"Credible threats of violence" have prompted Michigan authorities to close the state capitol to the public and shutter House and Senate offices, a spokeswoman said, on the day the Electoral College will formally declare Joe Biden the President-elect.
The tension surrounding Monday's procedure -- a typically routine event affirming a presidential victory -- was underscored in an interview with a GOP state lawmaker who floated the possibility of violence at the capitol and was swiftly stripped of his committee assignments by the legislature's Republican leaders.
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Gideon D'Assandro, the communications director for state GOP House Speaker Lee Chatfield, also told CNN Sunday evening that the offices would be closed. He didn't elaborate on the security concern, but said the House and legislative bodies were informed about it by the Michigan State Police, which declined to comment on the matter to CNN.
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Monday morning, Chatfield and Speaker-Elect Jason Wentworth announced that state Rep. Gary Eisen, a Republican, had been stripped of his assignments following remarks in a WPHM radio interview in which he said he was helping coordinate protests and could not assure that there would not be violence.
Eisen, who supported the failed Texas lawsuit that sought to overturn the election results, did not give details about who was organizing the protests but said he was warned "it's going to be violence, it's going to be protests."
