Rainbow Democrats President Brandon Nelson issued the following scathing statement on yesterday’s events at the nation’s capital:
I will not mince words when I say this: what happened yesterday at our nation’s capital was a grotesque display of domestic terrorism at the hands of white supremacists, led by the United States’ sitting President, Donald John Trump.
A literal violent, angry mob ascended upon Capitol Hill yesterday at the direction of President Trump. At the very moment that Congress was set to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college win, they committed the ultimate act of sedition: they stormed the Capitol building in an attempt at a coup to overthrow the United States government and thwart the will of the people. Many Americans and people worldwide were glued to their televisions and social media accounts and watched in horror as a rogue horde of our citizens, emboldened by President Trump’s malicious words, ransacked and desecrated the halls of Congress. Video footage of these terrorists chasing capitol police officers through the building flashed and replayed on tv screens and across the internet. Reports came in of possible pipe bombs and explosives brought into the Capitol building by these incendiary agitators. It was as if America was living through the beginnings of a dystopian novel or movie in real-time.
Make no mistake: Donald Trump wanted this to happen. When neo-Nazi white nationalists marched in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 with tiki torches shouting racist and other anti-Semitic hate speech such as the phrase “Jews will not replace us,” instead of condemning them, Donald Trump proclaimed that there were “very fine people on both sides.” His consistent refusal to condemn racism and hate speech only give credence to his countless baseless accusations of election fraud that his supporters embrace.
Donald Trump is a snake oil salesman who has successfully bamboozled his supporters into believing his constellation of lies. Sadly, those who still support him to this very minute will not back down and will continue to believe every dangerous conspiracy theory he elevates and every lie he promulgates.
I am calling on Congress and Vice President Mike Pence to immediately invoke the 25th Amendment of the United States Constitution and immediately remove Donald Trump from office. Donald Trump is a clear and imminent danger to the citizens of the United States, our government, and our Constitution that he swore to uphold and protect when he took the oath of office in 2017.
To those of you who mocked us on the night of November 8, 2016, and claimed that we were overreacting and that nothing like this would ever happen in this country, I ask you to reflect on yesterday’s events and to ask yourself if you still believe that we were overreacting. Under the Trump presidency, our worst fears came to fruition. Hillary Clinton, Trump’s 2016 general election opponent, declared that “Americans have come too far to see our progress ripped away.” She was right, and not only would the principles of our democracy and the rule of law be tested and pushed to the brink, but much of the progress made not just during the Obama years but in previous administrations would be carelessly discarded and disregarded.
The President of The United States, Donald J. Trump, has American blood on his hands. He owns all of this by instigating this armed insurrection against our government. He poured gasoline on the fire, fanning the flames of hate and division among the cesspool of a fringe group of his supporters. What happened yesterday is the kind of thing that happens in countries with dictators and authoritarian leaders. From day 1 of his presidency, Trump has fashioned himself to be more than just our president, but dangerously flirting with demagoguery and fascism (authoritarianism) under the guise of his infamous campaign slogan: “Make America Great Again (MAGA).” America is at an inflection point; we must confront the elephant in the room that has been barreling through the china shop, leaving devastation in its wake: we must simultaneously confront the racism and racist rhetoric in this country AND the issue of homegrown domestic terrorism and hate group.
Once constitutionally in place, the Biden administration and the Biden Justice Department should immediately launch an investigation with a special counsel to investigate and prosecute anyone who actively participated in the attempted coup of our system of government, including members of Congress and other lawmakers who were co-conspirators to this effort.
President Abraham Lincoln, the nation’s 16th President, delivered a speech in 1858 at the Illinois Republican Convention where he uttered the notable quote, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” In that speech, he referred to the “David and Goliath-like” struggle that our country faced with the abolition of slavery during the Civil War and the Reconstruction period. I am reminded of that quote and its relevance in this very moment as we bear witness to the acts of sedition and treason committed by the sitting President of The United States and Republican lawmakers. Lawmakers who not only sat in silence and did nothing as Trump trashed American ideals and principles but also aided and abetted him by feeding into the conspiracy theories that he parrots from fringe alt-right cults such as Qanon.
America has been through tough times before, and we’ve been able to persevere and overcome in the darkest moments of our nation’s history. I do not doubt that we’ll be able to move forward from this because we must for the sake of our union, but this moment will go down in history as the moment that nearly brought our nation and our national government to its knees. In the midst of all of yesterday’s chaos, the balance of power in the U.S. Senate shifted as we learned that Jon Ossoff was declared the apparent winner of the Georgia Senate runoff nearly one day after Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock was declared the apparent winner of the other Georgia Senate race over his opponent Kelly Loeffler. Democrats will control Both Houses of Congress and the presidency in 13 days. Congress, President-elect Biden, and Vice President-elect Harris have their work cut out for them. They must find a way to heal the soul of our nation and forge an entirely different America where we “build back better,” to quote his 2020 campaign slogan; because we cannot go back to the way things were.
History will not be kind to the Republican party, the co-conspirators of the uprising of treasonous homegrown terrorists. With 13 days left in the Trump presidency, how much more damage can this monster do to this country?
“Our constitutional democracy enshrines the peaceful transfer of power.”
2016 Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in her concession speech on the morning of November 9, 2016.
Rainbow Democrats, Inc. 
Thank you for your beautifully crafted commentary on one of the most disappointing days in American history.
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