A MOB LED ASTRAY BY DYING BEAST POURING PETROL ON THE FLAMES
The moment that many had dreaded but few thought possible came true last night – a violent assault on the heart of US government by a mob led tragically astray by their own president.
The dying beast of the Trump presidency lashed out in unrestrained fury last night, egged on by a leader who dispensed with any semblance of responsibility or dignity. In truth, he’s been egging them to this moment for four years.
A president who had promised to ‘drain the swamp’ of Washington instead effectively set the city aflame, inciting an army of his supporters to storm the Capitol, sending Democrats and Republicans alike fleeing the wrath of Americans convinced the election had been stolen from them.
In a stark illustration of how isolated Trump now is in his final, mad days in office, even vice president Mike Pence, for so long his blindly loyal yes-man until even he found Trump’s perverse demands too much, had to run for cover as a livid Trump added his name to a list of enemies and ‘weak’ Republicans.
His supporters think the election was stolen because the president has told them that again and again with the growing desperation of a tin-pot dictator who sees his grip on power failing.
He was at it again yesterday, laying on the lies about dishonesty in the political establishment just before his supporters went off with violence in mind.
Four years of Trump has witnessed plenty of violence between Americans – fighting in the streets in recent months on an almost nightly basis – but nothing like the scenes in Washington yesterday. And far from ever trying to douse the flames, the president has simply poured petrol on them.
That was again the case yesterday as he told thousands of supporters outside the White house: ‘We will never give up! We will never concede!’
The president who stood as a champion of law and order made a mockery of that bold claim, too, as the army activated the National Guard to deploy troops to the capital – because of a riot that he started.
even as shots were fired, Trump will no doubt wash his hands of any blame. ‘Please support our Capitol police and law enforcement,’ he urged supporters belatedly and disingenuously on Twitter. ‘ They are truly on the side of our country. Stay peaceful!’
However, significantly, he didn’t tell his supporters to disperse. After urging them to march on the Capitol and stop a perfectly valid election result from being confirmed, his tweet was mindbogglingly cynical, even for him. ‘This is as close to a coup attempt as this country has ever seen,’ said a shocked Charles Ramsey, former police chief of Washington.
They really should have seen this coming. The president had been stoking the fires of his supporters’ furious sense of injustice for weeks if not months. he shares the blame with the Republican congressmen who, no doubt seeking to save their own political skins, backed his clearly dishonest claims.
‘This is what you’ve gotten, guys,’ Republican senator Mitt Romney yelled at them as the mayhem started. he added later: ‘This is what the president has caused today, this insurrection.’
But again, nobody should be remotely surprised. When earlier his week a tape emerged of Trump telling Georgia’s Republicans that he expected them to overturn Joe Biden’s victory there – ‘I just want to find 11,780 votes’, he pleaded pathetically – it was clear that nothing was off the agenda in his desperate bid to keep power.
His insistence that he had been robbed of an election victory wasn’t just a cheap ploy, as many believed, to raise more money from supporters – he genuinely intended to stay in the White house.
Even if it meant inciting his supporters to violence – and not just late-night fisticuffs, but an attack on the most senior political chamber in the land where they vandalised offices, smashed windows and forced police to draw their guns.
MANY Trump supporters will doubtless be appalled by last night’s events in Washington, even those who genuinely believe the fantasy that there were significant election irregularities. It may even help Mr Biden in the long run as he seeks to unite Americans by isolating Trump from his more measured fans.
However, any hope that there could be a peaceful and respectable transfer of power, and that Trump supporters would – albeit reluctantly – accept the inevitable, now lies in tatters.
The Trump presidency has thrown up so many situations and developments unprecedented in US history but the country has managed to plough on. It’s difficult to see how it easily comes back from what happened last night.
‘I don’t recognise our country today,’ said Congressman elaine Luria. Who would disagree?