We must call today s violence what it actually is: a failed attempt at a coup.
We won’t let President Trump, those in Congress who enable him, or the lawless mob that stormed the Capitol steal our democracy.
The will of the American people will be carried out. pic.twitter.com/8DSeHJYzmN Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) January 6, 2021
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) went a step further, calling for Trump to resign or be removed from office before his term ends on Jan. 20.
“The fabric of our democracy and the principles of our republic are under attack by the President. Enough is enough,” Scott tweeted. “President Trump should resign or be removed from office by his Cabinet, or by the Congress.”
President Trump on Wednesday turned on his own vice president, bashing Mike Pence for declining to illegally overturn the result of the election just as pro-Trump protesters stormed the Capitol building.
Rodgers slammed the violence, saying “thugs assaulted Capitol Police Officers, breached and defaced our Capitol Building, put people’s lives in danger, and disregarded the values we hold dear as Americans. To anyone involved, shame on you.”
She added that the only reason she objected was to “give voice to the concern that governors and courts unilaterally changed election procedures without the will of the people and outside of the legislative process.”
“I have been consistent in my belief that Americans should utilize the Constitutional tools and legal processes available to seek answers to their questions about the 2020 election,” she said.
I just spoke with Vice President Pence. He is a genuinely fine and decent man, Robert O Brien
I just spoke with Vice President Pence. He is a genuinely fine and decent man. He exhibited courage today as he did at the Capitol on 9/11 as a Congressman. I am proud to serve with him. Robert C. O Brien (@robertcobrien) January 6, 2021
The tweet in support of Pence amounted to something of an implicit rebuke of Trump from one of his most loyal aides.
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Pence presided over a joint session of Congress on Wednesday afternoon to count the electoral votes certified by the states to affirm Joe Biden
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The president, in other words, has spent his time throwing lit matches on gasoline. On Wednesday, the fire took hold.
Protesters invaded the Capitol building. Lawmakers were told to shelter in place. Gas masks were issued. One woman who was shot at the Capitol later died.
The imagery that emerged in news reports police inside the Capitol building with pistols drawn, trying to keep the mob at bay rivaled anything seen during previous American crises in its shock value.
Yet there was something grimly predictable about the events, too.
The national fabric is at least as frayed and tattered as it ever was during other times of American tumult, such as the civil rights era, the war in Vietnam or Watergate.