New York Daily News

SHAME ON YOU, TRUMP

The world’s sorest loser incites his delusional acolytes who attack Capitol, stirring mayhem & fear

- LEONARD GREENE

Welcome to America, a would-be Third World dictatorsh­ip, where the president refuses to cede power, ignores the will of the people, rallies his supporters to ignore the Constituti­on and whines about disloyalty while terrorists storm the Capitol.

With sirens wailing above Pennsylvan­ia Ave. in Washington on Wednesday, and lawbreaker­s breaching America’s venerable seat of democracy, the most the nation’s defeated leader could offer was a rebuke of his deputy for doing his duly elected job.

“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our Constituti­on, giving states a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify,” President Trump tweeted in the very moments that lawmakers were being whisked to safety. “USA demands the truth!”

Here is the indisputab­le and utterly embarrassi­ng truth: Rome is burning, and Trump is shamelessl­y fiddling.

“This is what the president has caused today,” said Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, one of the few Republican­s to stand up to Trump. “This insurrecti­on.”

What happened literally in the halls of Congress was the furthest thing from a peaceful transition of power. On the day when the Senate was supposed to certify the Electoral College vote, protesters, egged on by the sore-losing Trump, resorted to anarchy to disrupt the process, like power-hungry predators would do in backward fascist states.

Shots were fired in the Capitol, where elected officials were huddled under their desks. Insurgents were walking door to door shouting, “Where the f—k are they,” and “Trump won that election.”

Protesters were waving Confederat­e flags on the same day Georgia — Georgia — elected its first Black senator, Raphael Warnock.

Invaders were wearing backpacks, with who knows what inside.

Almost none of them were

wearing masks.

This is the legacy of Donald Trump, as if 350,000 coronaviru­s deaths, impeachmen­t over election interferen­ce, unresolved rape allegation­s and bigoted dismissal of “s—thole’ countries were not enough.

“Please support our Capitol Police and law enforcemen­t,” Trump tweeted moments after the Pence insult. “They are truly on the side of our country. Stay peaceful!”

But that was hardly enough.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a one-time Trump supporter, said he spent 25 minutes trying to reach the president to communicat­e one simple message: Do something.

“The president caused this protest to occur,” Christie, a Republican, told ABC News. “He’s the only one that can make it stop. He has to come out and tell his supporters to leave the Capitol grounds and allow the Congress to do their business peacefully.

Anything short of that is an abdication of his responsibi­lity.”

Trump, still fueling the fire with lies about a stolen election, did eventually release a video telling his supporters to go home. But by then the damage had already been done.

Earlier, President-elect Joe Biden had urged Trump to “step up,” and go on national television and “fulfill his oath.”

“I initially was going to talk about the economy,” Biden said.

“But all of you, all of you, have been watching what I’ve been watching. At this hour, our democracy’s under unpreceden­ted assault. Unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times. An assault on the citadel of liberty, the Capitol itself. An assault on the people’s representa­tives and the Capitol Hill police, sworn to protect them. And the public servants who work at the heart of our republic. An assault on the rule of law like few times we’ve ever seen it. An assault on the most sacred of American undertakin­gs. The doing of the people’s business.”

“Let me be very clear,” Biden said. “The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect a true America, do not represent who we are. What we’re seeing are a small number of extremists dedicated to lawlessnes­s. This is not dissent. It’s disorder. It’s chaos. It borders on sedition. And it must end. Now. ”

That is what a president sounds like. For four years we have forgotten.

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 ??  ?? In a shocking scene, the U.S. Capitol is breached by outside forces for the first time since 1812. Police with guns drawn (top left) guard door to House chamber as rioters ran through the building. Visitors (bottom left) shelter in the House gallery. A protester (right) confronts police, and one person at least was taken away in a stretcher (below).
In a shocking scene, the U.S. Capitol is breached by outside forces for the first time since 1812. Police with guns drawn (top left) guard door to House chamber as rioters ran through the building. Visitors (bottom left) shelter in the House gallery. A protester (right) confronts police, and one person at least was taken away in a stretcher (below).

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