The storming of the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Wednesday was the culmination of a year of white nationalist and anti-democratic violence that steadily intensified and featured the direct incitement of the US president.
Last February, the FBI director, Christopher Wray, issued a direct warning to Congress that “racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists” had become the primary source of domestic terrorist threats and killings. His fears were supercharged as 2020 progressed by the confluence of the pandemic and the brazen actions of Donald Trump who exploited public anxieties over mask ordinances and Covid-19 lockdowns to whip up his base into a frenzy.
“LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” he cried in April after the Democratic governor of the state, Gretchen Whitmer, imposed stay-at-home orders to combat soaring coronavirus infection rates.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
