Trump unfit for office after insurrection
American carnage. As President Donald J. Trump watched from the White House, his supporters essentially attempted what looked to all the world like a coup attempt against our country.
Words are hardly sufficient for what happened Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol, as protesters spurred on by an equally disgraceful commander in chief, broke into the floor of the U.S. Senate as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
It was a scene few Americans could have imagined would occur — until recently.
Scenes of drawn guns, broken windows, rioters seemingly unconstrained. Insurrectionists occupied Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, leaving a message, “We will not back down.”
Multiple law enforcement officers were injured; one woman was shot. A 6 p.m. curfew was put into effect. The National Guard was activated. Tear gas deployed. Riot police moving in as darkness ensued.
Vice President Mike Pence and members of the House and Senate were evacuated, as they began to consider certifying the lawful election of Presidentelect Joe Biden. This protest was hardly a secret, yet security at the Capitol was revealed as woefully weak and unprepared.
Law and order, Trump style. Can you imagine what the response would have been if say, Black Lives Matter protesters had attempted a similar criminal siege of Congress? Antifa?
This is what happens when conspiracy theories and lies are expounded from the president of the United States. When there is no peaceful transition of power. When that so-called leader incites riots by failing time and again to condemn similar kinds of acts and bad actors. Many Republicans have already condemned the rioting and insurrection, and even, before the siege, the soon-to-be Minority Leader in the Senate Sen. Mitch McConnell warned attempts to overturn election results would damage the republic.
Still, Trump incited these riots, with his inner circle adding fuel to the fire during a rally
Wednesday in Washington — and was aided and abetted by Republicans such as Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz. His failure to immediately demand his supporters leave the Capitol as the riots surged out of control was a terrible moment.
Even Pence, who was not going to go along with Trump’s insane attempts to overturn the presidential election results, quickly put out just such a forceful statement.
From Trump? He reluctantly put out a late video where he repeated that the election “was stolen from us” but “we can’t play into the hands of these people … we have to have peace, so go home. We love you.”
In stark contrast, Biden went live on TV and said, “Our democracy is under … unprecedented assault” from a “mob” and that “the words of a president matter … they can incite. … The work of the next four years must be the restoration of our democracy, … of decency, … not stoking the flames of hate and chaos.”
Meanwhile, there are serious questions regarding the safety and security of the Biden inauguration on Jan. 20, which may take on the look of an armed camp after Wednesday’s events.
Trump’s destructive behavior and words cost the Republicans control of the U.S. Senate with the election of two Democrats in the Georgia runoff Tuesday. His own Cabinet has grown ever more alarmed at his behavior and many former staffers are condemning what took place at the Capitol.
He long ago stopped governing, as the ongoing pandemic turned more deadly. Trump may only have less than two weeks left in office. But even that’s too long. Thirteen more days of lies and incitements is 13 too many.
Although may be unlikely, but Trump’s Cabinet and
Pence should demand he resign office immediately, which, of course, he won’t do — or that he will be declared unfit to carry out the powers and duties of the office and be removed by the 25th Amendment to a U.S. Constitution he so clearly does not respect.