President elect joe bidens inauguration. As many as 25,000 National Guard troops are expected to be on the ground in our nations capitol. A peaceful transfer of power has been a cornerstone of our democratic process for hundreds of years now. What we are seeing is unprecedented after the insurrection at the capitol on january 6th. If you want to get a sense of just how tense things are right now, a Law Enforcement official tells nbc news an evacuation at part of the capitol was prompted by what turned out to be a fire at a homeless encampment last hour. Just moments from now, we will have a live interview with a commander general of the d. C. National guard on the ground there at the capitol. Right now, lets get to our reporters covering the latest security developments ahead of Inauguration Day wednesday. Pete williams is with us. So is ellson barber on the ground. Tom winter has reporting surrounding the insurrection. Pete, lets start with you. What do we know about what happened at the capitol . What you said. A sign of how they are very concerned about any possible anomaly. There was a fire near the capitol in an underpass on the interstate highway of a homeless encampment. People saw the smoke, so they delayed the inaugural rehearsal. Its over now. I want to show you a map to show you the how much concern there is and how much bigger than last year. This inner red line here is the no vehicle zone from the last inaugural, trump inaugural. Look how much bigger for this inaugural. It extends to a bigger area. Goes down here. For your bearings, this is the capitol. This is the white house. This is the Lincoln Memorial and the reflecting pool here, Washington Monument here. You can see how this year its expanded way out. This green line is the line through which anyone passing has to be vetted. You can see it covers a much larger area. This was the green light four years ago. Now it goes across the river. Captures a lot of the bridges that are closed. A sign of how much bigger the concern is, how much bigger the security lockdown area is in Central Washington this time. Pete, this is for our viewers at home, this is a side by side lets put it back up. That was a side by side that pete was referencing. I think we have another graphic. Pete, when do these new restrictions go into place or are they already in place . They are in place now. Okay. Wow. Pete williams there with quite the visual. Ellison barber standing by at the capitol with a very important guest, the commanding general of the d. C. National guard. Reporter thats right. This is one of the security checkpoints, many checkpoints throughout d. C. Capitol police, secret service, d. C. Police, they are part of keeping it safe and secure. I have with me the major general, the Commanding Officer of the d. C. National guard. There are at least 15,000 National Guard members, airmen and soldiers on the ground. That number will go up to at least 25,000 come inauguration. Major general, talk to me about the Security Posture we are seeing right now. We saw just within the last hour there was a fire nearby, unrelated, not necessarily a security threat. But we saw this area shut down. Whats the Security Posture . Nobody is taking any chances. Its essentially that simple. We are not taking any chances. This is three times of number of guardsmen we would normally have in support of the United States secret service. Its to ensure the peaceful transition of president ial power. Reporter theres a new article where they talk about the fbi vetting all 25,000 members of the National Guard who are deployed to the u. S. Capitol, saying defense officials had concerns about the possibility of some sort of insider attack. Do you have any concern about that within your ranks . Thank you for the question. No, i dont have any concerns. Its a layered scrub. The fbi is scrubbing. The secret Service Gives out the credentials. Then we have other agencies helping with the scrub as well. We are really are pretty sure we know who is out here supporting us. Reporter the National Guard always helps out on Inauguration Day. They are always involved in the process. When i talk to people who live in d. C. , many of them have been to inaugurations, they say we have never seen anything like this. Your guys are here all the time. You are d. C. National guard. What is this like compared to past inaugurations and past high security events . Its visibly different. Theres more guardsmen out here. What we are asking for is cooperation, patience and understanding of the citizens that live in and around the capitol. This will be over in a couple of days. Just be patience with us. We are going to provide security so theres a peaceful transition of power. The National Guard has been supporting every inauguration since 1861. The last couple of inaugurations, we have gone to guard nation to bring in guardsmen from other states and territories. For this one, all 50 states have sent guardsmen. We have all 54 National Guard here in support. As of this morning, we have 21,000 guardsmen on the ground. We will go up to 25,000. We have been authorized to go higher if required. Reporter what would be your message to anyone thinking of doing some sort of nefarious activity or Something Like we saw on january 6th . It wont be successful. I think you can clearly see the number of armed guardsmen in support of the secret service, the capitol police, the metropolitan police department, the United States park police. I believe it would be futile. Stay at home. Reporter the commanding general of the d. C. National can i thank all the guardsmen that are here . I couldnt be more proud. This is the privilege of my military career to be a commander of 25,000 guardsmen. Its an honor. I thank everybody for coming instantly. I hope everybody has a delightful dr. Martin luther king holiday. Reporter i believe you have a bronze star and quite a few medals to your name. We appreciate your time today. Thats something i have seen that strikes me as i have been reporting the last few days. People who live in d. C. , we have seen bikers, joggers, when they see the National Guard, they have been yelling out, thank you and we appreciate you. Every time i see it happen, it makes me stop. My gut instinct is to think someone is yelling because they are angry. They are not. They live here who are shouting out to these people, they see the uniform and they tell them thank you for being here, we appreciate you. Craig . We are all quite thankful. Pass along that sincere thanks, ellison, to the general and to the National Guard troops as well. Its a city you know well. Its a city i know well, having spent three years in washington. To hear the general say this will be over in a few days and if you are planning something, you probably want to stay away, because they seem to be adequately prepared. Mr. Winter, i know you have new reporting that the fbi has charged this pennsylvania woman in the capitol riot. They are looking into whether the woman intended to ship a computer from Speaker Pelosis office to russia. What more can you tell us about that . Reporter this is one of the 80 plus arrests made in connection with what happened at the capitol on january 6th. This would not be an extraordinary case if it were not what apparently, according to the fbi, a person they describe as a former romantic partner told them. This person is Riley Williams from the harrisburg, pennsylvania, area. This is her drivers license photo. Basically what they said is this former romantic partner talked to them, left several messages on their tip line and essentially said, craig, that she told this person that she intended to take this computer or hard drive that was taken from Speaker Pelosis office, send it to russia and there a friend would pass it along to the svr, which is kind of the american equivalent of the cia. Theres no indication here that the laptop has left the United States. They say that according to their investigation, it appears the computer device has been destroyed or at least has not left the country. The fbi says this matter is still under investigation. Its not clear whether williams is in custody. Its not clear, according to the fbi, why she didnt end up shipping this laptop to russia. It also isnt clear whether or not the person in russia had some sort of direct connection to the svr or was going to drive up and hand it over. A lot more information needs to be gathered. This comes from a criminal complaint thats involved in this case. Obviously, we will track it to see where the fbi investigation progresses. Its a troubling statement if true and certainly indicates to the fbi that this is somebody that they want to get ahold of and want to be able to recover that information. Tom winter, thank you. Ellison barber there at the capitol, thank you as well. Across the country, state capitols also remain on very high alert for any potential violence. Protests over the weekend were mostly peaceful. In both michigan and texas, a lot of the protesters were armed, openly carrying semiautomatic weapons, rifles, knives. Catie beck is outside virginias state capitol. Shes in richmond, which is bracing for more protests today. What precautions are officials taking there in virginia . What are you seeing . Reporter we, too, are seeing armed protesters that have showed up in the past hour or so to support what is lobby day at the virginia capitol, where advocacy groups try to lobby state legislators on their causes. Theres a progun lobby demonstrates today, causing more security alert here. We are at the foot of the state capitol. All boarded up. This is the perimeter, very secure right now. Theres 100 or more state Police Standing within sight of us. If you walk over here, these are the barriers that they have built around the capitol to try and keep demonstrators from lobby day away from the capitol. There is a no gun ordinance in the city of richmond and a state of emergency in virginia that would prevent demonstrators from bringing guns this close to the capitol. Already, we have seen a dozen or so over there with guns and weapons slung across their chest as they start the day. We are expecting to see a caravan of cars carrying the progun rally through the city of richmond today. Thats by design. There are no state lawmakers in the capitol today. This is the First Official day of assembly. They are meeting virtually in the house. The senate is meeting at a remote location. While these demonstrators are here to lobby lawmakers, theres no lawmakers here to lobby. This is a situation that i know that they have prepared for well in the state of virginia. Obviously, puts them on high alert when you see demonstrators with guns in a no guns area. Indeed. Indicate. This is a live look of the president elect. This is joe biden, a little difficult to make it out from this vantage point. You can see the president elect there at the conveyor belt. He is volunteering at a Hunger Relief Organization in philly to mark the mlk day of service. He is there alongside of dr. Jill biden. Difficult to make out with the masks. And his daughter ashley as well. Three bidens participating in this day of service. Thanks to the photographer on the scene there who is now slowly starting to zoom in for us there. You can see the president elect with the hat on. Were told he is packing beans. His wife is packing rice. We will take a look at what mr. Biden has planned for his first week in office next. Steve kornacki on how the public views joe biden as he gets ready to take office. Plus, another million coronavirus cases in the United States in less than one week. The big new warning about the more contagious strain of the virus. Do we really need a sign to live, laugh, and love . Yes. The answer is no. I can help new homeowners not become their parents. Keeonoh. Nope. Coeenoah. No. Joaquin. No. It just takes practice. Give it a shot. [ grunts, exhales deeply ] did you hear that . Yeah. Its a constant battle. Were gonna open a pdf. Whos next . Progressive cant save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto with us. No fussin, no cussin, and no age is just a number. When you bundle home and auto with us. And mines unlisted. Try boost® high protein. With 20 grams of protein for Muscle Health versus only 16 grams in ensure® high protein. And now enjoy boost® high protein in cafe mocha flavor. Right now, president elect joe biden honoring the legacy of dr. Martin luther king junior and his legacy of service. We got a better shot here of the president elect who will be sworn in roughly 48 hours from now. Packing boxes for the hungry in and around philly. You cant see it, but standing there with the president elect also dr. Jill biden, the soon to be first lady of these United States and their daughter. As this happens, we are learning new details about a tenday push of executive actions that the president elect is set to take right away. Steve kornacki is at the big board to break down some new polling that sheds light on the uphill battle that joe biden will face in bridging the deep divides in our country. We are getting down to the wire. What does the schedule look like for the president and the Vice President elect in the final few hours . Reporter final few days and hours. Its going to be jam packed and busy both on the inauguration front but in the immediate hours after they are inaugurated. We are getting the sense of executive actions they are hoping to push forward, in addition to the legislation packages they want to push through capitol hill. We heard biden talk about the 1. 9 trillion in stimulus. Thats on the agenda. In a memo that ron klain, the Incoming White House chief of staff sent to staffers, we are getting a sense of how they are pushing out promises he made into executive actions on days one through ten. On the first day, a lot will sound familiar, biden will move to put america back in the paris climate agreement. He will reverse the muslim ban. He will extend the moratorium on Student Loan Debt and eviction notices. Day two, asking americans to wear masks. We know thats something that he said throughout this transition. Then on day three, moving forward asking his cabinet officials to start prioritizing economic actions to deal with the economic fallout from this ongoing recession caused by the pandemic. He has linked those things. Now, of course, he is putting them into action in that same way. A lot of the things on this days one through ten list, he will do through executive action. Theres a lot of other things on the agenda he is going to have to move through capitol hill. We know right now that its a 50 50 split. We say majority. Kamala harris is resigning her senate seat. She put an oped out that outlined while she can use that tiebreaker role as Vice President , she said its her hope than rather come to a tie, the senate will do the work of the american people. That bipartisan message, that unity message, something harris and biden have talked about throughout this campaign and something biden will highlight in his inaugural remarks. Craig . Ali, thank you. Mr. Kornacki, lets talk about this. A couple interesting questions. A very unusual, to put it mildly, postelect period. Here is a question asked of every modern incoming period. Do you approve or disapprove of how the president elect handled the transition period . New poll out has joe bidens number here at 67 there. Thats a pretty broad majority saying they approve how biden handled this postelect period. How does that compare to other recent president s . One thing we can see is clearly that number is much higher, significantly higher than it was for donald trump. When trump was in the same period, late 2016, early 2017, that number was just 40 for him. What the biden number is, its lower than we have seen for some other modern president s. But its significantly higher than trump. Its more in line with what we had previously expected from president elect, from both parties. At least in that preinauguration period, theres a pretty broad groundswell of support. Its broad for biden. Not as broad as his modern predecessors but broader than donald trump. Thats one thing. This is a transition period where the outgoing president was impeached. Our most recent poll over the weekend shows the country, not surprisingly, divide on that question. 50 48, its the partisan divide. Support for democrats for impeaching the president last week. Among republicans, Single Digits in our poll, 8 . The republican party, a lot of the officials still looking at trump as he leaves office and saying, they feel the party is still behind him in a lot of ways. Then theres this. Trump Approval Rating was in the mid 40s in november, december, started january. Then the events of january 6th happened. The average Approval Rating for donald trump has fallen under 40 . We have talked about his presidency. At his worst, his Approval Rating would be high 30s, at its best, mid 40s. This is on the lower end. He is going out on the lower end of where his Approval Rating has been for the last four years. Steve kornacki, a look at the numbers there. Steve, thank you. Lets turn now to duvall patrick. He was the former assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division under american clinton. Governor, thanks for your time. Lets start on the subject of what the president elect can and should do in these perilous tim