Trump’s Insurrection Requires His Immediate RemovalBy
Amy Goodman & Denis MoynihanCongress convened Wednesday to perform the largely ceremonial counting of Electoral College votes and to declare Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump countered with a rally that he had been planning for weeks. “Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
“Let’s have trial by combat,” Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s disgraced personal lawyer, crowed from the rally podium. “Stand up and fight!” Trump’s son Don Jr. shouted, as he threatened Congressional Republicans unwilling to support overturning Biden’s election: “We’re coming for you and we’re going to have a good time doing it.”
After President Trump’s speech, he directed the raging crowd to march on the Capitol, where the counting of votes was underway. Trump’s mob swarmed the Capitol, overwhelmed police, then smashed windows and breached heavy, locked doors.
With Trump and Confederate flags waving, the violent insurrectionists rampaged through the halls. Both the House and the Senate, debating the challenge to Arizona’s certified Electors, abruptly recessed as chaos descended on the heart of American democracy. Congressmembers grabbed gas masks from under their seats as teargas was deployed (it’s unclear if any of the staunch Trump supporters in the House refused to don the masks). Soon after Senators fled, marauders flooded their chamber. Guards barricaded the doors to the House in an armed standoff with Trump’s insurrectionists.
Capitol Police shot and killed one of the intruders, 35-year-old Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt of San Diego. Her social media posts suggest a strong belief in the fringe QAnon conspiracy theory. Three others reportedly died in DC of unspecified “medical emergencies” and several dozen were arrested.
The Capitol’s minimal security, with the entire Congress and the Vice President present, was shocking. Videos circulated showing a handful of Capitol Police briefly resisting the marchers, then opening the security perimeter, admitting the angry crowd. Inside, several police officers posed for selfies with the domestic terrorists who were taking control of the building.
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Trump’s Insurrection Requires His Immediate Removal | Democracy Now!