Trump flips on siege as dismissal clouds gather
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump finally condemned the attack by his supporters on the Capitol as “heinous” and acknowledged on Thursday that a “new administration” will be taking office shortly, even as calls grew from senior-most Democrats for his removal from office and a top federal prosecutor said the President’s incendiary remarks to his supporters before they stormed the Capitol will be a part of an investigation into the most shocking assault on US democracy.
“Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem,” Trump said in a video message, essentially to distance himself from his supporters who carried out the attack on Congress, at his instigation, to prevent it from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory.
On Wednesday, in a message during the attack, he had told them he “loved them”.
In Thursday’s message, he said: “Now, Congress has certified the results, and new administration will be inaugurated on January 20. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth orderly and seamless transition of power.” Even while appearing reconciliatory, though, Trump could not bring himself to either call Biden the winner or congratulate him. He later tweeted he would not attend the new President’s inauguration.
Earlier in the day, Presidentelect Biden launched a scathing attack on his predecessor, tying him to the attack on the Capitol. “For the past four years we’ve had a president who has made his contempt for our democracy, our Constitution, and the rule of law clear in everything he has done,” Biden said as he presented his justice department team, to be led by Merrick Garland as attorney general.
But Biden did not associate himself with efforts by Democrats on the Hill to force Trump out, either through the exercise of the 25th Amendment, which empowers the Cabinet to remove the president for being unable to govern, or trying to impeach him, for the second time.
His transition team told reporters the President-elect would leave all such decision to the congressional leadership of the Democrats.
Five people, include a Capitol police personnel, died i n Wednesday’s hours-long assault on the seat of US democracy that had forced Vice-President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the certification process, and his family, who were also there, and other lawmakers, to take shelter wherever they could, some hiding behind furniture and under desks. Badly outnumbered, security personnel withdrew, yielding full control of the premises to the rioters clad in Trump campaign gear — red hats emblazoned with his poll slogan “Make America Great Again” — and carrying his flag, and those of the Confederacy, which had fought to save slavery, but lost to the Union led by President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.