Insurrectionmarksmoment of reckoning for Republicans

The insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was both stunning and predictable, the result of a Republican Party that has repeatedly enabled President Donald Trump’s behavior.

When Trump was a presidential candidate in 2016, Republican offifficials ignored his call to supporters to

knock the crap out” of protesters.

Last summer, most party leaders looked the other way when Trump had hundreds of protesters forcibly removed froma demonstrationnear theWhiteHouse so he could pose with a Bible in front of a church.

But the violent siege on CapitolHill offffffffffffers a new, and perhaps final, moment of reckoning for the GOP. The party’s usual excuses for Trump — he’s not a typical politician and is uninterested in hewing to Washington’s niceties — fell short against images of protestors occupying someofAmerican democracy’s most sacred spaces.

Theparty, whichhas been defifined over the past four years by its loyalty toTrump, began recalibrating in the aftermath of Wednesday’s chaos.

One of Trump’s closest allies in Congress, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said “enough is enough.”

Rep. NancyMace, R-S.C., said Trump’s accomplishments in offiffice “werewiped out today.”

Trump’s former acting chief of staffffMickMulvaney, nowaspecialenvoy toNorthern Ireland, joined a growingnumberofadministration offifficialswhoare resigning. “I can’t do it. I can’t stay,” Mulvaney told CNBC on Thursday. “Those who choose to stay, and I have talked with some of them, are choosing to stay because they’re worried the president might put someone worse in.”

Stephanie Grisham, the fifirst lady Melania Trump’s chief of staffff and a former White House press secretary, submitted her resignation. Deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger, WhiteHouse social secretary Rickie Niceta and deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews also resigned, according to offifficials.