American Democracy is under siege. January 6, 20201 the Potus called on his mask less minions to descend on Washington D.C. for a “Wild” rally. He got on stage and proceeded to claim the election had been stolen from him. He then told the crowd to go to the Capitol building.
At the Capitol, the police were unprepared for the thousands of rioters who broke through barricades and and shattered glass to get inside the building. The police had to retreat from the crowds that pressed inside. Months before peaceful protestors were tear gassed by national guard troops. There were no National Guard troops on hand to handle the ratification day rioters.
A joint session of Congress was assembled to ratify the electoral college results of the presidential election. This is a largely ceremonial session but some republican senators were contesting the results. Mitch McConnell condemned GOP efforts to overturn the electoral college results. He said, “If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral.” In the middle of the session the chamber had to be evacuated. Legislators were told to grab gas masks from under their seats.
The entrance to the chamber was barricaded from inside and policy tried to keep protestors out with their guns drawn. Rioters entered the chamber from the upper balcony and they jumped down to the chamber floor. Legislative staff had to hide behind chairs hoping not to get shot. On female protestor tried t lunge through a broken window and she was shot by a security officer. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.
After dusk the protestors were driven from the capitol building and Nancy Pelosi said that the ratification process will continue well into the night. Trump made a video addressing his “very special” rioters and suggested they should go home. Facebook and Twitter had to remove the video because he then went on to make make false and misleading statements.
3963 people died from COVID-19 in America on the day of the siege. The highest single day death toll since the start of the pandemic.