U.S. diplomats issued a scathing rebuke of President Trump’s incitement and handling of the Wednesday attack on Capitol Hill in two cables sent via the State Department’s “dissent channel.”
The dissent channel is a messaging system through which career diplomats can send criticisms of U.S. policymaking or foreign affairs decisions that are circulated to top State Department officials. In what the Associated Press called a “highly unusual” use of the messaging system, diplomats said that the events from Wednesday undermined U.S. credibility on the international stage and hobbled the country’s ability to defend democratic values.
“Failing to publicly hold the president to account would further damage our democracy and our ability to effectively accomplish our foreign policy goals abroad,” one of the cables read.
The cable urged Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to support a lawful effort by Vice President Mike Pence and the remaining members of the Cabinet to sideline Trump in the waning days of his presidency, including through “the possible implementation of the procedures provided for in Article 4 of the 25th Amendment, if appropriate.”
The 25th Amendment allows a majority vote from members of the Cabinet to allow the vice president to assume the powers of the office if the president is considered unfit to serve.
The two cables directed against the riots in Washington “appear to be unprecedented in their scope and characterization of the president as a danger to the country,” the Associated Press reported. It is unclear how many diplomats signed the cables.
“It is essential that the Department of State explicitly denounce President Trump’s role in this violent attack on the U.S. government,” the other cable read. “Just as we routinely denounce foreign leaders who use violence and intimidation to interfere in peaceful democratic processes and override the will of their voters, the department’s public statements about this episode should also mention President Trump by name. It is critical that we communicate to the world that in our system, no one — not even the president — is above the law or immune from public criticism.”
Pompeo denounced the violence that disrupted Congress’s certification of the Electoral College vote that sent President-elect Joe Biden to the White House but didn’t criticize Trump’s actions.
Trump stoked the chaos throughout Wednesday, repeating claims of widespread voter fraud and telling his supporters “we will never give up” and “we will never concede.” Trump called for peace after protesters breached the Capitol but in a series of follow-up tweets sympathized with and appeared to defend his extremist supporters, saying in a deleted tweet, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots.”
“This would be a first step towards repairing the damage to our international credibility,” the cable read. “It would allow the beacon of democracy to shine on despite this dark episode.”
