Kris John Kinsey from Upper Bucks County, Pennsylvania, has been detained and charged after the Secret Service revealed the 61-year-old had allegedly called for grave violence against newly elected President Joe Biden and other senior Democrats on social networks.
Kinsey purportedly posted a bunch of messages and videos on Facebook, claiming he wanted to kill Biden, his running mate Kamala Harris, along with Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Kinsey charged that Biden had asked for this "brutally violent war", acknowledging that he himself hoped to "go out in a blaze of glory" on Inauguration Day, as follows from a statement by the Pennsylvania State Police.
'F*** Biden' Shooting Clip
In other social media posts, Kinsey allegedly said that Harris had vowed before the counting of ballots was finalised to hunt down Donald Trump's supporters in the event of her and Biden's victory, according to court documents cited by the Bucks County Courier Times.
The man was also indicted over sharing a video of himself firing a semi-automatic handgun at a styrofoam plate with "F*** Biden" inscription on it.
Kinsey was arrested at his campsite, where Pennsylvania law enforcement retrieved a semi-automatic handgun and marijuana, and charged him with possession of a firearm, which is illegal in his case due to a previous conviction in Texas. He was also slapped with charges for making terrorist threats and possession of recreational drugs.
Inauguration: High Alert
Prior to the inauguration ceremony on 20 January, the FBI summarised a number of security concerns they claimed were posed by activists in the wake of the 6 January siege of the Capitol.
Some netizens were found to have indicated plans to visit Washington, DC for Biden's inauguration, prompting the authorities to step up security on Capitol Hill and its vicinity.
FBI Director Chris Wray said the bureau had also seen an "extensive amount of concerning online chatter" about potentially violent events in connection with the swearing in. Separately, a Hill/HarrisX poll from early January found that 73 percent of Americans felt a great deal or to some extent concerned about possible violence leading up to Harris and Biden's big day.
In the aftermath of the Capitol attack and due to the still raging pandemic, the authorities moved to limit public access to the inauguration on Wednesday, namely to the National Mall, which this time saw 200,000 small US state and city flags installed there instead of a live audience.
As many as 25,000 National Guard troops and multiple checkpoints were put in place there to maintain law and order at the high-profile event.