Capitol riots

On January 6, Vice President Mike Pence convened the two chambers of Congress to count electoral votes and officially certify Joe Biden as the president-elect of the United States. This is usually a straightforward and purely ceremonial procedure that takes around one hour. Yet these are not ‘normal’ times.

First, several Republican lawmakers, in a brazen but doomed effort to keep Trump in office, started raising objections to the results of the electoral college, prolonging the process. Then, in an unprecedented attempt to overturn the election, thousands of pro-Trump protesters stormed and ‘occupied’ the Capitol. As people wearing MAGA (‘Make America Great Again’) hats and carrying Trump flags rampaged through offices and onto the legislative floors, lawmakers were told to shelter in place in the House Gallery. Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser swiftly put the US capital under curfew and announced a two-week state of emergency.

As the images of chaos and violence coming from the heart of American democracy filled television screens and social media timelines, millions in the US and around the world were shocked, but all this was not necessarily surprising.

President Donald Trump, after all, has long been spouting baseless claims of widespread election fraud, claiming the presidency has been “stolen” from him, and egging his supporters on to violently resist the peaceful transfer of power. He openly pressured Republican officials, including Vice President Pence, to ignore their constitutional duties to keep him in office. He even made a now-infamous phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger instructing him to “find the votes” he needed to win the swing state.

Just hours before the riot in Washington, DC, in a 70-minute speech near the White House, the president called the election result an “egregious assault on our democracy”, and openly instructed his supporters to “walk down to the Capitol”, adding “You will never take back our country with weakness”.

But Trump was not the only one responsible for Wednesday’s riot. Countless Republican lawmakers and officials – as well as conservative media personalities – contributed to thousands of Trump supporters being convinced that the election was “stolen” from them. Out of ideological loyalty, short-sighted political pragmatism or pure partisanship, they helped the president incite his supporters to violence, undermine the US Constitution, and make a mockery of the electoral process.

Even many high-ranking Republican establishment figures refused to condemn the president’s unlawful attempts to overturn the election until the last minute, as they were scared to lose the support of Trump’s millions of loyal followers. Many others, meanwhile, chose to ignore or downplay the president’s antics, claiming that his influence would evaporate soon. Meanwhile, right-wing extremism slowly became mainstream.

Now, after the Capitol is secured and Biden’s victory certified after a day of chaos, politicians from both sides of the political spectrum are vocally condemning Trump.

Excerpted: ‘The delusion of American exceptionalism’

Aljazeera.com