‘Increase in terror threats if America doesn’t unite’
The United States could have a tumultuous four years ahead, including an increase in terror threats, if the government doesn’t act quickly to unite the country following a deadly riot on the Capitol building.
Speaking as the rioted unfolded, Waikato University international law professor Alexander Gillespie said authorities had to act now before the situation got out of control.
His warning came after supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol building in Washington yesterday (NZT) in an attempt to stop congress from affirming President elect Joe Biden’s victory.
During chaotic scenes in which protesters entered the House of Chambers, forcing people to take cover, a woman was reportedly shot in the chest and later died.
Gillespie believes this type of behaviour could continue into the next four years if it was not dealt with properly now.
‘‘The risk here is not what happens today because I don’t think you are going to see a coup, it’s not a coup.
‘‘It’s a very disorderly protest and even though Trump is trying to kind of distance himself from the actual mayhem, he’s created the mayhem.’’
Gillespie believes the bigger risk is how the reaction unfolds in coming years.
‘‘Because you are likely to see a rise in terror and a lot of discontent. So it’s going to take a very nimble government to try and hold those two, the Republicans and Democrats as Americans, it’s going to take a lot of hard work.’’
Since the US elections, on November 4, the world has seen Trump attempt to retain his Presidential role by claiming a fraudulent voting system.
Therefore, Gillespie was not surprised Trump had created a ‘‘tinderbox’’ situation.
‘‘So even though he might not be calling for violence, he’s created a situation where it would only take one spark for it to actually occur.’’
Trump did use his Twitter account to call for calm during the riot, posting a video which was later taken off the site.
His Twitter account was also later locked down for 12 hours ‘‘for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity Policy,’’ Twitter said.
In the now deleted video, Trump told his supporters that he knew their pain and hurt, but that they had to go home.
‘‘We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt,’’ he said.
Gillespie also believes that Biden hadn’t helped the situation with his own use of inflammatory language.
‘‘He’s talking about it being akin to sedition and that is next to treason.
‘‘So Biden, himself, is ramping the language and rhetoric against the opposition, and irrespective if you are a Democrat or Republican right now everyone needs to be calm and pull it back into order.’’
However, Gillespie said prominent Republicans, like Mitch McConnell and Mike Pence, seemed to be doing the right thing by going through with the confirmation process.
‘‘It’s not how we hoped 2021 would begin, in the sense that 2020 was a terrible year and it would have been nice to have come into the New Year with a bit of stability.
‘‘But what you are seeing is the antithesis of stability and you are facing a very large risk in the short term and the long term.’’
Gillespie wants Americans to protect their process.
‘‘They need to protect law and order, and they need to be calm and they need to build trust in each other’’.