'Big protest in DC on January 6. Go wild! ': Donald Trump's wrath that ended in disaster

Jonathan Lemire

01/07/2021 15:01

• Clarín.com

• World

Updated 01/07/2021 15:01

The mob that planted a siege on the

United States

Capitol

on Wednesday

was the result of the

destructive forces

that President Donald Trump has fueled for years, culminating in the disruption of a democratic formality that would have ended his unconstitutional campaign to stay in power.

The scenes of the day, with people breaking through police barricades, breaking windows and occupying seats of power, were images that Americans were used to seeing in distant lands with authoritarian regimes.

But the violence, which included shooting on Capitol Hill, deaths and the armed occupation of the Senate plenary hall, was born from a man who swore to protect the very democratic traditions that rioters were trying to undo in his name.

The aggressors decided to storm the Capitol, a symbolic building as the citadel of democracy, and brought to mind the pain and violence of the Civil War era.

Only this time they were encouraged by a president who refused to fulfill the foundation of the peaceful transfer of power.

"God bless America," reads a sign in front of the attacked Congress.

Photo: Reuters

"This has been an attempted coup d'etat incited by the president of the United States, 'said presidential historian Michael Beschloss." We are at an unprecedented moment, where a president is willing to conspire with mobs to bring down your own government.

This goes completely against the idea of ​​democracy that this country has represented for two decades. ''

The certification of Electoral College votes, which formalizes the victory of President-elect Joe Biden, is a ceremony enshrined in the constitution and normally designed as a show of force for American democracy.

On this occasion, the process was interrupted hours after an incendiary call to action by Trump during a speech to his followers, whom he asked to "fight" the "theft" of the elections and march to the Capitol.

"After this, we're going to walk - and I'll be with you - we're going to walk, walk to the Capitol, '' Trump said." And we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen, and we're probably not going to cheer some as much. from them''.

Trump's speech in the last days of his presidency was a message marked by anger, which encouraged those who interpreted it as a call for insurrection.

The rioters bypassed and bypassed the Capitol security lines, breaking windows, stealing memorabilia and mocking the institution with photos showing them in positions of power.

The National Hall of Statues, an area of ​​the complex known to tourists.

Photo: EFE

One of the participants in the mob took the seat of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nanci Pelosi, and another his office.

A tide of red caps from "Make America Grate Again" (Trump's motto "Make America Great Again") flooded the National Statues Hall, an area of ​​the resort known to tourists.

A man waved a Confederate flag in the same place where the funerals of Abraham Lincoln and, just last year, of Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis were held.

A gallows knot was photographed near the west facade of the Capitol.

And the inauguration stage, where Biden will lay his hand on a Bible in two weeks time, was used by Capitol police to pepper-spray the violent crowd.

Few escaped Trump's outrage, not even his most loyal subordinate, Vice President Mike Pence, who for once said he could not carry out the president's wishes to revoke the count because he had no legal authority to do so.

At his rally, Trump said he would be very disappointed '' with his vice president, who shortly after had to be evacuated by the Secret Service when the mass of people surpassed the Capitol barriers.

But the foundations of the violence had been laid long before the rally, where the president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, called for a "trial by combat" to resolve allegations of election fraud.

Shreds the day after.

Photo: EFE

Trump, who has long shied away from committing to a peaceful handover of power, spent most of 2020 declaring the election to be "rigged" and making unsubstantiated allegations of widespread electoral fraud that, according to numerous federal courts and his former secretary of state, Justice did not exist.

The president had

the support of dozens of members

of his Republican party, who said they were willing to oppose certifying the electoral count, a move they knew would delay but would not change the result.

Even when it became clear that he had lost the election, Trump refused to admit the reality, insisting repeatedly that he had won by a landslide.

He lost to Biden by 7 million votes.

But his supporters were more than willing to accept his efforts to reverse the voters' verdict.

Just a few weeks ago, he tweeted:

"Big protest in DC on January 6. Go be wild!"

And even as the siege had begun and members of his own party - including some trapped and hiding in the Capitol

- begged him

to strongly condemn the act of domestic terrorism, Trump refused.

Later, he told them that he loved them.

He spent most of the afternoon in his private dining room next to the Oval Office, watching the violence in Washington from

a large television

on the wall, although he focused most of his attention on

Pence's disloyalty.

A

Reluctantly

, he recorded a video in which he called for

"peace '' and said the rioters to" go home '', but raised his petition between new false accusations of electoral fraud and said the insurgents "we love you

.

Very special are '

'

Rather than directly criticizing the mob, he tweeted an apology on their behalf.

"These are the things and events that occur when great patriots who have been treated badly and unfairly for so long are taken from an overwhelming sacred electoral victory in such an evil and abrupt way. '' And he urged them to 'remember' the day, indicating that in the future it would be remembered as a celebration rather than a riot.

Twitter later deleted the tweet.

And it blocked his account.

His words were in stark contrast to those of the man who defeated him and one of his predecessors in office.

"At best, a president's words can inspire. At worst, they can incite, '' Biden said in a message to the nation from Delaware." The task of the moment, and the task of the next four years It must be the restoration of democracy and the recovery of respect for the rule of law, and the renewal of a policy that deals with solving problems, not fanning the flames of hatred and chaos. ''

Biden implored Trump to "step forward." 

George W. Bush, the most recent Republican president, declared that "the insurrection could cause serious damage to our nation and our reputation."

"The violent attack on Capitol Hill - and the disruption of a constitutionally required plenary session of Congress - was the work of people whose passions were inflamed by falsehoods and false hopes," Bush said.

Trump has been slow to condemn violent extremism, has refused to convict

white supremacists

, cheered at armed protesters who flocked to the Michigan state capitol last spring, and told the far-right Proud Boys group: 

"Stand back and wait

."

The United States Capitol suffered an intrusion in 1814, when

the British attacked

and set it on fire during the War of 1812, according to the United States Capitol Historical Society.

And the moment of internal division, fueled by the president, "cannot but recall the Civil War," said presidential historian Julian Zelizer.

“This is an attack on the government, '' said Zelizer, who teaches at Princeton University.“ The president has stoked divisions and called for this protest, called for this chaos.

We have never seen anything like this before. ''

Lemire has covered the White House and political news for The Associated Press since 2013.

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