Trump Supporters Stormed US Capitol, 4 Died, 2 Officials Resigned and Many Considering Resigning


Trump Supporters Stormed US Capitol, 4 Died, 2 Officials Resigned and Many Considering Resigning

The US has witnessed a tragic event on Wednesday; an event that didn’t just built chaos but drew shock around the world. Supporters of US President Donald Trump breached the Capitol building in Washington DC on Wednesday in an attempt to stop the US Congress from ratifying the Electoral College vote that would officially confirm Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump. Not just that but, Trump supporters created chaos that resulted in rioting and violence, forcing world leaders to condemn the ugly scenes. The situation went out of control and caused the death of four people, including one woman who was shot by a police officer.

According to the report, supporters of Donald Trump swarmed inside the building amid the session of Congress to certify Joe Biden’s election win, which triggered unprecedented chaos and violence at the heart of American democracy and accusations the outgoing president was attempting a coup.

In a late-night news conference, Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert J Contee said that 52 were arrested over the violence that saw pro-Trump rioters breaking windows, climbing on rafters, ripping down US flags and roaming the Senate chamber. Lawmakers were told to grab gas masks as police deployed tear gas inside the Rotunda, the ornate area under the dome that connects the House and the Senate, according to the Washington Post. Both the House and Senate and the entire Capitol were placed under a lockdown. Vice President Mike Pence and lawmakers were evacuated to safe locations.

Security forces fired tear gas in a four-hour operation to clear the Capitol. Vowing not to be deterred, lawmakers resumed business after dark and voted down the first challenge to Biden’s win. The chaos at the Capitol came a day after Biden enjoyed a new triumph, with his Democrats projected to win two Senate seats in runoffs in Georgia -- handing the party full control of Congress and dramatically increasing Biden’s ability to pass legislation, starting with new COVID-19 relief.

Following this tragic event, major social media organizations have taken steps towards Trump’s social media activities. Social media platform, Twitter has locked President Donald Trump’s account, ans has specifically removed three tweets and in their place are tags reading “This Tweet is no longer available.” The platform has decided to keep Trump’s account locked, and re-open after 12 hours of removing the tweets. If he does not, the account will remain locked, according to Twitter, and the platform will permanently suspend him upon future violations.

While the supporters were waging a violent insurrection on the US Capitol, Trump took to social media to continue spewing baseless claims of election fraud that incited his supporters in the first place. A recorded video of Trump was released in which he said “go home, we love you, you are very special.” Trump declared that he won in a ‘landslide’. Though Twitter removed the videos almost immediately, and shortly after that, banned Trump’s account. Facebook weighed its own response, and the social media organization was also busy censoring employees who were discussing internally whether the company should ban Trump from their platform permanently. Within an hour of employees posting to the messaging boards, Facebook administrators - without explanation blocked comments on at least three threads discussing possibly kicking Trump off the platform.

Two top aides to first lady Melania Trump resigned in the wake of violence on Capitol Hill, and more top White House officials were considering resigning, including national security adviser Robert O'Brien and his deputy, Matthew Pottinger. Stephanie Grisham resigned as chief of staff to the First Lady. The White House social secretary, Rickie Niceta, also resigned, as did a deputy White House press secretary, Sarah Matthews. O'Brien was also considering resigning, as was Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser who has been a key voice on China policy within the administration.

This is possibly for the first time in the recent history that such a large number of people have breached into the Capitol and disrupted the constitutional provisions. Congress had certified just 12 votes before the riots broke out. All 12 of those votes went to President Trump. There are 538 electoral votes in total.

Former Republican president George W Bush, Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Mitt Romney and Congressman Steve Womack have condemned the attack on Capitol. Acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen called the violence at the US Capitol “an intolerable attack on a fundamental institution of our democracy”.