BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The Commonwealth has been asked to send members of the National Guard to the nation's Capitol ahead of next week's presidential inauguration.
At a press conference Wednesday, Gov. Baker said the state has already started processing a request to send hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington D.C.
"I would imagine this is true for many states, especially those on the east coast," Baker said. "We've had an ask from Washington to support a fairly significant request for Guard personnel in our nation's Capitol, and we're currently processing that."
Gov. Baker said D.C.'s request came with respect to Guard personnel "supporting their efforts around the inauguration."
He also said there are currently "no known or credible threats" of violence in Massachusetts surrounding the inaugural ceremony at the Capitol next Wednesday.
According to the Military Times, the Department of Defense has authorized "as many as 15,000 troops" to be deployed to Washington, D.C. for the inauguration, which is twice the number of U.S. troops as are currently in Afghanistan and Iraq combined.
Gov. Baker's statement on the deployment of troops to D.C. came at the same time as members of the U.S. House were debating a single article of impeachment against President Trump, charging him with the high crime and misdemeanor of "inciting an insurrection."
Trump is expected to be impeached by the House for the second time on Wednesday, one week before President-elect Joe Biden is due to be sworn into office.
Following the deadly riots by pro-Trump crowds at the Capitol last week, Baker said he continues to support lawmakers' bipartisan bid to remove Trump from office.
"I've said at the time I believed that Vice President Pence should be empowered to manage the transition to a new administration, and I continue to believe that," Baker said. "I also said that there are a number of means and mechanisms that were available to deal with that at that point in time... the only one that's left at this point is to move forward with an impeachment proceeding."
WBZ NewsRadio's Karyn Regal reports:
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Written by Brit Smith
(Photo: Getty Images)