Trump presidency dying in futile assault on democracy
Wednesday, January 6, was a day of dark infamy, not epiphany, in the US when a mob of violent Donald Trump supporters, their rage fuelled by the defeated President’s lies about a stolen election, stormed the US Capitol. The assault on one of the world’s great citadels of liberty was inexcusable, as was Mr Trump’s failure to call off the mob as the assault unfolded. In a pointed, poignant speech broadcast from Delaware during the attack, incoming president Joe Biden noted that at their best the words of a president can inspire; at their worst they can incite: “Therefore, I call on President Trump to go on national television now to fulfil his oath and defend the constitution and demand an end to this siege.” The storming of the Capitol, as Mr Biden said, was “not dissent. It’s disorder, it’s chaos, it borders on sedition”. When Mr Trump finally responded after watching the violence on television in the White House for several hours, there was no demand to end the insurrection. He lauded as “special” the mob responsible for one of gravest assaults on the Capitol since George Washington laid its cornerstone in 1793. He reiterated his falsehood about a “stolen” election and simply told the rioters it was time to go home. “We love you,” he added.
The US has seen worse violence and riots, including from some of the left. But this was the Capitol. Mr Trump had been inciting the mayhem for days, tweeting exhortations to his followers to rally in Washington when both houses of congress were scheduled to go through the ceremonial process of formally certifying Mr Biden’s victory. “It’s going to be wild,” he tweeted. “Don’t miss it.” As the certification proceedings got under way, Mr Trump told the rally: “You’ll never take back our country with weakness … you have to show strength and you have to be strong” before enjoining the mob to march on the Capitol, telling them to “make their voices heard … let the weak ones get out; this is a time for strength”. If “you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country any more”, he told them. “We will never give up and never concede, we will stop the steal.” It would be hard to imagine a more incendiary act by an incumbent US President than to exploit passions that were running so high.
Serious questions need to be asked and answered about what is puzzling many members of congress — why was the building’s normally tight security so underdone, especially on such an important day? With little resistance, seemingly, the attackers were able to crash through barriers, scale walls, break windows, gain entry, occupy offices, including that of house Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate chamber. One frightened policeman was captured on film backing away up a staircase, understandably, as a mob closed in. The death of a young woman, air force veteran Ashli Babbitt, who reportedly had travelled from California to join Trump supporters and was shot in the neck at close range, also must be investigated.
Vice-President Mike Pence, presiding over the certification ceremony, had to be protected from the marauders and evacuated from the building. Unlike his boss, Mr Pence made it clear on Twitter that those responsible would face the full force of the law. One of the lowest acts of Mr Trump’s day of shame was the President coaxing his loyal and widely respected Vice-President to do what he was constitutionally barred from doing — to abuse his role as the presiding officer over the formal certification session by rejecting Mr Biden’s victory and keeping Mr Trump in the White House.
“Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us,” Mr Trump cajoled. But Mr Pence made his unwillingness to be part of such an unconstitutional scheme clear. “My oath to support and defend the constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,” he announced. Mr Trump, enraged, rounded on the man who had served him and the nation well for four years, often putting the Trump administration in a better light. Mr Trump accused Mr Pence of “not having the courage” to act, even though doing so would have been unlawful. Other key Trump backers, such as Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, also found Mr Trump’s conduct beyond the pale. As former president George W Bush said as he followed the mayhem on television: “This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic — not our democratic republic.” The passions of those who attacked the Capitol, Mr Bush said, had been “inflamed by falsehoods and false hopes”.
Unlike lesser nations, however, US democracy will prevail, as it did after the 9/11 terror attack, after ignominious defeat in Vietnam and after the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, John F Kennedy and others. Mr Biden struck the right note when he reminded Americans, and the world, of Lincoln’s advice: “We shall nobly save or merely lose the last, best hope on Earth … The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.” After “this godawful display today”, Mr Biden said, “let’s bring it home to every Republican and Democrat and independent in the nation, that we must step up. This is the United States of America”. Around the world, regimes hostile to the US and its allies — China, Russia, Iran, North Korea — will be watching the transition to the Biden presidency closely. After a day on which US democracy was put under “unprecedented assault, unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times”, as Mr Biden said, it engendered confidence to see the certification of the electoral college, a sacred ritual of the US democratic process, proceeding in an orderly way, just a few hours after the storming of the Capitol. It was finally completed at 3.44am Thursday, US time. At the 11th hour Mr Trump promised an orderly transition.
On paper, Mr Biden’s task for the next four years has been made easier by the Democrats winning the two Georgia Senate runoffs, giving the party control of the Senate as well as the House of Representatives and the White House. Jon Ossoff, a documentary filmmaker and former congressional aide, and Raphael Warnock, a pastor at the church where Martin Luther King Jr preached, will be Georgia’s first Democrat senators for more than 20 years. Mr Warnock will be the state’s first black senator. Judging by the outcome, Mr Trump’s ego-driven push to make the contest a referendum about himself cost the Republican Party dearly. The races should have been a referendum on blocking the Democrats from controlling all of congress and the executive branch. But that message was lost by Mr Trump’s insistence on telling voters, day after day, that he was cheated in November, regardless of the lack of credible evidence any court — including those presided over by sound judges appointed by him — would accept.
As a result of the Democrats’ unfettered power, Mr Biden will be less able to resist the demands of his party’s progressive wing to lurch to the left. He should not forget that four years ago the Republicans, too, enjoyed a clean sweep. The party gaining the unexpected trifecta will embolden the likes of senator Bernie Sanders and other socialists. As The Wall Street Journal noted: “We hope Republicans keep Mr Trump’s contribution to these defeats in mind over the next two years as their taxes and energy costs rise, as woke cultural mandates rain down from Washington, and as more of the economy comes under political control. By his destructive behaviour, especially since his defeat, Mr Trump has erased much of his own legacy.” That is unfortunate, especially for the “quiet Americans”, law-abiding Republican supporters, which is most of the 74 million Americans who voted for Mr Trump. Many appreciated his pre-COVID economic reforms and tax cuts, his foreign policy work in Israel and the Middle East, his firmness with China, his sensible judicial appointments and his willingness to give the pro-life lobby a hearing.
But most Republican voters know that his most sacred duty as President is to defend the constitution, not sabotage it, and to “accept his defeat with honour, not attempt a dishonourable revolt”, as Paul Kelly writes on Friday. It is a measure of the contempt Mr Trump has drawn on himself that politicians on both sides and business and civic leaders have urged Mr Pence and members of the Trump cabinet to move to remove Mr Trump as President when less than a fortnight of his term remains. He leaves the White House with a deeply divided nation and Republican Party. Mr Trump’s shameful departure, however, and the willingness of party leaders such as Mr Pence and Senator McConnell to take a stand may ease the way for the GOP to start a new chapter in the post-Trump era. It will have to do so, however, without the ultra-right rump, whose refusal to accept the democratic process has been laid bare.
On the ground in Washington, Cameron Stewart snapped a protester in bullhorns as he waved a flag proclaiming “this is our 1776”, a reference to US independence. The protest, Washington police chief Charles Ramsey said, came “as close to a coup attempt as this country has ever seen”. But now the Biden-Harris team is certified, and US democracy faces another four likely tumultuous years. Even under assault, its institutions will continue to stand firm.
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