Washington DC police chief, Robert Contee, told reporters that a mob of hundreds of rioters deployed "chemical irritants on police” to gain access to the US Capitol around 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday.
The protesters had been egged on by Trump for weeks, more so after he lost the November presidential election - filling his supporters' minds with a dumpster-load of false attacks on the integrity of the election results and other conspiracy theories, as well as disparaging anyone that wasn't on his side.
While rallying his supporters outside the White House Wednesday morning, he urged them to march on the Capitol, according to the
Associated Press. And this call to insurrection was all it took for the rioters to breach the doors of the capitol building, a cornerstone of our Democracy.
Several hours later Trump tweeted a video, telling the protesters it was "time to go home." And other than the video, that runs about one minute, and a couple of other tweets, Trump was not that interested in the chaos he had started,
Many people might have forgotten this little bit of history - but the last time the
U.S. Capitol was breached was on August 24, 1814, as the War of 1812 raged on. Invading British troops marched into Washington and set fire to the U.S. Capitol, the President's Mansion, and other local landmarks.
The ensuing fire reduced all but one of the capital city's major public buildings to smoking rubble, and only a torrential rainstorm saved the Capitol from complete destruction. Since that time, no foreign forces or insurrectionists have breached the security of the capital building.
The United States Capitol after the burning of Washington, D.C. in the War of 1812.
US Library of Congressdigital ID ppmsca.02160
Munger, George, 1781-1825, artist.
And just so everyone knows the truth, it wasn't Trump that called up the National Guard today to help out in Washington. It was Vice President Mike Pence. All that Trump was even capable of doing as rioters stormed the capitol building was cling to the last vestiges of his power - his Twitter account.
A smaller contingent of National Guard troops called up on Sunday, as well as the DC police force, were also joined by National Guard troops from Virginia and Maryland.
But sitting in the security of my recliner here in Richmond, it felt like I had been stabbed in the heart when I heard on CNN that the mob had entered the Rotunda of the building and then tried to enter the Senate and House chambers. I, like many lawmakers and other Americans, was horrified.
Early in December, I wrote an Op/Ed on Trump's attempt to dismantle the democratic process and his hold over the Republican party. Thank God that his latest escapades have caused many Republicans to ditch his corner. I mean, after all, who wants to say they side with an insurrectionist?
And that is precisely what Trump is. In my mind, and that of many other people, he is a criminal and should be arrested, even if he has only 14 days left in his presidency. He has tried to blackmail a Georgia government official into changing election results, and the tape of that phone conversation has been heard by people all over the world/
Now, we can add that he has incited his followers to engage in insurrection aimed that reversing the results of an election. No one should be too surprised because it is done in other regions of the world quite frequently. This, in its simplest definition is a coup. And Trump is guilty as hell.
