A defiant President Trump is under intense pressure from former officials and allies to condemn violent protests at the U.S. Capitol that brought a joint session of Congress to a halt, triggered an evening curfew across Washington D.C., and ended with the president’s Twitter account locked for 12 hours.
The violence erupted after Trump called on supporters to march on Congress. Supporters battered their way inside the Capitol building, where one woman was fatally shot during the melee.
Although he issued a video urging them to disperse, Trump continued to fuel anger by insisting that such scenes were inevitable after his victory was denied.
The extraordinary day in the nation’s capital triggered the resignation of the first lady’s chief of staff, Stephanie Grisham, who previously served as Trump’s press secretary, and opponents urged Vice President Mike Pence to consider removing the president from office.
His former chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, was among those demanding Trump go further in calling off his supporters. “The best thing @realdonaldtrump could do right now is to address the nation from the Oval Office and condemn the riots,” he tweeted. “A peaceful transition of power is essential to the country … ”
Allies such as the Republican National Committee joined a wave of condemnation. “These violent scenes we have witnessed do not represent acts of patriotism, but an attack on our country and its founding principles,” it said.
The city had prepared for violence. City-center stores and offices were boarded up, and staff were told to work from home as Trump supporters gathered on the day Congress was due to meet in joint session for Pence to certify Electoral College votes and Joe Biden’s victory.
Trump addressed the crowd, heaping pressure on Pence to overturn the result in a speech that ended with a call to march on the Capitol.
“We’re going to try and give our Republicans … the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country,” he said. “So, let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.”
But his anger boiled over when Pence released a letter insisting that he had no authority to reject Electoral College votes, denying the president his last chance to cling to power.
Mike Pence’s letter, carefully admitting to voting “irregularities” but ultimately saying he can’t follow Trump’s orders to reject Electoral College votes pic.twitter.com/Ir2aA1o2CD
— Rob Crilly (@robcrilly) January 6, 2021
Pence lacked “the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our Constitution,” tweeted the president.
By then, supporters had taken matters into their own hands, battering their way inside the Capitol and bringing proceedings to a sudden halt.
A light police presence was easily overwhelmed, and thousands of people surrounded the building.
It was not until after 4 p.m. that Trump issued a video urging his supporters to respect the police and go home. But even then, he repeated inflammatory claims that the election had been stolen.
“I know your pain. I know your hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us,” Trump said in a video shot outside the White House.
Insiders said Trump had been reluctant to distance himself from people he considers patriots.
“People have been telling him all day that he had to condemn the violence, put a stop to it now, but that just isn’t something he wants to do,” said a former administration official.
Instead, the president went further, suggesting the violence was a consequence of his opponents’ actions.
“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long,” he wrote on Twitter.
The message and the earlier video were both removed by Twitter, which then locked his account for 12 hours.
It was left to former staffers such as Alyssa Farah, who was White House communications director until last month, to condemn the violence.
Dear MAGA- I am one of you. Before I worked for @realDonaldTrump, I worked for @MarkMeadows & @Jim_Jordan & the @freedomcaucus. I marched in the 2010 Tea Party rallies. I campaigned w/ Trump & voted for him. But I need you to hear me: the Election was NOT stolen. We lost.
— Alyssa Farah (@Alyssafarah) January 6, 2021
“It’s time to regroup, organize, & campaign for political leaders we believe in, and let our democracy work. It is NOT and NEVER will be a time for violence,” she tweeted. “If you believe in America first, you believe in our Constitution, the rule of law, & our first principles.”
The ugly scenes around the Capitol attracted condemnation from world leaders, including allies such as the United Kingdom’s Boris Johnson, and fresh calls at home for Trump to be removed from office.
The conservative National Association of Manufacturers called for Pence to consider invoking the 25th Amendment, which provides a mechanism to remove a president from office.
“The outgoing president incited violence in an attempt to retain power, and any elected leader defending him is violating their oath to the Constitution and rejecting democracy in favor of anarchy. Anyone indulging conspiracy theories to raise campaign dollars is complicit,” it said.
At the same time, a Democratic congresswoman announced she was drafting articles of impeachment.
“We cannot allow him to remain in office, it’s a matter of preserving our Republic and we need to fulfill our oath,” Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota wrote on Twitter.
