Capitol siege by angry mob forces hard questions
Pelosi says that any remaining day with the president in power could be ‘a horror show for America’
WASHINGTON — One day later, the violent siege of the U.S. Capitol by President Donald Trump’s supporters forced painful new questions across government — about his fitness to remain in office for two more weeks, the ability of the police to secure the complex and the future of the Republican Party in a post-trump era.
In the immediate aftermath, the attack on the world’s iconic dome of democracy, shocking imagery flashed around the globe, reinforced lawmakers’ resolve to stay up all night to finish counting the Electoral College vote confirming Democrat Joe Biden won the presidential election.
But the rampage that left a country on edge prompted lawmakers to launch a congressional review of the U.S. Capitol Police’s failure to stop the breach and is forcing a broader reckoning over Trump’s tenure in office and what comes next for a tattered and torn nation.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that any remaining day with the president in power could be “a horror show for America.”
Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called for invoking the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to force Trump from office before Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20.
At least one Republican lawmaker joined them. The procedure allows for the vice-president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare the president unfit for office. The vice-president then becomes acting president.
Pelosi said if the president’s Cabinet does not swiftly invoke the 25th Amendment, the House may proceed to impeach Trump.
Meanwhile, other Republicans who echoed Trump’s false claims of a fraudulent election, including rising stars and some party leaders, faced angry, unsettled peers — but also those cheering them on.
With tensions high, the Capitol shuttered and lawmakers not scheduled to return until the inauguration, an uneasy feeling of stalemate settled over amain seat of national power as Trump remained holed up at the White House.
The social media giant Facebook banned the president from its platform and Instagram for the duration of Trump’s final days in office, if not indefinitely, citing his intent to stoke unrest. Twitter had silenced him the day before.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said “the shocking events of the last 24 hours” make it clear Trump “intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power.”
The head of the U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund faced pressure from Schumer, Pelosi and others in Congress to resign. The sergeants at arms of the House and Senate that oversee the police and security at the complex are also expected to be removed.
Sund defended his department’s response to the storming of the Capitol, saying that officers had “acted valiantly when faced with thousands of individuals involved in violent riotous actions.”
In his first public comment on the mayhem, Sund said in a statement that rioters “actively attacked” Capitol police and other law enforcement officers with metal pipes, discharged chemical irritants and “took up other weapons against our officers.”
It was “unlike any I have ever experienced in my 30 years in law enforcement here in Washington, D.C.,” said Sund, a former city police officer.
But Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser quickly called the police response “a failure.”
Lawmakers from both parties pledged to investigate law enforcement’s actions and questioned whether a lack of preparedness allowed a mob to occupy and vandalize the building.
Black lawmakers, in particular, noted the way the mostly white Trump supporters were treated as they laid siege to the Capitol.
Urged on by Trump during a rally near the White House earlier in the day Wednesday to head to Capitol Hill, protesters swiftly broke through police barriers, smashed windows and paraded through the halls, sending lawmakers into hiding.
The protesters ransacked the place, taking over the House and Senate chambers and waving Trump, American and Confederate flags.
Outside, they scaled the walls and balconies in their breach of the building.
Newly elected Rep. Cori Bush, D-MO., said if “we, as Black people did the same things that happened ... the reaction would have been different, we would have been laid out on the ground, there would have been, there would have been shootings, there would have been people in jail.”
One protester, a white woman, was shot to death by Capitol Police, and there were dozens of arrests. Three other people died after “medical emergencies” related to the breach.