Capitol Incident Causes Sadness, Disgrace for American History

Only six days into the year, security in Washington D.C. was breached Wednesday when a violent mob of Trump supporters broke into the Capitol building as Congress was confirming Joe Biden’s presidential victory.

I would like to say that I am surprised, but somehow, I am not. This behavior is shameful, and quite frankly, embarrassing. When Black Lives Matter marched in the streets to protest black people being killed in broad daylight for no reason by police, these were the same people who called them violent rioters. The same people who said people simply marching for the right to live their lives without fear of being killed for the color of their skin deserve to be shot at and have teargas thrown at them. But when the candidate they supported loses in a fair and secure election, it is suddenly acceptable for them to storm a government building and try to attack the Vice President of the United States. This is absolutely disgraceful behavior.

President Trump as well should be ashamed of how he responded to these people who are nothing short of domestic terrorists. Only a few months ago he tweeted that anyone who destroys government property should serve 10 years in prison, however yesterday, when the violent mob attacked our democracy at its core, he did not even attempt at first to condemn this behavior, and in fact essentially condoned it on Twitter, saying that he ‘understands their frustration.’ Following the violence, all of the lame duck President’s social media accounts have been temporarily disabled until at least the end of his term in less than two weeks.

We have seen nothing like this in modern American history. The mob invaded Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, smashing windows, looting art and briefly took over the Senate chamber. Congress and Reporters in the room had to be given gas masks as tear gas needed to be used on the rioters. Vice President Pence was guided out safely, and members of the mob took turns posing for pictures making fists at the podium where he had presided only moments before. The incident resulted in at least five deaths, and one of the women was confirmed to be one that was with the mob, and another man who was a Capitol police officer. Four lives lost all over a lost election. It is more terrifying than ever to see what America has come to in the past four years.

Despite the disruption, Congress and the Vice President confirmed Biden’s victory for the final time shortly after 4 a.m. Thursday morning. Pence responded to the violence by saying “To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win. Violence never wins. Freedom wins. And this is still the people’s house.”  Even Senate majority leader Mitch Mcconnell said “They have tried to disrupt our democracy. They failed.”

This violence comes only hours after news broke that Jon Ossoff had won the Senate runoff race in Georgia, along with fellow Democrat, Rev. Raphael Warnock, splitting the Senate evenly between Democrats and Republicans. This means that because Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris is a Democrat, the Democrats will have the majority rule in the Senate and Chuck Schumer will become the Senate majority leader. This is the first time since 1995 under Bill Clinton’s presidency that Democrats control the Senate, the House and the Presidency, creating a unified government.

Thankfully despite all else, Trump has finally agreed to a peaceful transfer of power to President-Elect Biden, paving the way for Americans to get more stimulus relief, and hopefully opening the eyes of all the people who are still under the impression that the President will serve four more years. Despite this Pelosi, Schumer and over 150 different lawmakers are calling for Trump’s removal via the 25th amendment, and if put into action, this will render him unable to run again in 2024 as he had said he plans to do.