Missourians say they will attend Biden inauguration dispute officials urging public to stay away

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    ST. LOUIS, MO (KMOV) — Despite officials urging the public to stay away from President-Elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, some Missourians are heading to Washington D.C. for the Jan. 20 event.

Wes Grant and Joe McDevitt told News 4 they are traveling to the Capitol on Tuesday. The men said the reports of violence they saw during the riot at the capitol on Jan. 6 varied greatly from what they heard from other Trump supporters.

“There was some violence and I think that violence came from a small few, but the majority of people who were in D.C. outside of the Capitol and some inside were mostly peaceful, from what we saw,” said Grant.

While stating they don’t condone violence, Grant and McDevitt said they will be in Washington D.C. despite officials’ pleas for the public to stay away.

“I think Joe Biden couldn’t get anybody to go to a rally or go to an inauguration, so they’re trying to keep us out of there ’cause he would have been embarrassed,” said McDevitt.

Currently, the area around the Capitol is fortified.

Former television journalist Grant Rampy, who worked in St. Louis in the 1990s said he needed to see things for himself. On Sunday, he took his cell phone and walked the streets of the nation’s Capitol with his dog, talking with National Guard Troops and journalists.

“I was surprised at how many plainclothes officers there were. I thought I was talking to a guy walking down the street that sort of looks like me, he was a plainclothes officer and they were everywhere,” he said.

Rampy covered the White House for 10 years and said he wanted to see the city as it prepared for the inauguration. He said there are three perimeters of security and does not think there will not be any problems in Washington D.C. but rather in other places around the country.

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