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      in US Politics

      Republican politician opens Oregon capitol door for far-right rioters – video

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      Security footage shows the Republican state representative Mike Nearman leaving a door open and allowing far-right protesters into the Oregon capitol building during a special legislative session on 21 December. 
      As politicians discussed coronavirus-related bills, about 50 protesters briefly breached the building. The capitol has been closed to the public as part of a pandemic safety measure.
      It is not immediately clear if Nearman will face consequences for his actions. He has not commented More

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      in US Politics

      The Guardian view on democracy in America: the threat is real | Editorial

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      The inauguration of Joe Biden as US president on 20 January has become a touchstone moment in the history of American democracy. Following the outrage of last week’s storming of Congress by Donald Trump supporters, at least 10,000 members of the national guard will be deployed in Washington by this weekend. Reports have detailed FBI warnings of possible armed protests in the capital and across the United States in the days ahead. The area around the Washington Monument, close to where Mr Trump urged supporters to “fight” for his right to stay in office, has been closed to the public. The mood is fearful, febrile and somewhat surreal. In the words of one newspaper headline: “Is this America?”Since the foundation of the federal republic, the peaceful transition of power has been fundamental to America’s understanding of itself. In US democracy’s choreography, the presidential inauguration is designed as a moment of civic celebration that transcends partisan differences. That Mr Trump chose to mobilise an insurgency against the handover gives the measure of his narcissism, hubris and deranged will to power. Last week’s riot was not a one-off piece of performance theatre that got out of hand. The pitch for an assault on democracy had been rolled for months. In the autumn, speaking more like a mobster than a president, Mr Trump told the neo-fascist Proud Boys movement to “stand by”, and warned that the Democratic party would try to “steal” the election. Last week’s violent mayhem, which led to five deaths, was the culmination of a strategy to intimidate and discredit the democratic institutions of the country he leads.Democrat members of the House of Representatives are therefore right to launch impeachment proceedings for a second time against a rogue president. As the charge sheet states, Mr Trump incited “violence against the government of the United States”. Assuming Wednesday’s vote to impeach is passed in the Democrat-controlled House, the next stage will take place in the Senate, currently in recess until after Mr Biden’s inauguration. A two-thirds supermajority would be required to convict, but it seems improbable that a sufficient number of Republicans will do the right thing. Another shaming moment looms for a party that has abased itself at Mr Trump’s feet in the pursuit of power and lost its soul in the process.But even if legal process were to deliver Mr Trump his just deserts, the crisis of America’s growing polarisation – of which the president is a symptom as well as a cause – would remain. Tribalism has become a disabling virus in the US body politic, cracking the public square in two. Social media, belatedly under new scrutiny, is used by citizens to sustain alternate, conflicting realities: three in four Republican voters continue to believe that there was widespread voter fraud in November, despite the rulings of close to 100 judges to the contrary. As faith in the neutrality of public institutions declines, studies have shown a disturbing rise in the number of Americans – on both left and right – who believe that political violence is sometimes justified.Against this dismal backdrop, the theme of Mr Biden’s inauguration speech will be “America united”. It seems likely that it will be delivered in the shadow of impeachment proceedings against his predecessor, and a mass military presence. This is a script that should belong to a bingeworthy drama on Netflix during lockdown. Instead, it is America’s dystopian reality. The new president’s healing message will be the right one. Making it heard will be the defining challenge of his long political career. More

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      in US Politics

      Neil Young calls for empathy for Capitol attackers: 'We are not enemies'

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      Neil Young has called for empathy towards those who stormed the US Capitol building in Washington DC, arguing they had been “manipulated” into doing so.In a message posted to his website, Young writes:
      I feel empathy for the people who have been so manipulated and had their beliefs used as political weapons. I may be among them. I wish internet news was two-sided. Both sides represented on the same programs. Social media, at the hands of powerful people – influencers, amplifying lies and untruths, is crippling our belief system, turning us against one another. We are not enemies. We must find a way home.
      The veteran rock star has long been critical of Donald Trump, and until recently was suing for using his songs during political rallies. In his new message, he again criticised the outgoing president, saying he “has betrayed the people, exaggerated and amplified the truth to foment hatred”, but said his feelings are now “beyond” Trump.“Resentment of the Democratic party among the insurrectionists at the Capitol was rampant. We don’t need this hate,” he wrote. “We need discussion and solutions. Respect for one another’s beliefs. Not hatred … With social media, issues are turned to psychological weapons and used to gather hatred in support of one side or the other. This is what Donald J Trump has as his legacy.”He also criticised the “double standard” that saw heavy crackdowns against Black Lives Matter protesters in Washington in 2020, and relatively light policing of last week’s Capitol breach.During the 2020 presidential campaign, Young initially backed Bernie Sanders, but also voiced support for Joe Biden after he won the Democratic nomination, saying Biden would bring “compassion and empathy” back to the White House.Last week, Young sold a 50% stake in his entire songwriting catalogue to the publishing company Hipgnosis for an undisclosed fee thought to be around $150m. More

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      in US Politics

      From Charlottesville to the Capitol: how rightwing impunity fueled the pro-Trump mob

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      As Susan Bro watched the footage of a mob of white Trump supporters breaking into the US Capitol and halting the official count of the 2020 election results, she was “mad as hell”, but she was not surprised.
      Bro’s daughter, Heather Heyer, was murdered in 2017 while protesting against neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia. Donald Trump had responded to Heyer’s death by saying there were “very fine people on both sides”.
      On Wednesday, Trump responded to open insurrection in the halls of Congress, which left at least four people dead, by repeating false claims about having the election stolen from him and telling the mob: “Go home. We love you. You’re very special.”
      “This path has always been predictable,” Bro said from her home in Virginia. “For people to now go, ‘I never knew this would happen,’ why not? How would you not see this happen?”
      “This is sort of an inevitable conclusion,” she added. “It’s been coming, at least openly, for months, but the trajectory was set years ago.”
      The playbook for the Maga invasion of the nation’s Capitol building on Wednesday has been developing for years in plain sight, at far-right rallies in cities like Charlottesville, Berkeley, and Portland, and then, in the past year, at state Capitols across the country, where heavily armed white protesters have forced their way into legislative chambers to accuse politicians of tyranny and treason.
      “No one should be surprised,” said Sarah Anthony, a Black state lawmaker who was on the legislative floor in Michigan’s Capitol on 30 April when hundreds of anti-lockdown protesters, including white militia members with guns, tried to force their way inside. “This has been escalating in every corner of our country for months.”
      From screaming matches in the lobby of the state house in Michigan to looting the office of speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi, the demonstrators have grown bolder and their aims more ambitious.
      But many elements of these incidents repeat each time: the chaotic mix of well-known extremists and unknown Trump supporters who showed up to participate; the strikingly soft and ineffectual response from the police; the expressions of shock from Republican lawmakers that any of their supporters would take action in response to the lies they had been repeating; and of course, the behavior of Trump himself, who first openly incites the violence, and then, when it spirals out of control, praises it instead of condemning it. More

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      in US Politics

      The Guardian view on the storming of the US Capitol: democracy in danger | Editorial

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      What took so long? “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time,” Maya Angelou counselled. Donald Trump’s keenest supporters believed him. But too many others, even among those who reviled him, nonetheless assumed that there were limits. They can no longer be complacent. The American carnage of Wednesday night – the storming of the Capitol by an armed and violent mob, incited by the president, in an attempt to terrorise Congress and stop the peaceful transfer of power – marked an extraordinary moment in US history. “If the post-American era has a start date, it is almost certainly today,” wrote Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations.Yet this was merely the ultimate and undeniable proof of what was always evident: that this man is not only unfit for his office, he is also a danger to democracy while he retains it. He built his political success on lies, contempt for democratic standards, the stoking of divisions – most of all racial – and the glamorising of force. They were evident when he campaigned for the presidency, and more blatant when he talked of “very fine people” among the white supremacists of Charlottesville. When the House impeached him for abusing power for electoral purposes. When he lied that the election would be stolen, and then lied that it had been. When he called supporters to Washington. When he told them that they would “never take back our country with weakness” and urged them on to the Capitol.The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and others deserve no credit for belated pieties about the state of the Republic. All those who helped or “humoured” Mr Trump’s election-stealing attempts are culpable. Already expert in more genteel endeavours, such as voter suppression and gerrymandering, the Republican elites have enabled and encouraged Trumpism: standing at his side, acquitting him when impeached, staying silent, or amplifying his lies. Having invited in an arsonist and supplied him with accelerant, they offer a cup of water to douse the inferno.The urgent issue is how to deal with Mr Trump. No faith can be put in his last-minute promise of an orderly transition when he continues to foment rage. The Democratic leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, has called for his immediate removal. Cabinet members are reportedly now discussing the use of the 25th amendment, which allows the replacement of an “unfit” president. But this is not about mere failings or incapacity: a better choice would be to begin impeachment proceedings. Action must be taken against Mr Trump, as it must against those he incited, to prevent him from running again and send a clear message to anyone tempted to follow.For the truly important issue is how to salvage democracy in America. While Wednesday may prove a wake-up call for some Trump voters, many are already explaining away events, or excusing them through false equivalences with the Black Lives Matter movement. Divisions run deep through American society and even its institutions. A full investigation is needed of the failure to protect the Capitol when extremists had openly talked of such a plan – in stark contrast to the intense security and aggressive treatment that greeted peaceful BLM protesters. Tens of millions of Americans now believe that the election was stolen: one report suggests that only a quarter of Republicans trust the result. Rightwing media have fostered lies, and social media allowed people to dwell in alternative political universes. Though Facebook has finally suspended the president’s account, the stable door is shutting long after disinformation galloped off into the distance. None of this will end when Joe Biden is inaugurated on 20 January.Democracy exists not in the provisions written down on paper, but so long as it is practised, which is to say, defended. The remarkable twin victories in the Georgia runoffs on Wednesday, giving the Democrats control of the Senate via the vice-president’s casting vote, were a welcome testimony to what is possible. But their importance is dwarfed by the threat looming over the system itself. The struggle is only just beginning. America has shown its people what it is. They should believe it – and act accordingly. More

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      in Elections

      Trump supporters gather outside statehouses across US as mob assails Capitol

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      Supporters of Donald Trump massed outside statehouses across the US on Wednesday, leading to some evacuations as cheers rang out in reaction to the news that a pro-Trump mob had stormed the US Capitol in Washington.Hundreds of people gathered in state capitals from Georgia to New Mexico on the day US lawmakers were scheduled to certify Joe Biden’s electoral victory over Trump in November’s presidential election.In scenes that echoed those in the US capital, Trump supporters waved signs that read “Stop the Steal” and “Four more years”. Most eschewed masks and some carried guns in places like Oklahoma, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Washington state. Despite some scuffles in states including Ohio and California, with instances of journalists or counter-protesters being pepper-sprayed or punched, many demonstrations remained peaceful.In Georgia, the secretary of state and his staff were evacuated from their offices at the state Capitol after about 100 protesters gathered, some armed with long guns.Gabriel Sterling, a top official with the secretary of state’s office, said it was a precautionary decision made by Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, for his team to leave. Trump has focused much of his ire on Raffensperger in the weeks following his loss of the state by about 12,000 votes.“We saw stuff happening at the Georgia Capitol and said we should not be around here, we should not be a spark,” Sterling told the Associated Press.The chaotic events in Washington DC came as Congress tried to affirm Biden’s electoral college victory. A pro-Trump mob entered the Senate chamber and forced lawmakers to flee. One woman was shot and killed.Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, slammed the storming of the US Capitol, calling it “a disgrace and quite honestly un-American”. Kemp said he was extending an executive order from protests over the summer activating the national guard in case they were needed to protect the state Capitol on Monday, when the legislative session begins.In New Mexico, hundreds of flag-waving Trump supporters arrived in a vehicle caravan and on horseback. Police evacuated staff from a statehouse building that included the governor’s office and the secretary of state’s office as a precaution.Demonstrators sang God Bless America, honked horns and declared Trump the rightful election winner, despite Biden winning the vote in New Mexico by a margin of roughly 11%.Brian Egolf, New Mexico’s Democratic house speaker, described it as a “shameful moment”.“It’s the first time in the history of the United States that the peaceful transfer of power has been slowed by an act of violence,” Egolf said. “I hope that the Congress can recover soon.”Elsewhere, Trump supporters circled the state Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin, in cars and trucks adorned with Trump and US flags, blaring their horns.In Colorado, the Denver mayor, Michael Hancock, ordered city agencies to close buildings after hundreds gathered in front of the Capitol building to protest against the election results.And in South Carolina, protesters supporting Trump came to the statehouse but left before the US Capitol was breached.In Washington state, protesters broke through a gate at the mansion of the state’s governor, Jay Inslee, and dozens of people gathered on the lawn before being cleared from the area. The crowd, some of whom were armed, repeated baseless allegations of election fraud.Earlier, dozens of people gathered at the state Capitol, demanding an election recount.In Utah, the staff of Governor Spencer Cox was sent home as several hundred people gathered in Salt Lake City, the lieutenant governor, Deidre Henderson, tweeted. A Salt Lake Tribune photographer said he was pepper-sprayed by a demonstrator who taunted him for wearing a mask and shoved him as he was shooting video of the protest.At least one person was arrested at the Oregon Capitol in Salem on suspicion of harassment and disorderly conduct as police in riot gear tried to get people, many of them armed, to leave. Video showed protesters and counter-protesters clashing and riot police moving in.In Honolulu, about 100 protesters lined the road outside the state Capitol waving American and Trump 2020 flags at passing cars. Sheryl Bieler, a retiree in the blue state, said she had come out to “support our president and support the integrity of the elections”. More

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      in US Politics

      Maga mob's Capitol invasion makes Trump's assault on democracy literal

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      [embedded content]
      The US Capitol, the seat of American democracy, has been stormed by a pro-Donald Trump mob, egged on by the president in a desperate and violent effort to overturn the results of the election.
      Minutes after the news spread that the vice-president had announced he would not do the president’s bidding and reverse Trump’s defeat to Joe Biden at the ballot box, hundreds of pro-Trump rioters broke down the barriers around the Capitol building, and surged forward.
      Footage from inside the building showed that some pro-Trump rioters had reached one of the doors to the Capitol and smashed out the glass. A group managed to make their way to the atrium of the Senate Rotunda, carrying confederate flags. The Capitol police were outnumbered and seemed to melt away. More

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      in US Politics

      Trump protesters warned not to carry guns as Washington DC calls up National Guard

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      DC police chief says ahead of inauguration protests ‘there are people intent on coming to our city armed’The US capital has mobilised the National Guard ahead of planned protests by Donald Trump supporters in the lead-up to the congressional vote affirming Joe Biden’s election victory.Trump’s supporters are planning to rally on Tuesday and Wednesday, seeking to bolster the president’s unproven claims of widespread voter fraud. Continue reading… More