Riot at the U.S. Capitol
What happened: Washington was already planning for pro-Trump groups to protest yesterday’s Electoral College count. But in the early afternoon, some protesters began tussling with police. About 90 minutes later, they were inside the Capitol, and Capitol police say they were overwhelmed by the crowd. Others inside the building, including Congressional staff, legislators and Vice President Mike Pence, were evacuated or told to seek shelter. Images show rioters with Confederate flags and Trump paraphernalia ransacking offices and parading about the Senate floor. One woman died after being shot on Capitol grounds, and three other people died following medical emergencies during the riot. The Capitol was finally cleared at 5:40 p.m. ET, and all in all, 52 people were arrested. Elsewhere across the nation, smaller but similar scenes unfolded, including in front of Georgia’s capitol building and the governor’s mansion in Washington state.
The President’s response: It took President Trump hours to respond to the domestic terrorism. In tweets and a video message, the President offered only lukewarm admonition and repeated some of the baseless claims that motivated the protests in the first place. “We love you," he said to rioters in the video. "You're very special." The video and some of his tweets were taken down by Twitter and Facebook in what the companies said was an attempt to prevent more violence. Both platforms temporarily locked Trump's accounts.
Electoral College affirmation: After abandoning the proceedings as rioters forced their way inside the Capitol, House and Senate members reconvened last night and, just a few hours ago, finally affirmed Joe Biden’s Electoral College win. Several GOP senators who’d planned to object changed their minds because of the day’s events. The process was understandably tense. Two House members nearly came to blows during a debate over Pennsylvania’s election results, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, a staunch supporter of Trump, vigorously defended certifying the electoral votes. Earlier in the day, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Mike Pence had voiced their belief in the legitimacy of Biden’s victory and rejected Trump’s claims of voter fraud.
Political response: In addition to expressing obvious horror and anger, a growing number of Republican leaders and Cabinet officials have told CNN they believe Trump should be removed from office before Biden’s January 20 inauguration, even if it means invoking the 25th Amendment or disqualifying him from ever holding office again. Several White House staffers have resigned, including Trump's deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger and Stephanie Grisham, chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump, and more are reportedly considering resignation. Former military officials who served under Trump, including his first defense secretary, James Mattis, strongly condemned Trump’s actions and the actions of others they say have interfered with a peaceful transfer of power. Even industry leaders have weighed in. The National Association of Manufacturers, one of the most influential business groups in the US, called on Pence to consider working to remove Trump from office. All four living former US Presidents decried the Capitol breach.
World response: US allies and adversaries looked on in shock and revulsion at yesterday’s events. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the "disgraceful scenes in US Congress.” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas compared the violence to the Nazis burning the Reichstag parliament building in 1933, saying, “The enemies of democracy will rejoice at these inconceivable images.” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called Trump a "sick person" who had disgraced his country. Top diplomats and leaders in Iceland, France, Austria, Poland, Ecuador, Colombia and Scotland, among others, reminded the US of its role as a global model of democracy. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been notably silent so far.
What happens next: The US Secret Service is significantly ramping up coverage and bringing more agents to the White House in the wake of the scenes of domestic terror. Trump, meanwhile, issued a statement pledging an “orderly” transition on January 20 -- but not without baselessly reiterating that he still thinks the election was stolen from him. The President’s ongoing refusal to accept reality has led to concern, both within the White House and beyond, over what Trump may do -- and how his supporters, rivals and, indeed, the world will respond -- in his final two weeks in office. Read more at CNN
Donald Trump has been attacking American democracy for much of his time as president.
He has told repeated lies about voter fraud, undermining people’s confidence in elections. He has defied parts of the Constitution. He has spent his final weeks in office pressuring other government officials to overturn the result of an election he lost. He has occasionally encouraged his supporters to commit violence.
Yesterday, hundreds of those supporters decided to take Trump literally.
They fought their way through armed police, smashed windows and stormed the U.S. Capitol to prevent Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. They then spent several hours inside the building, vandalizing offices and the House floor. They injured at least 14 law enforcement officers. Vice President Mike Pence, members of Congress and others fled for their safety.
In the end, the rioters — and Trump — will fail in their effort to keep him in power. At about 3:45 a.m., Congress did confirm Biden’s victory. Thirteen days from now, he will take the oath of office and become president of the United States.
But a physical assault on the nation’s seat of government is no small thing. And it was not a onetime event. It was a logical extension of the message that Trump has long been telling his supporters — that American democracy is a fraud, that his opponents are traitors and that his allies need to fight back.
“We’re seeing more and more citizens expressing openness to violence,” Lee Drutman, a political scientist, told me almost three months ago, “as more and more partisan leaders engage in the kinds of dehumanizing rhetoric that paves the way for taking violent action.”
Trump, speaking to the protesters at a rally hours before they burst into the Capitol, referred to his political opponents as “bad people” and “the enemy of the people.” He described his allies as “warriors” and encouraged them to stop “fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back.” He added, “We’re going to have to fight much harder.”
At the same rally, Rudy Giuliani said that Trump’s opponents should go to jail and added, “Let’s have trial by combat.” And Donald Trump Jr., addressing congressional Republicans who planned to split from his father, said: “We’re coming for you, and we’re going to have a good time doing it.”
After the violence, Trump himself wrote on social media, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long.”
Trump’s efforts are failing in large part because a significant number of Republicans have refused to go along with him. But many other high-level Republicans have echoed and encouraged him. Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz and dozens of other members of Congress have fanned voters’ anger by promoting Trump’s lies about the election. (Here’s a list of Congress members who did so yesterday.) They have joined his attempts to undermine the American system of government.
“This is what you’ve gotten, guys,” Senator Mitt Romney, the Utah Republican, yelled as the rioters breached the Capitol yesterday. He was addressing his colleagues who have supported Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the election.
Shortly afterward, uniformed police officers evacuated senators and reporters from the chamber to the basement, before rushing them through underground tunnels to a secure location in a Senate office building. There, Romney saw Jonathan Martin, a Times reporter, and called for Jonathan to come over and talk. In 15 years of covering him, Jonathan said he had never seen Romney so alarmed.
“This is what the president has caused today, this insurrection,” Romney, with fury in his voice, said Read more at New York Times
The police appeared unprepared for the onslaught, which Trump loyalists had discussed openly on social media sites like Gab and Parler. Trump initially rebuffed requests to send the National Guard to the Capitol. Pence eventually approved the order. Read more at New York Times
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING
“The incredible show of force that we saw in DC this summer… Where is it?” Abby Phillip, a CNN political correspondent, wrote, referring to the aggressive presence of law enforcement during Black Lives Matter protests.
Former President George W. Bush said he was “appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election and by the lack of respect shown today for our institutions, our traditions and our law enforcement.”
Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, said: “These pictures made me angry and sad. But I am sure: American democracy will prove to be much stronger than the aggressors and rioters.”
James Mattis, former defense secretary under Trump, said: “Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, an effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump.”
“Not everyone storming the Capitol is QAnon, but make no mistake: this wouldn’t have happened without QAnon, the politicians and partisan media figures who cynically embraced it, and the platforms that amplified it for years,” Kevin Roose, a Times tech columnist, wrote.
“This is not dissent,” Biden said in a speech as the chaos was unfolding. “It’s disorder. It’s chaos. It borders on sedition and it must end now.”
“Storming the capitol was an act of political violence meant to express ownership of the country, regardless of the outcome of any election,” Adam Serwer, a writer at The Atlantic, tweeted. “Its surrender by the capitol police was an affirmation that will encourage further violence.”
“Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol,” Heather Cox Richardson, a history professor at Boston College, wrote.
THE HEADLINES ABROAD
Clockwise, from top left: Frankfurter Allgemeine, Germany; Clarín, Argentina; La Repubblica, Italy; The Chosun Ilbo, Korea; Adresseavisen, Norway; Dainik Bhaskar, India.
How did the media in other countries cover the events?
“Trump supporters attack the heart of American democracy,” Correa de Manhã, in Portugal, reported. Italy’s La Repubblica wrote: “Trump supporters on the attack: weapons in the chamber, Congress in lockdown.”India’s Dainik Bhaskar: “Oldest democracy in crisis.” And France’s Le Figaro: “Capture of the Capitol: The day America’s democracy fractured.” Read more at New York Times
President-elect Joe Biden called for the restoration of “simple decency” after the pro-Trump mob incited by his predecessor stormed the U.S. Capitol and delayed Congress from certifying Biden's election victory.
In his remarks, Biden said the nation's democracy “is under unprecedented assault unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times.” “This is not decent, it’s chaos," he added.
Biden had planned to deliver remarks on the economy and the coronavirus pandemic in a speech in his native Delaware. But shortly before he was to begin speaking, demonstrators broke into the Capitol. Will Weissert and Darlene Superville report. Read more at AP
Republicans: The insurrection offers a new, and perhaps final, moment of reckoning for a Republican Party that has been steadfastly encouraging Trump’s false claims that the November election was stolen. The party must decide whether now is the time to stop enabling Trump’s dangerous behavior. This may have been the darkest day of Trump’s turbulent presidency, but with 13 days left in the world’s most powerful office, he has the time and willingness to continue his assault on democracy, Steve Peoples reports. Read more at AP
The insurrection lives on. As Wednesday’s attack makes clear, there is a vocal minority with no interest in reconciliation. Brendan O’Connor, the author of a forthcoming book on the extremist groups given new life by President Trump, told Foreign Policy that these organizations are in for the long haul.
“We need to prepare ourselves for this kind of thing in the years to come,” O’Connor said. “I don’t think that political violence and political street violence is going away: This is part of politics in the U.S. now. “
It’s also part of U.S. national security concerns. A report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that of 893 terrorist attacks and plots in the United States since 1994, 57 percent of those were planned or carried out by right-wing extremist groups, (and that share is even higher if only recent years are taken into account).
QAnon and on and on. Among the protesters were tell-tale signs of QAnon support, which Justin Ling describes as a “conspiracy movement-cum-mass delusion.” It’s beliefs have now become so mainstream in Republican circles, Ling writes, that “Trump is, for all intents and purposes, the new Q.”
A coup? Not quite, says Naunihal Singh, a professor at the Naval War College and the author of Seizing Power: The Strategic Logic of Military Coups in an interview with FP Editor-at-Large Jonathan Tepperman. Paul Musgrave, argues that it was undeniably a coup attempt.
America the exceptional? It’s not easy to say how much the storming of the Capitol will contribute to the decline in the reputation of the United States abroad. That’s because that decline has already been so steep: A Gallup poll of 29 countries in 2020 found that 20 already had approval ratings of U.S. leadership that are at new lows or that tie the previous record lows. Read more at Foreign Policy
Democrats flipped the Senate.
Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock defeated Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in Georgia's Senate runoffs, capping a contentious and historically costly election that has left Democrats with control of both chambers of Congress. While the party will maintain a narrow majority in the Senate, the pair of victories paves the way for Biden to implement a more ambitious agenda than had either of the two GOP senators won re-election. After raising significantly more money than their opponents, Ossoff and Warnock spent heavily on advertising and get-out-the-vote campaigns in a race that some Republican strategists say ended up being more of a referendum on Trump than on the two senators on the ballot, both of whom largely tried to avoid acknowledging his defeat. Republican state officials made unusually forceful public remarks aimed at countering GOP claims of fraudulent activity and urged residents to cast ballots. The Democratic wins were driven by a mobilized Black voter community, an influx of new residents from more liberal states and years of organizing to turn the reliably Republican state into a politically competitive one. Read more at Wall Street Journal
It is an ironic, poetic ending to the raucous reign of Donald J. Trump: Enabled — and enabling — Republicans put the final knives in their beloved, besieged, beaten president:
It was often conservative judges appointed by Trump who rejected his desperate lawsuits to overturn the election results state by state.
It was Trump appointees on the Supreme Court, who he assumed would do his bidding, who rejected his pleas for Supreme salvation.
It was the Georgia governor he almost single-handedly helped put in office, and Trump supporters below him, who refused his unprecedented pressure to flip the state his way.
It was Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who turned a blind eye and silent mouth to countless Trump actions he privately ridiculed, who took to the Senate floor to insist that Congress certify President-elect Biden's victory.
It was Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a key Trump ally on the Hill and a 2024 contender, who loudly condemned what Trump is doing — a sign that some believe Trump, as ex-president, won't be the scary political threat he hopes to be.
It was scores of Republicans, most of whom sucked up to Trump for four-plus years, who voted against final pleas to reject the election of Joe Biden. (At 3 a.m., the House voted 282-138 against an objection to Pennsylvania's electoral votes; the Senate shut down the same objection, 92-7, just after midnight.)
And it was his own vice president, Mike Pence, who will go down in history as one of the most loyal supplicants to serve in his office, who rejected intense pressure to violate the Constitution to deny Biden his office.
The big picture: There are no heroes here — just a few people who watched the system bend, but in the end did not allow it to fully break. Only in time will we learn the reward or consequences of their actions.
Photo: John Minchillo/AP
Go deeper: "Inside the chamber," a first-person account by Axios' Alayna Treene and Kadia Goba, who were in the Capitol when it was stormed.
Latest reporting from Jonathan Swan, Margaret Talev: "Republicans consider drastic options to stop Trump." Read more at Axios
President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate federal judge Merrick B. Garland, a Democratic casualty of the bitter partisan divide in Washington, to be the next attorney general, tasked with restoring the Justice Department’s independence and credibility, according to people familiar with the decision.
Garland, 68, serves on the federal appeals court in the District. He is best known for being nominated to the Supreme Court in 2016 by President Barack Obama — a nomination that went nowhere because Senate Republicans refused to give him a hearing. The opening on the high court was eventually filled the following year by President Trump’s choice, Neil M. Gorsuch. Read more at Washington Post
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Louisville Metro Police Department has officially fired two detectives and sanctioned others for their actions surrounding the raid that left Breonna Taylor, 26, dead in her apartment.
Detectives Myles Cosgrove and Joshua Jaynes, who were fired Tuesday, are the latest detectives the department has terminated in connection with the fatal police shooting of Taylor.
A third detective, Brett Hankison, was fired in June for "blindly" firing 10 rounds into her apartment.
Cosgrove, who the FBI concluded fired the shot that killed Taylor, violated procedures for use of force and failing to use a body camera during the March 13 search warrant.
Jaynes, meanwhile, the officer who secured the search warrant for Taylor's apartment, was found in violation of department policy for truthfulness and search warrant preparation. Read more at USA Today
A court in Lahore, Pakistan, abolished so-called virginity tests for women in sexual assault cases, saying the practice is humiliating and casts suspicion on victims rather than the accused. Read more at New York Times
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