And y’all thought election season was finally over, huh?
( @byaaroncdavis / Twitter )
Latest Update:
7:58 p.m.
Twitter suspends Trump's account
On Wednesday evening, Twitter suspended Trump's ability to send out Tweets for 12 hours, citing that his Tweets were provoking violence among riots in Washington, D.C. Twitter said the suspension could be extended if his tweets inciting violence are not deleted.
Rep. Ilhan Omar drafts articles of impeachment
Representative Ilhan Omar announced via Twitter that she is drafting articles of impeachment against President Trump. This comes two weeks before President-elect Joe Biden's scheduled inauguration.
In 2019, the Democratic-ruled House of Representatives voted in favor of Trump's impeachment. The impeachment did not pass in the Republican-controlled Senate, however.
Woman dies after getting shot on Capital grounds
6:40 p.m.
A woman who was shot on Capitol grounds was pronounced dead at the hospital. The woman has yet to be identified.
Joe Biden disapproves Trump for not condemning the riots
5:04 p.m.
In response to the chaos in Congress, President-elect Joe Biden pleaded with the rioters to abandon their siege, and for President Trump to denounce the rioters’ actions on national television. He referred to the riot as an “unprecedented assault” on democracy.
“This is not dissent. It’s disorder. It’s chaos. It borders on sedition and it must end now,” he said. “I call on this mob to pull back and allow the work of democracy to go forward.”
Later, at 4:17 p.m., President Trump posted a video message to Twitter telling rioters to “go home in peace.” He continued to repeat false rhetoric that the election was stolen, however.
Hello, 2021! Six days in and the riots have begun, courtesy to red cap-wearing Trump supporters.
Early Wednesday afternoon, MAGA supporters stormed into Congress — yes, broke in, crashed windows, the whole wammy here — forcing Congress into lockdown and placing Congresspeople in danger. Why you may ask? To keep Trump in office.
Although the election was called in Joe Biden’s favor in November, President Trump and many of his supporters have yet to acknowledge Biden’s win. Still calling the election results fraud, Trump demanded election integrity on Wednesday at the “March for Trump/Save America” rally. Other conservative speakers agreed.
Around 1 p.m, the “peaceful protest” intensified. With Blue Lives Matter flags in hand, MAGA supporters began clashing with Capitol officers outfitted in full riot gear. The confused flurry was a mess of flash bangs, tear gas and pepper spray. Quickly, the movement escalated as rioters crashed the windows of Congress and stormed into the Senate chamber.
According to New York Magazine’s Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi, many Republican and Democratic Capitol Hill staffers agreed that the situation was chaos.
Some rioters waved Confederate flags below the building’s banners of stars, stripes and disapproving scowls of painted founding fathers. Others opted to climb onto the building’s second-floor scaffolding to bang on its windows.
CNN and the Huffington Post both reported that shots were fired in Congress’s chambers. The House Floor was soon after reported to be evacuated, but one woman was placed in critical condition after being shot on Capitol grounds.
The New York Times reported that a pipe bomb was found at the Republican National Committee headquarters, only a few blocks away from the Capitol. It was detonated safely in a controlled environment, and the Democratic National Committee was evacuated after a separate suspicious package was recovered.
In response to the riots, Mayor Muriel Bowser imposed a city-wide curfew. From 6 p.m. Wednesday to 6 a.m. Thursday, no one is allowed in the city except essential workers and media personnel.
Despite the violence illustrated, some Republican congresspeople have remained silent. However, Illinois representative Adam Kinzinger, tweeted “This is a coup attempt.” Kinzinger had been a staunch opposition to other party member’s claims of voter fraud.
President Trump has been encouraging his supporters to protest in his favor for months. On Wednesday, he has since tweeted: “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”
As Black Lives Matter protests spread throughout the country during the summer of 2020, many MAGA supporters denounced them and called them civil disobedience. While they demanded law and order during these protests, today they linked arms with violence — the very thing they opposed.
Congressman Ted Lieu acknowledged this double standard in a tweet to Chad Wolf, Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. While he deployed troops to protect Confederate objects, he did not do the same for the Capitol, Lieu said in the tweet.
And the treatment of BLM protestors and others, seems to be reserved for them.
In June, for example, peaceful protesters in Washington were teargassed so President Trump could grab a photo-op with a bible (that was held upside down).
But on Wednesday, the Department of Defense denied Washington, D.C.’s official’s request to deploy the National Guard to the US Capitol, according to Aaron Davis for the Washington Post. Finally, hours after the initial intensification, Maryland and Virginia State Troopers and the National Guard were activated at 4 p.m.
This is a progressing story. Please stay tuned for updates.