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Posted: 2021-01-16T14:59:12Z | Updated: 2021-01-16T14:59:12Z

Authorities in Washington, D.C., and state capitals around the nation are battening down the hatches in anticipation of President Donald Trumps departure from and President-elect Joe Bidens arrival to the White House next week.

In a public briefing on Thursday, FBI Director Christopher Wray said his agency had reason to worry about other potentially violent attacks or demonstrations that could turn ugly over the next several days.

We are seeing an extensive amount of concerning online chatter about a number of events, Wray told Vice President Mike Pence, who had a close call with an angry mob calling for his death by hanging during last weeks pro-Trump insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Following the Capitol siege, the Secret Services detailed plan to secure the D.C. area has come under greater scrutiny, particularly after prosecutors confirmed what many observers suspected: At least some of the furious Trump supporters who forcibly entered the building may have intended to capture and assassinate politicians inside.

The FBI warned this week that plans for armed protests have been detected in all 50 states , and many governors and local leaders are already setting up barriers and delaying legislative activity as a precaution.

The far-right movement is emboldened, broadly speaking, and very dangerous, Michael E. Hayden, an investigator with the Southern Poverty Law Center, told reporters Friday.

Posts on social media have promoted events such as a Million Militia March on Inauguration Day along with various armed events on Jan. 17, the last weekend day of the Trump presidency. Extremists have also been attempting to organize and share tactics in more secretive forums, such as via the messaging app Telegram, NBC News reported .

State capitals may be particularly vulnerable to extremist violence this week.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has already called on the National Guard to help protect the Capitol in Lansing ahead of rumored armed protests on Sunday, the Detroit Free Press reported . Her state was prepared to respond accordingly to any disturbance, Whitmer said. Michigan officials are also on the cusp of banning the open carry of firearms in the state Capitol building as soon as Monday. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) has ordered his state Capitol in Harrisburg to be closed next week just in case, and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) called up the National Guard in Columbus.

A lot of people were energized by what happened last week, Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism, told The Associated Press . State capitals are a natural place where people might want to show up, especially assuming that they think there might be a huge presence of police and military in D.C. because of what happened last week.

Despite a complete lack of evidence, a contingent of Trump supporters convinced that their candidate won the election continue to protest the certified results, having been encouraged repeatedly by Trump himself. Critics particularly those in the House who voted to impeach Trump a second time have maintained that Trumps words, online and off, are directly to blame for inciting the Jan. 6 incident.

Fueling anger on the far-right is the idea that conservative voices are being erased or canceled , especially now after Twitter permanently banned Trump from its service. Whereas in past years the movement organized around the fear that its political opponents want to take your guns away, Hayden said, now its: They want to take your speech away.

The result is a blending of far-right extremist groups that might otherwise think of themselves as ideologically distinct, Hayden said.