Category: reason

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R–Wis.), representing the Green Bay area, recorded a message while sheltered in place in his own D.C. office at the Capitol and posted it on Twitter, begging President Donald Trump to say something to stop the violent intrusion there:

We are witnessing absolute banana republic crap in the United States Capitol right now. @realdonaldtrump, you need to call this off. pic.twitter.com/0QGx2PlXFY

— Rep. Mike Gallagher (@RepGallagher) January 6, 2021

“The vice president of the United States was just rushed off the floor by the Secret Service,” he noted. “This is banana republic crap that we’re watching happen right now.”

He added that he was told by politicians in D.C. who planned to object to the election results that these objections would be peaceful and that they knew nothing would come of it.

“We’re going to have the debate, voice people’s concerns, and then, we won’t actually overturn our entire system of representative government,” Gallagher said he was told by these people. “So nothing bad will happen. There will be no cost to this effort.”

“This is the cost to this effort,” Gallagher responded, in reference to the protesters storming the building, “and telling thousands of people that there is a legitimate shot of overturning the election today, even though you know that is not true.”

“We have got to stop this,” he implored. “Mr. President, you have got to stop this. You are the only person who can call this off. Call it off. The election is over. Call it off. This is bigger than you. This is bigger than any member of Congress. This is about the United States of America, which is more important than any politician. Call it off. It’s over.”

So far, Trump’s response has been to tweet for protesters to “remain peaceful,” even as the protests get wilder:

I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2021

On ABC, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he had been trying to reach Trump on the phone, unsuccessfully, to get him to try to call the protesters off. He said, “The president caused this protest to occur. He is the only one who can make it stop.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.), who has remained a Trump ally throughout his term, denounced the violence on Twitter:

Violence and mob rule is wrong and un-American, and it will not bring about election reform.

Today’s mayhem sets back any intelligent debate for a generation. Just stop it.

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 6, 2021

Maggie Haberman at The New York Times says aides are trying to get Trump to put out stronger statements to try to get the protesters to calm down, but he won’t:

Per people close to the White House, several official and unofficial aides are trying – without success – to get the president to issue a stronger statement. He simply won't do it. He's been furious at Pence for refusing to do something he doesn't have power to do and that's that

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 6, 2021

Instead, it appears to be falling on Vice President Mike Pence, who triggered Trump’s ire by refusing to swing the election back into Trump’s favor, to attempt to order protesters to leave the capitol building:

Peaceful protest is the right of every American but this attack on our Capitol will not be tolerated and those involved will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) January 6, 2021

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I cannot say much about the current despicable rioting by Trump supporters at the US Capitol, other than to condemn it and the actions and rhetoric by Trump himself, which have helped inspire it. Rioting is wrong even when done in a just cause, and is especially so when—as here—the cause (bogus claims of election fraud) is pretty obviously unjust.

I would add that I similarly condemned the rioting and looting that occurred this past summer, even though some of those involved did have a just cause (opposing police abuses). Much of what I wrote then is relevant now:

Most of the damage caused by rioting is inflicted on innocent people…. Violence and violation of property rights reduce investment and economic development, which predictably exacerbates the poverty of minority inner-city neighborhoods. The negative economic effects can persist for many years.

It may be tempting to say that rioting and other similar violence is justified if you are doing it in the name of a just cause. But even people with legitimate grievances must still observe moral limits on tactics they use to pursue them. Ignoring this principle is a recipe for disaster.

As I noted in June, one can imagine extreme circumstances where rioting or similar actions are the only way to address some even greater evil. It is plausible to argue that they might be justified in such circumstances. Indeed, a sufficiently extreme situation can justify a wide range of otherwise indefensible actions, including war, suppression of civil liberties, and so on.

But anyone defending riots on that basis has a high burden of proof to show that the riots really will remedy the evil in question, and that they really are the only way to achieve that objective. That wasn’t true of the riots that occurred this past summer. And the same point applies even more clearly today, when the rioters don’t even have a legitimate grievance to begin with.

In the June post, I pointed out that, historically, riots have damaged the cause the rioters and their supporters seek to promote, because they predictably lead to political backlash. As Martin Luther King, Jr. warned in 1968, “riots are socially destructive and self-defeating.” It is quite possible history will repeat itself, and that today’s events will further discredit President Trump and his supporters in the eyes of  majority of Americans.

I am, to put it mildly, no fan of Trump and his many cruel policies, and would be happy to see him take some political damage. But even if today’s violence ends up having some beneficial political effects unintended by the perpetrtors, it is still wrong, and the potential gains are unlikely to be worth the awful cost.

 

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Unfortunately, Donald Trump has been playing with fire ever since he launched his first presidential campaign. Since he lost his bid for reelection, he has only intensified his efforts to subvert American democracy. The events of today are both shocking and yet all-too-foreseeable, and the president bears substantial responsibility for what has transpired. Moreover, he has shown no leadership since the attack on the capitol. His behavior is disgraceful. What is more, it is conduct completely incompatible with the duties and responsibilities of the office of the presidency. The president should resign in disgrace, but of course he will not.

The House should impeach the president for high crimes and misdemeanors as soon as is practical. The Senate should hold a trial and vote to impeach and remove the president from office as expeditiously as possible. The House should request that the Senate bar the president from holding future federal office, and the Senate should vote to apply that constitutional penalty upon conviction.

This need not be a lengthy process. The evidence of the president’s actions are clear and available to all. The House does not need an elaborate inquiry. The Senate does not need a lengthy trial. House and Senate members need only determine whether they believe that the president’s words and actions rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors and whether Donald Trump can be safely left to exercise the powers of the presidency until the scheduled inauguration of his elected successor. That does not seem like a difficult question, and the members of Congress should go on record with an answer to it.

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Thousands of President Trump’s supporters surrounded the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday afternoon as Congress met inside the building to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. Many protested peacefully, but a substantial number did not, and the entire scene quickly devolved into utter chaos.

Shouting “MAGA” and “stop the steal,” some protesters breached police barricades and then the very doors of the Capitol, forcing Congress to suspend certification. There are photos and videos on social media of rightwing agitators clashing with police in the halls of the building, and even making it to the floor.

I walked the perimeter of the building, and saw multiple groups of pro-Trump protesters climbing up walls, knocking down doors, and smashing windows. Some carried hockey sticks, flag poles, and wore riot gear. The police were frequently overwhelmed, and deployed tear gas. The air was thick with it, and the considerable winds caused clouds of the stuff to blow over the crowds of people who were actually standing back and behaving themselves. I saw dozens of them coughing, crying, and a few trying desperately to pour water into their eyes.

Protesters attempting to enter the building screamed at the police that they were oathbreakers and traitors. Many called for a second American Revolution. I heard a few members of the pro-Trump crowd who were surprised by the amount of violence coming from their side try to claim that this was the handiwork of undercover antifascist provocateurs; it was not. These were earnest rightwing militants resorting to the kind of lawlessness they frequently deride when practiced by leftwing political extremists at racial justice demonstrators.

Indeed, what happened at the Capitol was no less a riot than any of the window-smashing and church-burning that occurred in the summer, ostensibly under the banner of Black Lives Matter. The biggest difference I saw today was that many, many fewer people wore masks—despite being packed into very close quarters, shouting, smoking, and choking on tear gas. And of course, the pandemic is far less under control than it was in the summer.

What a great day for COVID-19, and an awful day for the country. For sheer consistency, anyone who criticized the unruly antics of antifa must swiftly condemn both this madness and the far-right grifters who stoked it.

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Currently, right-wing supporters of President Donald Trump are storming the U.S. capitol building in an effort to stop Congress tallying Electoral College votes that will deliver the presidency to Joe Biden. The ever-gracious Trump has decided to use this opportunity to attack Vice President Mike Pence for not doing that job for them.

“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify,” said Trump on Twitter. “USA demands the truth!”

Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2021

That tweet came roughly 10 minutes after it was reported that Pence had been escorted off the Senate floor—where he was presiding of the electoral college tally—in response to aforementioned protesters breaking through police lines and entering the Capitol.

That tweet also comes a day after Pence told Trump, per reporting from The New York Times, that he did not have the power to unilaterally reject electoral votes for Joe Biden, even though the vice president did promise to keep studying the issue of voter fraud.

JUST NOW: The United States Capitol is on lockdown. Vice President Mike Pence was just ushered off the floor of the Senate.

— Michael Del Moro (@MikeDelMoro) January 6, 2021

Pence’s mealy-mouthed resistance to Trump’s demands was always going to provoke condemnation from the president, as Reason‘s Jacob Sullum presciently noted yesterday.

“In the end, Pence will be forced to declare Biden the next president of the United States, at which point Trump, being Trump, might very well turn against him, as he has when other loyal allies dared to defy his whims,” wrote Sullum.

Few could have predicted Trump’s turn on Pence would come right as the vice president was fleeing from rioters who were more willing to do Trump’s dirty work for him.

In a bit of surreal irony, one such rioter who’d made it into the Senate chamber took up Pence’s seat and declared Trump to be the actual winner of the presidential election.

They’re in the chamber. One is up on the dais yelling “Trump won that election!” This is insane pic.twitter.com/p6CXhBDSFT

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) January 6, 2021

Pence supported Trump right until the very end. It appears that wasn’t long enough.

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