House Cancels March 4 Votes Thanks to QAnon Conspiracy Threat

James D. DeCamp/Zuma

Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.Donald Trump wasn’t inaugurated on January 20. Joe Biden was. While that should have quelled the belief of QAnon conspiracy theorists that Trump would rein supreme for another term, deluded hope finds ways to live on.
And that’s why some Q devotees still seem to believe Trump will be sworn in as the 19th president in March 4, the date that a president’s term began prior to 1933, when passage of the 20th amendment shortened the lame duck period and made January 20 Inauguration Day. (March 4, interestingly, is also the date Facebook chose to lift its ban on political advertising.)
It seemed there was less support for the March 4 conspiracy theory than for the January 6 insurrection. The House Sergeant-at-Arms said in a security bulletin on Monday that Capitol Police had “no indication that groups will travel to Washington D.C. to protest or commit acts of violence,” according to DCist.
But the threat is serious enough that Capitol Police announced today that they will be bolstering security on Thursday because of a “possible plot to breach the Capitol by an identified militia group.” Notably, the House is scrapping its plans for a Thursday session and moving its scheduled votes up to this evening.
These actions don’t seem entirely unfounded. I called the Trump Hotel in DC and asked why room rates were so much higher on March 4 than on subsequent days. The receptionist said simply that rates are based on occupancy: “The higher the occupancy, the higher the rates go.”
For what it’s worth, the National Guard remains deployed in DC, and the Senate will be going about its business as planned.