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For more than two hours, the nation’s capital has been under siege. Police have been injured, a woman has been shot, at least one improvised explosive device has been found. Both chambers of Congress have invaded by a mob of armed insurrectionists intent on overthrowing the elected government, congressional offices are being ransacked, and both the Senate and House have been evacuated along with several other federal buildings. All of this came after Donald Trump told his supporters he was going to march with them “up Pennsylvania Avenue” to the Capitol, where they would “cheer” for Republicans opposing the counting of the Electoral College vote.

But Trump didn’t march. He didn’t walk so much as a block. Instead, he got back into his car and returned to the White House. As a result, many of his supporters were convinced that Trump was still physically with them, even when the assault on the Capitol building began. Even as his supporters shoved over barriers, smashed through windows, broke open doors, and injured police to occupy the Capitol and threaten both legislators and their staffs. In those hours, Trump has issued only two milquetoast tweets, neither of which called on the terrorists who came to Washington, D.C. at his invitation to halt their invasion. Trump hasn’t just failed to issue a call to end this attempted insurrection, he has refused.

Multiple sources have reported that several people inside the White House, including Mike Pence, have called on Trump to issue a stronger statement to his followers. However, Trump is said to be angry at Pence for failing to overturn the election results … so he’s holding the whole nation hostage to his pout.

Pence has issued his own statement saying that “those involved will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” However, that also remains to be seen. Having gathered his followers together under the promise of a “wild” time; having spent months inflaming them with lies about a stolen election; and having spent years teaching his followers to disregard every other source … there is every reason to expect that, far from prosecuting the terrorists, Trump will issue a blanket pardon.

At 4 PM EST, President-elect Joe Biden issued a statement in which he said: “This is not protest. It is insurrection.” He called on Trump to go on national television and end this attempted overthrow of the nation.

Fifteen minutes later, Trump issued a statement to the terrorists saying: “I love you. You’re very special. I know how you feel.” In the video, Trump continued to insist that the election was stolen and he won in a landslide.

Trump did say for terrorists to “go home in peace.” That’s one hell of a lot different from “prosecuted the fullest extent of the law.”

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As violent Trump supporters have stormed the U.S. Capitol to prevent Congress from counting the electoral votes that made Joe Biden the president-elect, Jon Ossoff has been projected to defeat David Perdue, winning his Georgia Senate runoff and giving Democrats the narrowest possible control of the Senate. Ossoff’s lead is larger than Biden’s win in the state in November, and is expected to grow outside the 0.5% margin under which Perdue could request a recount.

Ossoff joins Senator-elect Raphael Warnock in making history, as Georgia will send to Washington, D.C., its first Black senator and its first Jewish one. Just over a century ago, Georgia was the site of the anti-Semitic lynching of Leo Frank. His win comes on a day when we are reminded of the nation’s history of white supremacist violence.

With Ossoff and Warnock, the Senate’s partisan split will be 50-50, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, in her role as president of the Senate, breaking ties. This makes Biden’s job in the early weeks of his presidency much, much easier—rather than a series of protracted confirmation battles, with Mitch McConnell in the majority leader role refusing to even give some nominees a vote, Biden can make the nominations he wants and focus on other things. But, again, the events of the day are a stark reminder of how much damage there is to undo.

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Pro-Trump protesters have broken into the Capitol and overrun law enforcement there. Congress is under lockdown. And the display of white supremacy is on both sides: the protesters and the police who are letting them run rampant in support of a coup attempt.

Think back to last summer when peaceful Black Lives Matter protests were repeatedly suppressed in brutal fashion by the many law enforcement agencies of the District of Columbia. Those protests for racial justice were met by throngs of police in riot gear with tear gas. This literal assault on the United States Capitol building has been met by outmatched police in windbreakers. 

Donald Trump had Lafayette Square violently cleared for a photo op. Law enforcement has failed to prevent violent mobs from breaking into the Capitol to stop Congress from doing its duty under the law to count the Electoral College votes.

We’re accustomed—too accustomed—to seeing police respond with disproportionate violence to Black protesters while allowing violent white supremacists to do their violent white supremacist thing. But this is the United States Capitol, the Congress, the process of democracy. Was it unreasonable to hope that law enforcement would enforce the laws against white supremacists in defense of the Capitol and the Congress? This is white supremacy in action, not just from the mob but from the police who refused to see the threat of the mob until it was too late, because they were white. These people have told us for days on end exactly what they planned, and yet somehow we’re supposed to believe that no one in the leadership of the agencies responsible for protecting the District of Columbia could have anticipated it? No. Again: This is white people getting a pass to a truly outrageous, dangerous extent, and everyone involved in the decision-making about the response has to be held to account.

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This is now a coup attempt. A pro-Trump crowd demanding that the United States elections be overturned and that Donald Trump be reinstalled as president is now inside the Capitol, causing the evacuation of multiple buildings and the evacuation of the House and Senate floors. It was done at the encouragement of Trump himself in a rally nearby the Capitol.

Mike Pence has, as second in line of presidential succession, been evacuated from the building. The second and third persons in line of succession are now sheltering in place. Donald Trump is now continuing his attempts to agitate the crowd with a tweet condemning Mike Pence for not backing his demands.

Tear gas is now being used in the Rotunda.

This is now a violent coup attempt instigated by a sitting president. Trump has committed treason against his country, and Mike Pence and Trump’s cabinet must take immediate steps to declare him unfit, via the 25th Amendment, and removed.

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Shortly after the joint session began to count the electoral votes, and as Donald Trump wrapped up his rally at the other end of the National Mall, Trump supporters turned on the Capitol and began knocking down one security fence after another. Capital police met them at the steps and initially forced the group behind a temporary barrier. But as more Trump supporters have arrived, the situation has become increasingly chaotic.

At least two buildings have been evacuated, there have been multiple reports of possible bombs or suspicious packages, and Trump supporters—many of them wearing military garb—have pushed past police to occupy scaffolding and move around barriers. Despite Trump’s promises to invite the worst of his white supremacist followers to Washington for a “wild” time, police seem to be completely unprepared for this level of violence. Most are not wearing riot gear, and there has been only limited and sporadic deployment of pepper spray and tear gas. In some instances Trump supporters have been pepper spraying the police, but they don’t seem to be getting arrested. Now police are injured and protesters have breached the Capitol. They are outside the Senate chambers, pounding on the doors. Debate on the electoral votes has been halted as senators are evacuated to the sound of a roaring crowd and breaking glass.

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Donald Trump has barely started turning the rally crowd toward the Capitol building, but the white supremacist militias weren’t bothering to attend Trump’s repetition of lies about election fraud. They just went straight to the part about rampaging and pillaging.

The Madison LOC building is being evacuated after Trump supporters breeched security and ran past police. 

Militia have not breached the actual Capitol building. After knocking down four layers of security fence, they have, for now, been forced back behind a temporary fence. This is exactly what Donald Trump promised his supporters. And exactly what he wanted.

Trump is continuing to lead tens of thousands toward the building, strangely not calling for the National Guard or military to step in. The attempt to hold a coup in the courts failed. The attempt to hold a coup in Congress failed. Now they’re just having a coup.

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Mike Pence is dying a little inside as a joint session of Congress meets for what is supposed to be the fairly perfunctory task of counting the electoral votes as certified by the states, with Pence in the role of “guy who reads the numbers” but is under pressure from Donald Trump to overturn the election somehow.

President-elect Joe Biden has 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232. But a simple count is not what Trump and many congressional Republicans have in mind, so this is going to take a while. It takes one House member and one senator to object to a state’s electoral votes being counted, and thanks to Sens. Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and others, objections are planned for at least Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia, each of which will draw two hours of debate.

It’s a terrible thing and it’s going to be a wretched day, but on the other hand, knowing that Senate Republicans are about to be demoted does make it a little easier.