Chaos At the Capitol
On Wednesday January 6th, Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in hopes that the presidential election would be overturned. What was supposed to be a peaceful transition of power and just a few hours of counting the certified ballots, quickly turned into a nightmare as President Trump spat out false accusations about election fraud to his protestors earlier Wednesday morning.
Shortly after the state of Arizona was contested by republican lawmakers a mob of trump supporters marched outside and made their way to the capitol doors. The mob challenged security and police officers as violence ensued everywhere. Many senators are still opposing the Biden presidency such as Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, though after the given circumstances of the violence that broke out at the capitol many are now looking at changing their vote, Johnson says “Obviously given what has happened attitudes are changing.” Before Wednesday many state senators were opposing this election, but it looks like now many are still up in the air.
President Trump is still very adamant that the election was stolen from him, but once again the senate was able to regroup and continue their counting and the progression of the change of power later Wednesday afternoon. Many senators from both sides were infuriated with the actions that happened earlier Wednesday. Democratic Senator from Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto, exclaims to people that “Our constitution specifically reserves to the peoples the right to meet in the respective states and vote for the president and vice president. As a result, individual states oversee and implement the election process, not the federal government. To guard against fraud or irregularities in the voting process the states are required to have robust election security……District courts to the United States supreme courts adjudicate legal challenges and election disputes, all of these things happened.” Masto goes on to explain that all the disputes about the election results were taken seriously and that no state has found voter fraud. Another senator from Utah, Mike Lee came forward angrily to say “This simply isn’t how our federal system is supposed to work. That is to say if you have concerns with the way an election in the presidential race was handled in your state the appropriate response is to approach your states legislatures.” Rioters focused on the U.S. capitol for violence on Wednesday when they have little to no involvement with the decisions.
As things move forward, Trump has now been banned from Twitter following Wednesday’s actions and the house of representatives voted to impeach the president for the 2nd time for inciting the attack on the capitol building. Extra security measures have been added to every state capitol building from now up until at least inauguration day.
