What happened at the US Capitol on Wednesday was appalling and inexcusable. Protest is one thing but, in a free society, mob riot and violent invasion can never be justified.
These were shocking events, for which President Donald Trump is to blame. As I said more than a month ago, if the belief that the presidency had been stolen was left unresolved then Americans would lose faith in the rule of law and democracy itself.
Rather than damp down this dangerous mood, Trump fanned the flames. In recent days, he wound up his supporters by saying that he would attend Wednesday’s “Save America” rally in Washington DC and promising on Twitter that it would be “very big” and “wild”.
About an hour after Trump addressed thousands on the National Mall, promising to “never concede” that he had lost, chaos was unleashed. He had told supporters: “We’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Ave — I love Pennsylvania Avenue — and we’re going to the Capitol. We’re going to try and give our Republicans — the weak ones because the strong ones don’t need any of our help — we’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”
Both houses of Congress were forced to halt their proceedings on the presidential election results as rioters swarmed the Capitol building, breaking down the barriers and getting inside. A woman was shot dead and the building put under lockdown.
As his supporters stormed the Capitol, Trump wrote on Twitter that demonstrators should “support Capitol Police and Law Enforcement,” adding: “They are truly on the side of our country. Stay peaceful!”
That doesn’t diminish one iota his own direct responsibility for what happened. It’s akin to shouting “fire” in a crowded theatre and then pleading with the panicked crowd to leave in an orderly fashion.
The damage Trump has done here is incalculable. He encouraged his supporters to believe they were entitled to hijack the democratic process. He thus incited a scene which few thought they would ever see, a violent mob bringing to a halt the constitutional process of certifying a president.
Even when Trump finally told the rioters to go home, after he was urged to do so by President-elect Biden, he was still pouring oil on the flames by repeatedly claiming that the election had been fraudulent.
Until Wednesday, Trump was careful to use constitutional means to advance his protest about the election result. Now, though, he has destroyed his own claim to stand for the rule of law and the constitution. Those who were horrified by the undermining of his presidency over the past four years have themselves now been undermined by his actions. They supported the rule of law, only to see that he showed scant regard for what it meant.
And he has also undermined those members of Congress who were using proper constitutional means to air their own concerns about the integrity of the election result.
If wrongs have been done, whether to the electoral process or to anything else, the way to resolve them in a free society is through lawful and democratic means. There is no cause that can justify violence in a democratic society, whether it is initiated by “anti-racist” rioters or Trump supporters.
This is a truly tragic moment for America and for all who care about freedom, truth and democracy.
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