President-elect Joe Biden condemned the protests at Capitol and called on President Donald Trump to urge rioters to leave.
Biden, who will officially become president on January 20, expressed his dismay at the rioters and asked law enforcement to stop the rally in Washington.
“At this hour, our democracy is under unprecedented assault, unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times,” the president-elect said from Wilmington, Delaware. “Let me be very clear: The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect the true America, do not represent who we are.”
“I’m genuinely shocked and saddened that our nation, so long a beacon of hope and light for democracy, has come to such a dark moment,” he added. “America’s about honor, decency, respect, tolerance. That’s who we are. That’s who we’ve always been.”
Biden also urged Trump to make a public announcement asking the rioters to leave the Capitol as soon as possible.
“I call on President Trump to go on national television now, to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege,” Biden said.
Minutes after Biden gave his statements, Trump posted a video on Twitter that questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election and asked the pro-Trump supporters to “go home.”
“I know your pain, I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us, it was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side,” Trump said in the video. “But you have to go home now, we have to have peace.”
Twitter locked Trump’s account Wednesday evening following his Tweets, which could not be seen on his account, stating they committed violations of the company’s policies. Twitter pointed out that it would lock Trump’s account for 12 hours once he deletes the tweets in question and would look into permanently suspending his account upon further violations.
Trump’s earlier statements in a brief video on Twitter came after lawmakers on both sides asked him to speak out against the chaos led by his supporters. Trump supporters stormed the building, delaying the confirmation of election results.
Earlier in the day at a rally outside the White House, Trump criticized his perceived political enemies, including “weak Republicans” who refused to assist him in overturning the election.
He also pressured Pence to not accept key electoral votes during the joint session of Congress in order to give way for Trump’s reelection.
In another tweet, Trump said that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.”
“The United States of America is resilient. It has weathered many storms because of our form of government and our remarkable Constitution. The violence that we are witnessing in the U.S. Capitol dishonors our legacy and denigrates the ‘Shining City on the Hill’ Ronald Reagan spoke of,” Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon said in a statement. “Interfering with the peaceful transfer of power is an affront to the very Constitution that has made our country what it is.”
