“Beyond Trump: The failures that led to the Capitol riots,”
Mike Bebernes, January 8, 2021, the360@yahoonews.com.
A violent mob of pro-Trump agitators stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, temporarily forcing both houses of Congress to suspend the formal counting of Electoral College votes certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
President Trump had held a rally earlier in the day during which he reiterated his baseless claims that the election was stolen. Shortly after his speech, the crowd overwhelmed police guarding the Capitol. One Trump supporter was shot and killed by police during the riot. The death of a Capitol Police officer is being investigated as a homicide. Three other people died after suffering medical emergencies.
Authorities eventually cleared the Capitol, and Congress was able to certify the election result early Thursday morning. The process was extended by several hours when Republican lawmakers from both the House and Senate objected to counts from some states, while echoing some of Trump’s falsehoods about election fraud.
The violence has been widely condemned by members of both parties. Democratic leaders have called for Trump to be removed from office — through either the 25th Amendment or impeachment — for his role in inciting the violence.
Why there’s debate
Trump has understandably received the bulk of the blame for the riot. His refusal to accept defeat and persistent inflammatory rhetoric over the course of the past two months stoked anger in his supporters that was bound to boil over. Republicans who endorsed his antidemocratic campaign — most notably Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley — have been accused of legitimizing Trump’s dangerous lies for political gain.
But many observers say truly understanding the root cause of what happened means pulling back to consider the much broader web of factors that set the stage for this week’s violence. Complicity falls not just on Trump allies who backed his recent antidemocratic efforts but on every person who knew what he was capable of and did nothing, some argue. Others have pointed their fingers at the news media and social media companies, which they accuse of failing to take Trump’s ability to inspire violence seriously.
Then there are those who say the foundations of the assault go even deeper, to the long history of white supremacy in America. The way that white anger is tolerated — and even valorized — in the U.S. allows violent groups to grow in plain sight and cause law enforcement to underestimate the threat they pose, such critics argue.
What’s next
It’s unclear whether efforts to invoke the 25th Amendment or impeach Trump have the support needed to remove him from office. In an address on Thursday night, Trump finally acknowledged that a new president will be sworn in on Jan. 20, although he didn’t mention Biden by name. It remains to be seen whether his concession will prevent further violence from his supporters.
Perspectives
Trump, above all else, is ultimately responsible
“Any accounting of blame for [Wednesday’s violence] should focus ultimately on Donald Trump. Trump spread the lie that he won. Trump never wavered in repeating this lie and never shied from vilifying all who corrected him.” — Timothy P. Carney, Washington Examiner
Mainstream media helped make Trump’s extreme behavior seem normal
“There is a wave of panic, where people start screaming that Trump is actually dangerous and crazy. And then the news media and the public accommodate to that level of dangerousness and craziness from Trump. It is understood and framed as some type of political move or stunt from Trump. The behavior is normalized as people accommodate it.” — Dr. John Gartner, psychologist, to Salon
Law enforcement failed to take online extremism seriously
“To increase public safety this decade, it is imperative that police — and everyone else — become more familiar with the kinds of communities that engender toxic, militant systems of harassment, and the online and offline spaces where these communities exist. Increasingly, that means understanding social media’s dark corners, and the types of extremism they can foster.” — Aja Romano, Vox
