As a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters, some of them armed, stormed the Capitol today to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election results, Trump himself spent his time tweeting about how Mike Pence was failing him by saying he’d follow the law and preside over Congress’s proceedings without trying to somehow unilaterally throw the election to Trump. Pence was then rushed out of the Capitol to protect him from the mob’s wrath. As the situation has unfolded, there has been a push for Trump to call off the mob, but of course, as soon as he opened his mouth, we all wished he had just kept his thoughts to himself.
In a video message (which Twitter has flagged and disabled for interaction), Trump did indeed tell his supporters they should go home, but over the course of the one-minute address, he also reiterated his bogus claims that Biden’s victory is “fraudulent” and the election was “stolen,” “taken away from all of us,” and a “landslide” in his own favor, and told them, “We love you. You’re very special.”
That’s ridiculous.
There is no excuse for him stoking this kind of thing, as he has done for his entire political career, especially in his claims of a fraudulent election over the past few weeks, and on through today, including releasing a statement detailing what he believed Mike Pence could and should do to overturn the results of the election in Congress today. This is no different from how he’s technically offered a few weak condemnations of white supremacists over the years while obviously embracing them as his supporters.
It’s more of the same technically saying the words everyone wants him to say while making his true message very clear: He thinks these people are in the right. We’ve all heard him issue plenty strong condemnations groups he doesn’t like, and the contrast with his message here is clear.
Members of Congress have said that they plan to finish their duties today and certify Joe Biden’s election win, but apparently, the rioters plan to continue making that difficult, despite a 6 PM curfew coming later tonight in D.C.:
A source close to the White House who is in touch with some of the rioters at the Capitol said it’s the goal of those involved to stay inside the Capitol through the night.
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 6, 2021
And all that with the fact that we could be reporting on a very different situation right now had members of Congress not made a safe exit in time.
a protester in the Capitol with what appears to be a handgun on his hip and zipties, to take congressional hostages. hundreds of people were talking about doing this openly, online in places like https://t.co/ZUaOasvwcM
They were also talking about executing elected Democrats https://t.co/tJmS1vbtn9
— Robert Evans (The Only Robert Evans) (@IwriteOK) January 6, 2021
All of this is absolutely inexcusable and sadly predictable at the same time, and Trump’s video is yet one more complete failure to rise to the occasion.
(image: screengrab)
Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
