U.S. Capitol Police.
“Officer Sicknick died as a result of injuries sustained during the insurrection at the Capitol on Wednesday. He was 42 years old and a military veteran who had served with the United States Capitol Police for 12 years,” Northam said in his statement. “Officer Sicknick was killed while doing his job — defending those trapped in the Capitol building amid a violent attack on our democracy. His death is a tragedy, and those responsible must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
In a tweet, Northam said, “I’m extending Virginia’s National Guard deployment at least through Jan. 20, based on conversations this morning with our emergency teams and Washington, D.C. Virginia State Police also remain on the ground. We will be there until President-elect Biden is officially sworn in.”
After crowds of supporters of President Donald Trump breached the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, leading to the evacuation and lockdown of U.S. legislators, staff members and journalists, Northam authorized the activation of the Virginia National Guard and sent 200 state troopers to the Capitol, which was secured late Wednesday afternoon after nearly four hours.
Northam said in a statement Wednesday that “Virginia will be there for as long as it takes to protect our nation’s capital and ensure the peaceful transfer of power.”
During the breach, people carrying weapons and pro-Trump flags and signs entered House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, including one man who posed for pictures sitting behind her desk. Others walked around the Senate chamber and the hallways. Lawmakers were evacuated earlier as the crowd of thousands pushed past police and began banging on windows and doors of the Capitol.
“The violence we saw at the U.S. Capitol today was nothing short of an armed insurrection and a humiliating assault on American democracy. The President incited this mob with his refusal to accept the lawful results of a fair and secure election. And the members of Congress who have enabled him — and continue to encourage and praise his efforts — bear just as much responsibility,” Northam said in a statement issued shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday. “This did not come about overnight. When elected leaders purposefully reject facts and fan the flames of conspiracy theories, all in pursuit of power, they are taking dangerous steps. And now we are seeing where those steps can lead. God forbid we experience anything worse.”
The Virginia State Senate plans to meet in person for its 2021 regular session in Richmond‘s Science Museum of Virginia beginning Jan. 13, although the House of Delegates will meet remotely due to COVID-19 precautions. No announcement has been made about increased security for the Senate, as of Thursday afternoon.
On Wednesday, four people died, including one woman among the crowd inside the Capitol building who was shot by a U.S. Capitol Police officer, according to news reports. Three others were reported to have succumbed from medical emergencies during the demonstrations, part of a planned “Save America March” that attracted about 30,000 Trump supporters. The president addressed the crowd for about an hour and encouraged them to march to the Capitol to protest the certification of Biden’s Electoral College ballot win.
The U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate gathered Wednesday night to certify the electoral college ballots, concluding at 3:45 a.m. Thursday, after several lawmakers of both parties decried the afternoon’s events and some blamed the president for encouraging violence.
As of Thursday afternoon, there are reports that senior White House officials have discussed removing Trump as president under the 25th Amendment, a move that has been called for Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Pelosi and other Democrats, including U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia.
A group of progressive Democratic U.S. representatives, led by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minneapolis, have spoken in support of impeaching the president a second time.
Both Biden and former President George W. Bush spoke strongly against the breach, both referring to it as an “insurrection.” In an address to the nation Wednesday, Biden called for Trump to address his supporters on national television and tell them in no uncertain terms to leave the Capitol. Shortly after Biden’s speech, Trump released a minute-long video — still falsely alleging that he had won the presidential election, claiming it was stolen — saying, “Go home, go home in peace.” He told people at the Capitol, “We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You’re very special.”
Twitter, YouTube and Facebook eventually removed the video, and Twitter banned the president from tweeting for 12 hours starting Wednesday night. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday, after temporarily banning Trump’s account the day before, that Trump is now prevented from posting to Facebook and Instagram indefinitely.
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