This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated January, 8 2021
I wrote in this column last week about how disappointed I was on Election Night 2016 when Donald Trump was elected president, but how I did not pretend that it did not happen or convince myself that Hillary Clinton had actually won. I penned that column on January 5, the day before the planned rally in Washington that Trump had advertised would “be wild.” I expressed how extremely concerned I was about what might occur at the Capitol that day.
“Hopefully by the time this is printed, those concerns have been proven to be needless, but with the encouragement of the president and over a third of all members of congress, as of this moment, violence seems like a very real possibility.” Obviously, we all witnessed the violence that did break out that day. Violence incited by the president and 147 GOP members of congress.
Make no mistake, what occurred at the Capitol was an insurrection perpetrated by seditionists intent on subverting our most basic democratic principles. President Trump addressed that crowd just before they made their way to the halls of Congress. He told them to “never concede,” adding that they would “go to the Capitol now” and “fight like hell.” In fact, during his address to a group of thousands that were enraged over the lies he has told them for two months about the election being stolen from him, he inserted the words “fight” or “fighting” over twenty times.
Before Trump’s incendiary remarks, Rudy Giuliani told the assembled mass that it was time for “trial by combat” and Congressman Mo Brooks said, “today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.”
Republican members of Congress who committed to objecting during the procedure to count the certified electoral college votes on January 6, now act surprised that people they helped enrage with unfounded nonsense about election fraud, would lay siege to the seat of American government.
“Every member of Congress propagating the lies about the election that have been dismissed in over 60 legal challenges across the country bears responsibility for helping to foment the anger that caused open rebellion in our Capitol.”
As reported in this paper, on Saturday, January 9, 2021, community members gathered outside of Rep. Nicole Malliotakis’s Brooklyn office to demand she support the removal of President Trump from Office. Malliotakis was one of the Republican members of Congress who, after the hours-long interruption created by the violent takeover of the Capitol, voted to reject certified election results. There were other GOP members who had originally planned to do the same, but then reversed course in light of the insurrection stoked by baseless conspiracy theories about the election results being fraudulent.
Every member of Congress propagating the lies about the election that have been dismissed in over 60 legal challenges across the country bears responsibility for helping to foment the anger that caused open rebellion in our Capitol. In the minds of the insurrectionists, their fight was just and righteous because Donald Trump’s rightful victory has been stolen from him and the president, as well as 147 members of Congress, are supporting that shared belief.
There are too many facets to the events of January 6, 2021 to cover in this column. The insurrection. Those who riled up the perpetrators. The law enforcement officers — both in uniform that day, as well as off-duty from across the county — suspended or under investigation for either abetting the rioters or being one, themselves. The vast majority of police who, for doing their job to protect the Capitol and those who work there, were besieged, beaten, and even killed. The racism, antisemitism and vile hate on display from those who invaded our Capitol for the first time since a foreign army in 1812.
America fought a civil war against insurrectionists, yet their flag never made its way into the Capitol in Washington. On January 6, 2021, a century-and-a-half later, the confederate flag waved within the halls of Congress. Appeasement of those who attacked our country in the Civil War led to a century of Jim Crowe and segregation.
We cannot heal without accountability. Not revenge. Not disunity. Accountability. The Constitution, through impeachment and the fourteenth amendment, has clear remedies for meting out justice to any federally elected official who violates their oath by giving aid or comfort to an insurrection.
