ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN WORLD LEADERS CONDEMN CLASH AT CAPITOL, PM MODI SAYS HE’S DISTRESSED BY IT
At least four people killed as mobs break into US legislature during certification of Biden’s election win
WASHINGTON: At least four people died on Wednesday after a violent mob stormed the Capitol building, home of the US legislature, and forced lawmakers to go into hiding, in a stunning attempt to overturn the November presidential election after a fiery speech by President Donald Trump.
Legislators attending a joint session of Congress to certify the victories of Democratic President-elect Joe Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris crouched under desks and donned gas masks, while police tried to barricade the building.
A woman protester was shot and killed by security personnel inside the building, while three others died due to medical emergencies. Washington’s mayor declared a curfew. At least 53 people were taken into custody, several explosive devices were found, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sought information on members of the mob.
Just after the election certification process got underway, Trump’s supporters overpowered security personnel to reach deep inside the building, forcing lawmakers to shelter under desks and in rooms, and halting the proceedings.
By late evening, the building was secured, the marchers driven out. But the crowds loitered around the complex menacingly, hurling abuses at police. Congress reconvened in the evening, lawmakers decrying the protests that defaced the Capitol and vowing to finish confirming the electoral college vote for Biden’s win, even if it took all night. Hours later, the certification was completed.
“To storm the Capitol, to smash windows, to occupy offices, and to threaten the safety of duly elected officials is not protest. It is insurrection,” Biden said in remarks to the nation. “The world is watching - and like so many other Americans, I am shocked and saddened that our nation, so long a beacon of light, hope, and democracy has come to such a dark moment.”
Former US President George W Bush, a Republican, slammed the mob action as an “insurrection”, as did other Republicans such as Senate majority leader Mitch Mcconnell and Senator Mitt Romney, a 2012 presidential nominee.
Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama said, “History will rightly remember today’s violence at the Capitol, incited by a sitting president who has continued to baselessly lie about the outcome of a lawful election, as a moment of great dishonour and shame for our nation. But we’d be kidding ourselves if we treated it as a total surprise.”
The rioters were egged on earlier in the day by Trump, who has spent weeks falsely attacking the integrity of the election and urged his supporters to descend on Washington to protest Congress’s formal approval of Biden’s victory. “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women,” Trump told them.
Some Republican lawmakers were in the midst of raising objections to the results on his behalf when the proceedings were abruptly halted by the mob.
Together, the protests and the GOP election objections amounted to an almost unthinkable challenge to American democracy and exposed the depths of the divisions that have coursed through the country during Trump’s four years in office.
The support Trump has received for his efforts to overturn the election results have badly strained the nation’s democratic guardrails.
WASHINGTON: World leaders and governments expressed shock and outrage at the storming of the US Capitol in Washington by supporters of President Donald Trump, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging orderly and peaceful transfer of power in the US.
Modi said he was “distressed to see news about rioting and violence” in Washington, DC. “Orderly and peaceful transfer of power must continue. The democratic process cannot be allowed to be subverted through unlawful protests,” he tweeted.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was “furious and saddened” by the events and said Trump shared blame for the unrest.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the “disgraceful scenes in US Congress”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the “rampage at the Capitol was a disgraceful act and it must be vigorously condemned.”
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned an “assault on US democracy”, which “tonight appears under siege.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said, “We will not give in to the violence of a few who want to question” democracy. “What happened today in Washington is not American”.
Russian officials pointed to the storming of the US Capitol as evidence of America’s decline, with Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the Russian upper house’s foreign affairs committee, saying it showed US democracy was “limping on both feet”.