Trump Official Responsible for SOTU Fence Outraging Republicans

Conservatives were outraged this week after a fence similar to the one surrounding the United States Capitol after Jan. 6 reappeared ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union address Tuesday night.

In tweets and in hearings around Capitol Hill, Republican lawmakers lambasted the decision to put up the barrier between the people and Congress, calling it an effort to keep the public away from the "People's House" as the president spoke.

"When Biden starts talking about unity at the SOTU just remember he's also putting up fencing around the Capitol because that's how he really feels about the citizens he's supposed to represent," Donald Trump Jr. tweeted in response to the fence. "What a joke."

Others equated its presence as physical evidence to support arguments around the necessity of building a wall on the U.S.'s southern border with Mexico, with similar quips finding their way into many members of Congress' social media talking points on the morning of the address as a symbol of liberal hypocrisy around the border.

"If we can build a fence around the Capitol for Joe Biden's SOTU, we can finish the wall along the border," Texas Congressman Lance Gooden tweeted Tuesday morning.

"Walls are up around the People's House because the President is coming to Congress," tweeted freshman Republican Congressman Russell Fry. "Just a friendly reminder that Joe Biden knows walls work. #BidensBorderCrisis".

The quips even made their way into Congressional hearing rooms.

"I can assure you that the Democrats believe in walls because they've erected one around the Capitol today because President Joe Biden is delivering his State of the Union address to the country," Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said in a Tuesday hearing on the border.

Barring the fact fences are commonplace around anywhere a president or former president is speaking—former President Donald Trump had one around the perimeter of the South Carolina Capitol when he delivered a speech there several weeks ago, for example—it was actually a Trump official who was responsible for the decision to erect the fence.

Traditionally, decisions involving the U.S. Capitol building are decided not by the president, but by a three-member body composed of the sergeants-at-arms of the House and Senate as well as the Architect of the Capitol, a Senate-confirmed presidential appointee.

In the lead-up to the 2023 State of the Union, the House sergeant-at-arms—selected by Republicans—and the Democrat-appointed sergeant-at-arms were understandably divided on the decision to erect the fence, with Politico reporting Monday that House Sergeant-at-Arms William McFarland opposed the fence reportedly due to the fact there was "no actionable intelligence to necessitate putting up a fence."

The deciding vote, however, came from Architect of the Capitol J. Brett Blanton, who was appointed to a 10-year term overseeing the Capitol's operations in 2019 by no one other than Trump himself.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy seemed to acknowledge that fact earlier in the day, however. He just respectfully disagreed, saying that the available intelligence didn't warrant it.

"The Secret Service requested it. The Sergeant at Arms on the Senate side agreed, and so did the Architect of the Capitol," McCarthy reportedly told reporters. "The Sergeant at Arms on the House side didn't see the need for it. I just don't think it's the right look. There's not a need."