Pro-Trump protestors have stormed Capitol Hill in an attempt to stop the certification process of president-elect Joe Biden. As thousands of protestors swarmed around the Capitol, several of them broke their way into the US Senate and House chambers, forcing senators to evacuate. One woman was reportedly shot in the chest and in a critical state.
Geed up by months – years – of inflammatory rhetoric by Donald Trump and a rally he lead this morning, the pro-Trump demonstrators gathered outside on the Capitol steps and then entered the building despite heavy guards. They stormed into the building to stop the certification proceeding, forcing Vice-President Mike Pence, Senators, congresspeople, and their staff to be evacuated or told to take shelter in their offices. Mitt Romney put it best: “This is what the president has caused today, this insurrection” as security ushered him from the chamber. Pence, who has told Trump to accept the result of the election, has unfollowed Trump on Twitter.
The Mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, has called a state of emergency and declared a curfew at 6pm US time. Protests are also taking place in Texas, Arizona and Georgia, areas where the election results have also been challenged. The National Guard has reportedly been belatedly called in, reportedly by Pence after Trump allegedly refused to do so earlier.
Trump did issue a video statement calling on his protestors to “go home” and remain peaceful. However, in the same breath he reiterated the false and inflammatory claims driving this chaos – that the election had been stolen.
Trump is the man who has driven the false narrative that Democrats stole the election. The President – who is due to hand over to Biden officially on January 20 – has relentlessly attempted to prevent the transfer of power to Biden – testified to by leaked phone calls in which he attempted to pressure the Georgia Secretary of State to “find votes” and open calls for Pence and Republican electors to throw out the results. Now we are reaching the logical culmination of the Neronic will to power on the part of them an who touted himself as the “president of law and order”.
Indeed, the contrast between the treatment of the unarmed protestors in the summer – who Trump famously had cleared with baton charges and tear gas for a photo op – and these protestors many of whom are armed is striking. The National Guard is belatedly reportedly being called in, in a case of an arsonist half-heartedly chucking a bucket of water at the blaze he started.
As to what happens next, it’s difficult to predict. Unless Trump attempts a full-scale coup d’etat, Biden will still be inaurguated as there is no legal way to prevent this. So far, the protests far too small to permanently prevent the process. However, today’s event may conceivably push more Republicans to break with Trump – their willingness to tolerate his outrages lessened by direct exposure to their consequences. However, as for what the next four years will bring for Biden – if this is how his democratic claiming of power is granted – no one can say.