Trump’s clumsy coup fuels dangerous division

The world on Wednesday watched the president of the United States mount a clumsy and dangerous coup attempt to stay in power.

Pumping up his supporters with lies about a stolen election and vowing to never concede the election, Donald Trump urged them to march on the Capitol, where members of Congress were carrying out their constitutional duty to certify the Electoral College vote of Joe Biden as the next president.

As hundreds of rioters, some armed, stormed the Capitol building and violently clashed with police, the Senate and House halted their proceedings, and members of Congress were forced to evacuate the building for safety.

Trump could have stopped it. He could have called on the mob to stand down. But the best he could muster for a couple of hours were tweets for them to remain peaceful and respect the Capitol police. We’ve repeatedly seen this wink and nod from Trump before, as he refuses to curtail his backers’ lawless behavior.

These are the sort of tactics one might expect out of a totalitarian regime. This is not the United States of America that we cherish so dearly — the country in which its presidents and its citizens respect the peaceful transition of power.

We are witnessing the most dangerous national division since the Civil War, fueled by a president delusional about the outcome of the 2020 election — a president who has put his quest for power ahead of the good of his country and is willing to foment insurrection to further his goals.

Rioters busted into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office flipping over tables and pulling photos off walls, took over the dais of the Senate and engaged in an armed standoff with Capitol police at the entrance to the House Chamber.

One person was fatally shot inside the Capitol, officers were injured in confrontations with rioters, and one officer was taken to a hospital. Members of Congress were told by police to don gas masks after tear gas was dispersed in the Capitol Rotunda.

Meanwhile, Biden and members of Congress were calling on the president to speak up and end the violence. Even Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, one of the leaders of the challenge to the election outcome, tweeted to Trump that “it is crucial you help restore order by sending resources to assist the police and ask those doing this to stand down.”

It took a couple of hours for Trump to finally speak up, in a taped message. But before he could bring himself to tell the mob to go home, he once again recited his litany of false grievances about a stolen election and, rather than condemn the violence, told the protesters “we love you.”

Trump essentially warned us this day would come. During the election, as polls showed him trailing, he repeatedly questioned the integrity of the process — setting the stage for his baseless claims of election fraud. He was so successful in sowing doubt that a month after the election only about one-quarter of Republicans trusted the results of the 2020 presidential election as accurate.

This president has torn the country apart as never before in modern time. All to bolster his self-absorbed pursuit of power. He can’t be gone soon enough.