Zoe Strozewski-
Various elected officials and public figures are speaking out on Twitter against the mob of outgoing President Donald Trump’s supporters who stormed the Capitol building Jan. 6. The breach caused a halt in the electoral college vote certification on the House floor and a congressional evacuation.
Among the elected officials is Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who tweeted her support of President-elect Joe Biden’s pleas for the disorder to end immediately.
“I join President-elect @JoeBiden in calling for the assault on the Capitol and our nation’s public servants to end, and as he said, ‘allow the work of democracy to go forward,’” Harris wrote in a tweet.
Twitter has also been used as a channel of communication by Pramila Jayapal, a Washington congresswoman who shared on the social media platform that she was one of a handful of representatives present in the gallery above the House floor as the mob began breaking into the Capitol building.
While Jayapal stated in a tweet that she is currently safe and sheltering, she and her colleagues were given gas masks and instructed to get down on the ground while police barricaded doors with drawn guns. They were eventually instructed to make a rapid departure.
“I can’t contain my rage at Donald Trump and Republicans who invited, incited, and fueled this terror,” Jayapal wrote in a tweet. “Our country and our democracy will have to recover from these deep wounds—and it won’t be easy.”
Raja Krishnamoorthi, a U.S. Representative from Illinois who was present in the Capitol building during the incident, had a similarly shocking experience. Krishnamoorthi shared details on the afternoon’s events in an article published by dailyherald.com, stating that Capitol police knocked vehemently on his door and warned him to “get out.”
The representative was then moved to two separate locations, where he fielded concerned inquiries from family and colleagues, according to the article.
“I’m sheltering safely on the Capitol grounds as we’re witnessing the current acts of mob destruction and violence which followed the President’s urging and his refusal to accept the result of our fair democratic election even as the courts and senior Republican leaders have,” Krishnamoorthi wrote in a tweet.
“Our country is better than this, our democracy is stronger than this, and we will move forward. But this is a dark day for our country,” he tweeted later.
The Capitol breach took place following a “Save America Rally” hosted by Trump earlier in the day, who reiterated unproven claims of voter fraud from the Nov. 3 presidential election, according to a transcript posted on abcnews.go.com. He also stated that he would not give up or concede, voicing hopes that Vice President Mike Pence would “send it [votes] back to the states to recertify.”
“All of us here today do not want to see our election stolen by a bold and radical left Democrats, which is what they’ve been doing, and stolen by the fake news media,” Trump said during the rally.
Ro Khanna, a U.S. Representative for California’s seventeenth congressional district, rebuffed Trump’s claims of a stolen election on Twitter following the protest turned break-in.
“Trump was rejected in courts by people his party appointed, rejected by states where his party was in power & now by his party’s Senate leader & VP,” Khanna wrote in a tweet. “Democracy is still sacred for Americans. That spirit will overcome today’s violence.”
Ami Bera, another representative from California’s seventh congressional district, had to evacuate the Capitol building, tweeted from his place of shelter to inform followers of his safety and state his position on the afternoon’s events.
“The storming of the U.S. Capitol is dangerous and disgusting and needs to stop, immediately,” Bera wrote in a tweet.
The calls to halt the protests and destruction have expanded from elected officials to celebrities and public figures as well. Padma Lakshmi, whose profession has ranged from author to model, called the acts “domestic terrorism” and criticized law enforcement’s handling of the mob in comparison to handling of the Black Lives Matter protests in the previous year.
“In a white supremacist system, law enforcement can shoot unarmed Black men with impunity and breezily take selfies with armed terrorists who are raiding the capitol,” Lakshmi wrote in a tweet.
Additionally, Asha Rangappa, a lawyer and former member of the FBI, criticized resistance to Biden’s approval on Twitter.
“There is NO reason for anyone to oppose removing Trump, whether through the 25th Amendment or impeachment,” Rangappa wrote in a tweet. “Anyone who still supports him wants to retain the support of the same people who tried to overthrow our government today.”
This breach of the Capitol building was the first since the War of 1812. The events turned deadly for one woman involved in the protest, who was reportedly shot inside the Capitol and later died from her wounds, according to reports from various news sources.
The D.C National Guard have since been activated and Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser initiated a curfew for the city that would last from 6 p.m. on Jan. 6 to 6 a.m. on Jan. 7, according to her official website.
The members of congress who had to evacuate later returned to the chambers and completed certification of Biden’s presidential victory. (this is tentative/awaiting certification as it will likely occur)
[Photo courtesy: Twitter]
