‘You will pay’: Donald Trump warns US Capitol rioters as he finally concedes
Donald Trump has condemned the “heinous attack” on the US Capitol Building in a speech where he conceded Joe Biden’s administration would be inaugurated.
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Two months after losing the presidency, Donald Trump has finally given a concession speech as he called for calm in the wake of the shocking attack by his supporters on the US Capitol.
Condemning the “heinous attack” that caused five deaths, he called for unity, “healing and reconciliation”.
“Tempers must be cooled and calm restored,” he said in a video speech from the White House.
“We must get on with the business of America.”
Shortly after Washington DC police announced an officer had died from injuries sustained in the riots, Mr Trump also warned that offenders would be punished.
“To those who engaged in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country,” he said.
“And to those who broke the law, you will pay.”
Mr Trump has insisted until this point that he could still retain the presidency despite none of his claims of electoral fraud being proven.
“My campaign vigorously pursued every legal avenue to contest the election results,” he said.
“My only goal was to ensure the integrity of the vote.”
He called for electoral reform but conceded that “a new administration will be inaugurated on January 20th”.
“My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth orderly and seamless transition of power,” he said.
“The moment calls for healing and reconciliation.”
TRUMP NOT OFF LIMITS IN RIOT PROBE
Donald Trump will not be immune from an investigation into the events that lead to rioting at the US Capitol Building, Washington D.C.’s top federal prosecutor has confirmed.
When asked if investigators would probe the role Trump played at the rally that sparked a storming of Congress’ meeting place, acting US attorney Michael Sherwin said: “We’re looking at all actors here and anyone that had a role and, if the evidence fits the elements of the crime, they’re going to be charged.”
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the Donald Trump and the entire administration condemned the rioters “in the strongest terms”.
Ms McEnany said yesterday’s violence was the responsibility of a small group.
“The violence we saw yesterday in our nation’s capital was appalling, reprehensible,” she said, adding that law enforcement had behaved as “true American heroes”.
“What we saw yesterday was a group undermining the legitimate First Amendment rights of those who came to peacefully make their voices heard.”
She added the White House pledged a smooth transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden in a brief statement.
“It is time for America to unite,” she said.
“Those who are working in this building are working to ensure an orderly transition of power.”
DEATH TOLL RISES; POLICE CHIEF STANDS DOWN
A US Capitol Police officer has died as a result of yesterday’s violence at the US Capitol Building, according to multiple US media outlets.
The man is understood to have been a part of the force for 15 years and was 40 years old.
The New York Postreports he died after being stuck in the head with a fire extinguisher.
The US Capitol police chief has also handed in his resignation Thursday.
Steven Sund “is resigning effective January 16, 2021,” a source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP, hours after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for his resignation, following sharp rebukes for what many criticised as a lack of preparedness to deal with the violent mob.
Earlier, two men and a woman were confirmed to have died in the Washington DC Capitol chaos along with Ashli Babbitt and have been named by cops.
The victims were identified as Kevin Greeson, 55, Benjamin Phillips, 50 and Rosanne Boylan, 34, officials said
While Babbitt died of a gunshot wound, the other three were said to have died of medical emergencies.
BREAKING: Family confirms woman shot & killed at Capitol is Ashli Babbit. She owned a business in San Diego w/ her huband who did not come to DC. “I really dont know why she decided to do this,†her mother-in-law tells me. Police have not confirmed circumstances of shooting pic.twitter.com/OOYpNWpMLg
— Lindsay Watts (@LindsayAWatts) January 7, 2021
55 y.o. Kevin Greeson from Athens Alabama suffered a heart attack during yesterday's Washington DC Capitol chaos. https://t.co/SIzLJsyIpS pic.twitter.com/wOuEUqwqqs
— Cleavon MD (@Cleavon_MD) January 7, 2021
Family provided this picture of Rosanne Boyland, 34, of Kennesaw - one of three people who died from medical emergencies during yesterday’s unrest at the U.S. Capitol. @cbs46 pic.twitter.com/R0g3n1wAcB
— Meghan Packer (@MeghanPacker) January 7, 2021
Police said 68 people had been arrested from the riots so far.
A seven-foot (two metre) non-scaleable fence is being erected around the Capitol and 850 police were being assembled as word leaked that the protesters could be back later today.
The new measures will stay in place for at least 30 days.
PELOSI’S ULTIMATUM: REMOVE TRUMP OR WE’LL IMPEACH HIM
Calls for Donald Trump’s immediate removal from office grew louder over the fall out from the Capitol riots which left four people dead.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for Mr Trump to be urgently removed from power, branding him “a very dangerous person who should not continue in office.”
“This is an emergency of the highest magnitude,” the top-ranking Democrat in Congress said as she urged Vice President Mike Pence and Mr Trump’s cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment, one day after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol with his encouragement in a bid to overturn the presidential election results.
If the 25th amendment, allowing for a cabinet majority to remove a president deemed unable to discharge his duties, is not invoked Congress is prepared to move forward with impeachment, she said.
“I don’t think it’ll take long to get an answer from the vice president,” Ms Pelosi said, adding that she and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer had “made our interest in this known, so we’ll see what they come back with. But they have to answer for it.”
She put the blame for what she described as an “attempted coup” squarely on Mr Trump, declaring he had “incited an armed insurrection against America.”
“A threshold was crossed of such magnitude that there is no way that this president should be allowed to make any decision, to rouse any troops of his Trumpites. What’s next, what happens today?” she said.
“We do know that he must be contained.”
She praised some “courageous” Republicans for finally speaking out against Trump.
But with questions being asked about the security failures in Wednesday’s (local time) violence she singled out acting defense secretary Christopher Miller, saying he “certainly has to answer for where the National Guard was yesterday.”
Mr Trump, she continued, is a “complete tool” of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. And simply waiting until his term as president expires on January 20 is not enough, Ms Pelosi said.
“In the next 13 days, this dangerous man can do further harm to our country.
Earlier, Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger became the first Republican member of Congress to call for Mr Trump’s immediate removal from office, saying the President “seems unmoored from reality” and that it was time to install a “new sane captain of the ship”.
“Sadly, yesterday it became evident that not only has the president abdicated his duty to protect the American people and the people’s House, he invoked and inflamed passions that only gave fuel to the insurrection that we saw here,” Kinzinger stated in a video posted to Twitter.
It’s with a heavy heart I am calling for the sake of our Democracy that the 25th Amendment be invoked. My statement: pic.twitter.com/yVyQrYcjuD
— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) January 7, 2021
“We in essence have a President that seems unmoored from reality. It’s time to invoke the 25th Amendment and to end this nightmare.”
Many politicians said America could not afford to leave Mr Trump in office until Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20.
Democrat Chuck Schumer, who is about to take charge of the Senate, also called directly on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Donald Trump from office.
“What happened at the US Capitol yesterday was an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president,” Senator said. in a statement on Thursday. “This president should not hold office one day longer.”
He said if Mr Pence did not “stand up” and invoke the 25th – which allows for the President to be replaced by the Vice President if he is deemed to be no longer fit to hold office – then it would be time to impeach Mr Trump for a second time.
“If the Vice President and the Cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach the president,” Sen Schumer said.
Mr Pence has gone in 24 hours from being the man Mr Trump expected to deliver him the White House, to being the man many politicians expect to deliver to them Mr Trump’s head.
‘ONE OF THE DARKEST DAYS IN US HISTORY’
Mr Biden said that Mr Trump had incited one of the “darkest days” in US history, a day after pro-Trump rioters smashed their way into the Capitol.
Mr Biden assailed the record of the outgoing president, saying the Republican had “unleashed an all-out assault on the institutions of our democracy from the outset” of his four years in office.
But the president-elect heaped specific scorn on Mr Trump for encouraging his supporters not to accept his defeat at the polls, which ended in deadly chaos at the Capitol.
“Yesterday, in my view, was one of the darkest days in the history of our nation — an unprecedented assault on our democracy,” Mr Biden said.
He accused authorities of treating pro-Trump protesters more leniently than anti-racism demonstrators who were forcibly dispersed by police in Washington and other cities last year.
The summer protests in Washington in particular were met with a large force of federal law enforcement and National Guardsmen.
“No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday … they wouldn’t have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol,” Mr Biden said.
“We all know that’s true, and it is unacceptable,” he said.
Meanwhile, former Attorney-General and one-time leader of the Trump fan club Bill Bar has launched an extraordinary attack on President Donald Trump over Wednesday’s siege at the Capitol.
Mr Barr’s comments came amid a bloodletting of support from former Trump loyalists and high profile resignations from his administration.
He slammed Mr Trump’s incitement of the rioters as a “betrayal of his office and supporters.”
In a statement to The Associated Press, he said “orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress is inexcusable.”
Earlier, deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger resigned.
Another departure was Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary now working as spokeswoman for First Lady Melania Trump.
FACEBOOK, TWITTER BLOCK TRUMP
Meanwhile, President Trump has been blocked from Facebook “indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks,” the site’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced.
The block follows a bloody and deadly riot by Trump’s supporters in the US Capitol on Wednesday, and a similar but shorter ban by Twitter, which has been urged to follow Facebook’s lead.
“The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden,” wrote Zuckerberg in a post on his personal Facebook account.
“His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world,” he continued. “We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect — and likely their intent — would be to provoke further violence.”
Zuckerberg went on to say that, rather than risk the site becoming a platform for similar statements, Facebook and subsidiary Instagram are muzzling Trump at least until Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20.
“We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” he wrote. “Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”
MORE RESIGNATIONS
US Transport Secretary Elaine Chao said she is resigning over the storming of the Capitol by President Donald Trump’s supporters, the highest level White House resignation yet in the wake of the violence.
Chao, who is married to Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said it was “a traumatic and entirely avoidable event as supporters of the President stormed the Capitol building following a rally he addressed.” “It has deeply troubled me in a way I simply cannot set aside,” she added.
Mick Mulvaney, former White House chief of staff and current special envoy to Northern Ireland, announced he is stepping down.
“I called (Secretary of State) Mike Pompeo last night to let him know I was resigning from that. I can’t do it. I can’t stay,” Mulvaney told CNBC.
“Those who choose to stay, and I have talked with some of them, are choosing to stay because they’re worried the president might put someone worse in,” Mulvaney said.
White House social secretary Rickie Niceta and deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger also reportedly stepped down.
John Costello, commerce deputy secretary for intelligence, was also said to have resigned.
BIDEN’S VICTORY CERTIFIED; TRUMP REFUSES TO CONCEDE
Joe Biden’s victory in the Electoral College has been certified, after passing 270 electoral votes, and confirms he will be the 46th President of the United States.
Congress dealt a hammer blow to Donald Trump whose supporters stormed the Capitol hours earlier, triggering unprecedented chaos and violence in the seat of American democracy.
Politicians in the Senate and House of Representatives successfully beat back Republican efforts to deny Biden the electoral votes from swing states Arizona and Pennsylvania.
In a statement, Mr Trump said he agreed to an orderly transition of power but failed to accept defeat or congratulate his successor.
“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!”.
The House of Representatives and the Senate both reconvened to certify Mr Biden’s victory just hours after they were ordered to shelter in place in their offices and don gas masks as the rioters stormed through the building.
Mr Pence, who as VP is President of the Senate, declared: “Let’s get back to work”, as Congress reconvened to certify Joe Biden’s election win.
“To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win. Violence never wins. Freedom wins,” Mr Pence said.
“This is still the people’s house. And as we reconvene in this chamber, the world will against witness the resilience and strength of our democracy, for even in the wake of unprecedented violence and vandalism at this Capitol, the elected representatives of the United States have assembled again on the very same day to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Pence went on.
“So may God bless the lost, the injured, and the heroes forged on this day. May God bless all who serve here and those who protect this place. And may God bless the United States of America. Let’s get back to work.”
RIOTS CONDEMNED
Senior Republicans moved quickly to condemn the riots and Mr Trump’s role in inciting the attack on the Capitol, with former President George W. Bush saying: “this is how election results are disputed in a banana republic”.
“I am appalled by the reckless behaviour of some political leaders since the election and by the lack of respect shown today for our institutions, our traditions, and our law enforcement.”
He was joined by former presidents Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton in slamming Mr Trump.
Mr Obama called it “a moment of great dishonour and shame”.
Mr Clinton said the insurrection was driven by “poison politics”.
“We must reject today’s violence, turn the page, and move forward together — honouring our Constitution, remaining committed to a government of the people, by the people, and for the people,” he said.
Mr Carter described the events as a “national tragedy” and “not who we are as a nation”.
And Senator Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, went straight for Mr Trump’s throat.
“What happened here today was an insurrection, incited by the President of the United States,” Senator Romney said.
Even Republican and Trump supporter Mike Gallagher, a Congressman from Wisconsin, turned on the President.
“We are witnessing absolute banana republic crap in the United States Capitol right now. @realDonaldTrump, you need to call this off,” he posted on Twitter.
Democrats including Californian Congressman Ted Lieu called on Mike Pence directly and publicly to invoke the 25th against his boss.
“Dear @VP @Mike_Pence: You need to start the 25th Amendment. @realDonaldTrump is detached from reality,” he wrote.
Massachusetts Democrat Congressman Seth Moulton said: “Trump is directly responsible for this insurrection and violence. He needs to be removed from office immediately. It is the Constitutional responsibility of Vice President Pence and the cabinet to exercise the power granted them by the 25th amendment.”
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Originally published as ‘You will pay’: Donald Trump warns US Capitol rioters as he finally concedes
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