Guns out, windows smashed: When mob lay siege to seat of US democracy

Wednesday was unprecedented in US history when President Donald Trump’s supporters lay siege to Capitol Hill — the heart of American democracy. The violence, which has left four dead, erupted when the US Congress met to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win.

In an angry, rambling speech outside the White House before the violence, Trump urged his supporters to march to the Capitol and demanded that Vice President Mike Pence, who ceremonially led the session, intervene to reverse their loss, AFP reported.

But Pence said in a last-minute statement that he did not believe he had the authority to intervene.

Egged on in an extraordinary rally across town by an aggrieved Trump, a flag-waving mob broke down barricades outside the Capitol and swarmed inside, rampaging through offices and onto the usually solemn legislative floors.

Security forces fired tear gas in a four-hour operation to clear the Capitol and four people died in the violence.

One of those killed was reportedly a female Trump partisan from California.

One Trump backer in jeans and a baseball cap was pictured propping a leg up on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk, where a threatening note had been left, as throngs of others climbed onto risers set up for Biden’s inauguration on January 20, holding a banner that read: “We the people will bring DC to its knees/We have the power.”

Undeterred, lawmakers resumed business after dark and the Senate soundly rejected the first of several expected challenges to Biden’s win, with several Trump loyalists reversing course in the wake of the violence that drew condemnation around the world.

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, closely aligned with Trump throughout his presidency, had tried to prevent the challenges and noted that the election results were not even close.

“The voters, the courts and the states have all spoken. If we overrule them, it will damage our republic forever,” McConnell said shortly before the violence.

“If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral,” he added.

One of Trump’s loyalists who revered course was Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler, one of the two Georgia Senators who lost their seats on Tuesday.

“The events that have transpired today have forced me to reconsider. And I cannot now in good conscience object to the certification,” Loeffler said, as per an AFP report.

Senator Mitt Romney, one of Trump’s most vocal critics inside the Republican Party, pointedly said that the best way to respect voters “is to tell them the truth.”

“Those who continue to support this dangerous gambit,” Romney said, “will forever be seen as being complicit in an unprecedented attack against our democracy.”

With Democrats already in control of the House of Representatives, there was never any chance that Congress would overturn Biden’s victory.

Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, who is set to become majority leader after Tuesday’s election victories, described the violence as an attempted coup and said it would be remembered in US history much like the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

“This mob was in good part President Trump’s doing, incited by his words, his lies,” Schumer said, adding that Trump would bear “everlasting shame.”

Also read: In Pics | The violence at the US Capitol Building

In a statement, Biden called the violence an “insurrection” and demanded that Trump immediately go on national television to tell the rioters to leave.

“This is not dissent, it’s disorder. It borders on sedition, and it must end,” Biden tweeted.

Former president Barack Obama called the violence “a moment of great dishonor and shame for our nation.”

“But we’d be kidding ourselves if we treated it as a total surprise,” Obama said, adding that it was “incited” by Trump, “who has continued to baselessly lie about the outcome of a lawful election.”

Also read: When US lawmakers hid in underground tunnels: All you need to know about Capitol Hill violence

Former president George W Bush also did not mince words, denouncing lawmakers’ “reckless behavior” and saying: “This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic — not our democratic republic.”

In a major step, social media companies pulled down Trump’s video on charges it aggravated violence and Twitter temporarily suspended his account, warning the tweet-loving tycoon of a permanent ban if he does not conform to rules on civic integrity.

US allies also voiced shock, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson denouncing the “disgraceful scenes” and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas urging Trump backers to “stop trampling on democracy.”

The last time when the Capitol had been taken over since 1814 when the British burned it during the War of 1812.

Biden won in excess of seven million votes more than Trump in the November 3 election and leads him 306-232 in the state-by-state Electoral College count that determines elections, with Republicans unable to prove in court a single allegation of fraud.