The official procedure for approving the results of the presidential elections in the United States was threatened with disruption when Donald Trump's associates protesters outside the Capitol walls broke through the police cordon and entered the building.
Legislators were forced to evacuate without completing the vote. Democrats have already dubbed the protest a mutiny and called for the removal of the incumbent. When the situation was resolved, the Republicans also joined the calls.
The US Congress met on January 6 to close the penultimate stage in the transfer of power in the country. Senators and congressmen were supposed to approve an electoral vote, according to which Democrat Joe Biden was elected the new head of the United States. The incumbent President Donald Trump did not recognize the election results, in which he was supported by thousands of Americans who came to the "March to Save America" in Washington.
Protesters gathered outside the walls of the Capitol, demanding that the elections be declared invalid. The president himself came out to the people, saying that the vote was the most corrupt in the history of the United States, and possibly in the whole world. In parallel, a number of Republicans in the Senate opposed the electoral vote in several states, trying to challenge the outcome of the presidential election.
Their opponents in the face of the Democrats took such statements with hostility. In particular, the leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, caught the representatives of the Republican Party in the "coup attempt" because of their protests. However, the opponents failed to end the dispute, as Trump's supporters took action and, breaking through the police cordon, headed to the Capitol building.
Storming the Capitol
In a relatively short period of time, the protesters managed to infiltrate not only the building, but also the Senate meeting hall and a number of high-ranking legislators' offices. For example, activists were able to get into the office of Nancy Pelosi, the President of the House of Representatives, one of Trump's famous Democratic opponents.
While the crowd seized the Capitol, the police and building security hastily evacuated lawmakers from it, who managed to take with them the final documents from the electoral vote.
Inside, there were several clashes between activists and law enforcement officers, as a result of which several people were injured and a girl died - she received a gunshot wound to the chest.
Later, Reuters, citing the head of the Washington Police Department, will report four deaths that day. However, the details are still unknown.
To suppress the protest and liberate the building, special forces units arrived at the Capitol along with additional police forces. Moreover, by order of Trump, National Guard forces were introduced into Washington, which ultimately made it possible to resolve the situation and push the protesters away from the Capitol. 52 people were detained in connection with the riots.
The last time strangers broke into the Capitol was during the War in 1814.
Then it all ended with the burning of the building, which became one of the main symbols of US democracy. The current incident has caused serious criticism against Trump, opponents of the head of state accused him of inciting unrest.
The fact is that the president at the rally called on his supporters "to help the Republicans defend fair elections." When the activists began storming the Capitol, Trump almost immediately asked them to protest peacefully and respect the work of the police.
Biden reacted harder to the actions of his opponent's associates.
The democrat said that what is happening in Washington is not a protest, but a real rebellion.
He called on Trump to immediately end the "siege of the Capitol." Other prominent representatives of the Democratic Party also compared what was happening with a coup and demanded the introduction of the forces of the National Guard to stabilize the situation, which, in fact, did the president.
In addition, the Washington authorities responded to the incident by imposing a curfew from 6 pm local time, promising to detain all violators - according to preliminary data, the police have already detained about 30 people. This did not completely stop the protest, but the number of activists on the streets of the American capital has dropped significantly, writes NBC.
Trump's resignation?
After the situation stabilized, American lawmakers returned to the Capitol and continued their hearings to confirm the electoral vote.
At the same time, the number of Republicans supporting Trump's words about the "stolen elections" has decreased.
For example, Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler said that she could not "with a clear conscience object to the approval of these votes." At the moment, she is participating in the re-election to the Senate from the state of Georgia and, as part of the election campaign, actively accused the Democrats of rigging the presidential elections.
Moreover, calls for his early resignation began to appear on the part of the president's associates. In particular, the Republican Governor of Vermont, Phil Scott, announced that Trump should step down after what happened in Washington, or Congress would remove him from office.
There are several options for dismissing the president at the moment. The first involves an appeal to the 25th amendment to the US Constitution, according to which the vice president holds the post of head of state in the event of an early termination of the president's powers, his incapacity. The second way is impeachment; the Democratic Party has already announced the preparation of the relevant hearings in the House of Representatives.
Fuel is added to the fire by the fact that during the hearings in Congress, rallies in support of Trump were held in at least 11 American states.
In several regions, they have also led to attacks on local legislature buildings. The media, as well as opponents and even supporters of Trump, blame the current president for this situation.
Even social networks opposed Trump, in which he posted an appeal to the protesters. The President called on the activists to disperse, but reiterated his assertion about election fraud. As a result, Twitter blocked Trump's account for 12 hours, Facebook went even further - it restricted access to the head of state's page for a day, and then Instagram repeated this.
Attack on democracy
An additional negative factor in the situation around the actual capture of the Capitol was the fact that even members of the US government began to discuss the possibility of removing Trump from power, although there are already two weeks left until the end of his term. As noted by the USA Today newspaper, it also discusses the issue of the 25th amendment to the US Constitution, which has never been applied since it was adopted about half a century ago.
The capture of the Capitol was also condemned by former US presidents, regardless of their party affiliation. In particular, Republican George W. Bush said that they argue so about the election results in the banana republics, and not in the democratic republic.
“I was shocked by the reckless behavior of some political leaders after the elections, as well as by the disrespect shown today towards our institutions, traditions and law enforcement agencies,” the ex-president stressed .
Democrat Barack Obama directly accused Trump of inciting violence in the Capitol. According to the ex-president, the incident became a real shame for the United States.
“History will rightfully remember today's Capitol brutality [resulting from] the incitement of the incumbent, who continued to lie unreasonably about the results of legitimate elections, as a moment of greatest shame and shame for our nation,” Obama wrote on Twitter.
The situation was not too positively assessed overseas. In particular, the head of the EU's foreign policy, Josep Borrell, called the riots "an unheard-of attack on US democracy, its institutions and the rule of law."
The storming of the Capitol sums up the presidency of Donald Trump. As noted by the Americanist and RIAC expert Alexei Naumov, it is with this event that the reign of the 45th president in the United States will go down in history.
“Trumpism will become associated with exactly this - with defeat. Losing the battle with the covid, losing the presidential election, losing in Georgia, losing in today's battle of Washington: this kind of violence will not be accepted by either party. Trumpism has once again been taken out of the norm by Trump himself, ” the expert writes on Facebook.
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