After months setting up his supporters to view anything but a Trump win as a theft of the election, and weeks claiming the election was stolen and trying to stop the votes from being counted, mob violence has broken out in the nation’s capital. They have literally stormed the barricades and broken into the Capitol building, forcing the evacuation of the Vice President and Members of Congress.
There are credible reports of shots fired inside the capitol and an injured individual being carried out on a stretcher.
After giving yet another deranged speech, denouncing everyone from his own Vice President, his own partisans in Congress, and his own Supreme Court appointees, and tweeting out this sort of nonsense
He finally sent this out far, far too late (3:13pm Eastern):
WaPo (“U.S. Capitol on lockdown as protesters breach building; one person shot inside; D.C. mayor imposes curfew“):
A person was shot inside the U.S. Capitol after a mob breached the building, according to two people with knowledge of the incident.
The circumstances were not immediately clear. One of those people said the person shot was receiving emergency care.
Shortly before 3 p.m., an ambulance pulled up to the southeast corner of the Capitol on Independence Avenue. A team of paramedics with a gurney rushed to the south side of the building, where a Capitol Police officer stepped aside to let them pass.
“White female, shot in the shoulder,” the officer said as they hurried past.
Minutes later they emerged. On the gurney was a woman in jeans, gazing vacantly to one side, her torso and face covered in blood.
As the gurney was loaded into the back of the ambulance, pro-Trump protesters swarmed around it, screaming “Murderers!” Capitol Police officers with long guns and in riot gear pushed them back, and the ambulance drove off.
NYT (“Pence and Lawmakers Evacuate as Protesters Storm Capitol, Halting Count of Electoral Votes“):
Protesters loyal to President Trump stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, halting Congress’s counting of the electoral votes to confirm President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory as the police evacuated lawmakers from the building.
Around 2:15 p.m., as the House and Senate debated a move by a faction of Republicans to overturn the election results, the proceedings ground to a halt as security rushed Vice President Mike Pence out of the Senate chamber and the Capitol building was placed on lockdown, with senators and members of the House locked inside their respective chambers. Shortly afterward, the police escorted senators and members of House from the building to others nearby, as the protesters swarmed the hallways just steps from where lawmakers were meeting, carrying pro-Trump paraphernalia.
The extraordinary day in Washington laid bare deep divisions both between the two parties and within Republican ranks, when the ceremonial counting of electoral votes that unfolds every four years in Congress was transformed into an explosive spectacle, with Mr. Trump stoking the unrest.
“This is what you’ve gotten, guys,” Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, yelled as the mayhem unfolded in the Senate chamber, apparently addressing his colleagues who were leading the charge to press Mr. Trump’s false claims of a stolen election.
I am, sadly, not even particularly surprised by any of this.
President-elect Biden gave a terrific speech condemning the mob and calling it an insurrection and assault on democracy.
Trump followed up by doubling down on claims the election was stolen but calling on people to be nice.
Disgraceful.
I’m going to stop updating this post but will likely have further thoughts tomorrow.
