Violence at the Capitol

“Hundreds of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday in a stunning bid to overturn his election defeat, battling police in the hallways and delaying the certification of Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s victory for hours.” Reuters

Both sides condemn the violence and call for a stronger response from President Trump:

“The breaching of the building during one of the longest-running ceremonies under our system of government is the starkest domestic assault on our democracy in memory, and means that in 2021 we indeed failed to have a peaceful transfer of power. The rioters themselves bear ultimate responsibility for their acts, but Trump egged them on… He whipped them up on Wednesday with one of his typically high-octane speeches about how the election was stolen from them, and urged them to march on the Capitol to give ‘weak’ Republicans the ‘pride and boldness they need to take back [our] country.’…

“It was a painful contrast Wednesday afternoon when outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, an institutionalist to his bones, gave a compelling, carefully crafted speech on why it’d be wrong to reject Biden electors, just as the rabble was preparing to roust him and his colleagues from their work. McConnell’s speech was the handiwork of someone who cares about our system enough to, when appropriate, admit defeat. The mob was not.” (Rich Lowry, Politico)

“They broke through barriers and swarmed the Capitol steps. They climbed up walls. They smashed windows. Some got inside the building, where they provoked an armed standoff with Capitol police, and even breached the Senate’s inner sanctum… This was anarchy and terror, pure and simple, from a group that pretends to belong to the party of ‘law and order.’” (Robin Abcarian, Los Angeles Times)