Jan 19, 2021
Tomorrow Joe Biden will be sworn in as our 46th President. Yet this inauguration will mark the first time in American history that the outgoing president refused to accept the results of the election and actively worked to overturn them. And, for the first time in modern American history, we were deprived on a peaceful transfer of power.
On January 6, 2021 our country was attacked. My country. Your country. Though the events took place several weeks ago, it is important to keep them fresh in our minds as we reflect on what it means to be Americans and to live in the greatest experiment in self-government in human history.
The assailants were not foreign combatants, Leftist provocateurs, or opportunistic criminals. They were supporters of Donald Trump who, having been deceived into believing the election was stolen from them, committed acts of sedition against the United States by violently breaching barricades into the Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power by the duly elected representatives of the American people.
All of this happened precisely because Donald Trump has been spreading lies and misinformation for two months in hopes of overturning the results of the election and because he asked his supporters to come to Washington to “stop the steal” and incited mob violence. Trump’s speech to the crowd that morning contained numerous unsubstantiated claims of a deep state effort led by the Left, big tech, weak Republicans, and other supposed enemies. He (falsely) claimed Mike Pence had the constitutional authority to stop the certifying of votes and that his supporters will “never give up,” “not take it anymore,” and “stop the steal”. He then told them to march to the Capitol and promised to join them there (yet another lie).
Trump—who isn’t exactly known for his reticence in expressing his views on Twitter—then watched in comfort and glee as the violence unfolded before the world. Hours later, as blood stained the Capitol floors and rioters continued to wreak havoc, Trump delivered a brief address that focused far more on approval for his supporters’ loyalty than it did a call for peace. Later that day Tweeter suspended his account when he tweeted such acts are to be expected when an election is stolen.
It was Mike Pence—not Trump—who ultimately put an end to the violent incursion by ordering the deployment of the National Guard. The condemnation Trump was unable to muster at the mob who stormed the Capitol was directed, instead, to Pence and to his top aide, Marc Short, who was denied entry into the White House that same night.
There are three groups responsible for this cowardly attack on our country: 1) the President and his closest allies, 2) willing accomplices in Congress, and 3) the protestors themselves. It’s important we understand clearly what happened on January 6th so that nothing like this ever happens again.