Everything About the US Capitol Riot by Trump Supporters Simplified for You

It was widely reported, and widely accepted, that Donald Trump has lost the presidential election in 2020.

Unfortunately, not everyone got the memo and Donald Trump’s supporters are still up in arms to overturn his loss.

And the latest involves guns and tear gas as Trump’s supporters stomped into the US Capitol.

Here’s what happened.

Chaos At The Capitol Building

On 6 Jan 2021, Trump supporters turned up in droves to stomp the Capitol Building.

For over 3 hours, they brought chaos to the building as protesters rummaged through offices until they were cleared out by the police.

Barricades were overturned and protestors clashed with the police to gain entry into the vaunted building.

One of the protesters even managed to get into the Senate dais and hollered that Trump had won the presidential election.

Now, why the protest now when Trump has lost the election last November?

Day of Georgia Runoff Election & Congress Certifying That Joe Biden Has Won

To explain this in House of Cards style would be a tad complicated, but if you want to, you can watch this video we’ve done about how government works (and remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more informative videos!):

If not, let us try to simplify things here.

Joe Biden winning the Presidential Election doesn’t mean he can make new laws; instead, he can execute the laws. In other words, he’s in the Executive Branch (think of him as a Minister in Singapore implementing, and not making, laws).

Laws are made by the Legislative Branch, which comprises two houses (two different groups of people): the Congress and the Senate. They are like Members of Parliament in Singapore, except that in Singapore, there’s only one house.

So, this is the day when an election for two seats in the Senate takes place after some “players were kicked out”.

Wait, what?

Technically speaking, all elections (both Executive Branch and Legislative Branch) ended in November, but these two seats in Georgia is unique: unlike a situation whereby the winners would be the ones with the most votes, it works kind of like a tournament: if there’s a 3-way fight, one two-member group will be voted out, leaving only two groups against each other.

And that was what happened in Georgia; but that makes it even more exciting is that if Joe Biden’s party, the Democratic Party, wins the two seats, they’ll control both houses in the Legislative Branch, which means Joe Biden will have control over both branches, allowing his party to make and implement laws.

The Democratic Party won the seats eventually.

Now, other than that, today’s also the day that the Legislative Branch will certify that Joe Biden has won, and it’s merely a ceremonial event. Think of it as the day when our President swear in our Prime Minister and MPs; just that it’s the other way around.

In other words, it’s a day that’s supposed to happen peacefully.

Death, Bombs & Mayhem 

The Capitol building is the “workplace” for the Legislative Branch: think of it as the Parliament House, just that the lawmakers are working there full-time instead.

One civilian, a woman, died after being shot in the chaos.

It was unclear on who shot her but reports state that she was shot after the police were urging protesters to “get back”.

An eyewitness said she had tried to rush to the windows despite warnings and was shot in the neck.

The FBI claimed that they’ve found and disarmed two suspected explosive devices as well.

Hundreds of House members, staff and members of the press were evacuated to an undisclosed location.

The Capitol building was finally declared all-clear by 5.30pm (6.30am Singapore time) after an exhausting fight against the protesters, including the use of tear gas.

It was announced that a Congress session to declare President-elect Joe Biden’s victory would be postponed to 8pm.

On The Other States Sending Aid

Shortly after the incident, a city-wide curfew was imposed by Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser starting from 6pm.

No efforts were spared to maintain law and order, and National Guard troops, FBI agents as well as US Secret Service were deployed to help out.

Protesters were pushed away by the police and Guard troops after the curfew was implemented.

In addition, New York governor Andrew Cuomo said 1,000 members of its National Guard will be sent to reinforce Washington to assist in “the peaceful transition of presidential power”.

The troops would be deployed for up to two weeks.

“For 244 years, the cornerstone of our democracy has been the peaceful transfer of power, and New York stands ready to help ensure the will of the American people is carried out, safely and decisively.”

They won’t be the only one as law enforcement from Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey are also on their way to help Washington out.

Trump Asked To Stop His Actions

Previously, Trump had said that he will not commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he lost in the presidential race.

Even after, he had addressed thousands of people outside the White House, claiming that he lost due to “widespread election fraud” and “irregularities”.

He had urged his supporters to march on the Capitol to express their dissatisfaction with the voting process and pressure their elected officials into rejecting the results.

President-elect Joe Biden called Trump out on television, telling him to stop his actions which are “bordering on sedition”.

In response, Trump posted a video on Twitter asking his supporters to “go home”, but not without repeating the claims about his loss in the presidential election.

Trump Accounts Temporarily Suspended On 6 Jan 2021

Previously, when Twitter flagged Trump’s Twitter post as fake news, it became the headline for the day.

After all, it’s the first time that a president of what is arguably the most powerful nation on earth had action taken against him by a social media platform.

On 6 Jan 2021, however, both Facebook and Twitter temporarily suspended President Donald Trump’s social media account.

Twitter hid and removed three of Trump’s tweets due to the “ongoing violent situation in Washington DC”.

Twitter also locked Trump’s account for 12 hours and threatened to keep it locked for longer unless the offending tweets are removed.

Facebook later announced that it’ll block Trump’s page from posting for 12 hours due to two policy violations.

A video where Trump continued to spout his claims about the fraudulent presidential election while urging supporters to go home was also removed from Instagram.

Facebook’s vice president of integrity Guy Rosen tweeted that he believes the president’s video would escalate, rather than de-escalate, the violent situation.

His Instagram account was also locked for 24 hours.

Facebook staff were also reportedly calling for their executives to take action against Trump, including taking down his account.

Civil rights groups are also calling for Donald Trump’s accounts to be suspended permanently.

Uniting Republicans and Democrats

For those who want to know more about the American political system, you can read more here.

TL; DR, Republicans (Trump’s party) and Democrats (Biden’s party) in the US are like the opposition and PAP here in Singapore; they don’t get along.

But the violent situation that took place at the Capitol building on 6 Jan 2021 united the two sides, divisive as they are usually, and both sides called for Trump supporters to stand down.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, a prominent Trump ally who supported the effort to challenge the results said that it was “un-American” and needed to stop.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who gave Trump his biggest accomplishments also disapproved of the violence, citing it the “death spiral” of American’s democracy if the election was overturned by “mere allegations”.

Even business groups, which typically support Republicans (because it means a “smaller government” which means less influence in their businesses), called for the president to be removed from his position if he is “unable to do his job”.

Earlier in Dec 2020, Trump had alluded that he’ll be leaving the White House but will be back in 2024.

Featured Image: Alex Gakos / Shutterstock.com