Jeh Johnson: We see no ‘specific, credible threat’ directed against the inauguration

Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Thursday officials do not see a “specific, credible threat” directed against Friday’s inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, but that law enforcement will certainly be braced for issues that could arise.

“I said last week that we see no specific, credible threat directed against the inauguration, but that’s only part of the story,” Mr. Johnson said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“We live in an age now of the self-radicalized actor … the so-called lone wolf, and we have to be concerned about the vehicle threat in Nice,” Mr. Johnson said, referring to an attack last summer in France in which dozens of people were killed when a truck was driven through a crowded Bastille Day celebration.

He said “hard vehicle” security areas where only official vehicles are allowed will be “extra fortified” with dump trucks and heavily armored vehicles.

Mr. Johnson also said there will be about 28,000 people directly or indirectly supporting the security for the inauguration and officials are expecting between 700,000 people and 900,000 people in the National Mall area.

“We have, at last count, 103 groups that have either applied for permits to demonstrate or that we see from social media intend to come to town,” he said.

“The concern is some of these groups are pro-Trump; some of them are con-Trump and they may not play well together in the same space,” Mr. Johnson said.

“And so park police in particular, along with the Metro police, have made plans to try to separate the groups, to try to put them in areas where they’re not directly facing off against one another like we did in Cleveland and Philadelphia this last summer,” he said, referring to the sites of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.