STATEMENT ON THE PRO-TRUMP RIOT AT THE U.S. CAPITOL
PRESS CONTACTS:
Marcus Coppola, National Communications Director, College Democrats of America, marcus.coppola@collegedems.com
Sashu Machani, Communications Director, High School Democrats of America, smachani@hsdems.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 6, 2021
Amidst attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, the College Democrats of America, High School Democrats of America, and Young Democrats of America issued the following statement:
Today is a dark day for our democracy. Never before have we seen such a concentrated, alarming, and dangerous attempt to undermine our free and fair election process, let alone one that devolves into riots and the destruction of the United States Capitol. Let us be clear — this is an act of domestic terrorism. Insurrectionists disguising themselves as patriots destroying the heart of the U.S. government simply because they do not like the results of an election is not only unacceptable, but anti-American.
President Trump lost the election; this is an undeniable fact. Since then, President Trump and his team have exhausted every available legal method to prove his claims of widespread voter fraud, which have all been disproven by judges across the spectrum of our judicial system. Yet he still continues to perpetuate these baseless claims, enraging and enabling his most fervent supporters, leading to today’s horrific events. It is inexcusable for the President to continue to repeat these disproven claims, even as he attempted to calm the crowd outside the Capitol. Instead of quelling the situation, he reiterated to his supporters that the election was stolen and fraudulent before finally meekly asking them to go home. The words of a president matter. They especially matter when the president is the sole person to which violent rioters will listen.
Today’s treasonous riot is anti-American at every level. Capitol windows broken. American flags taken down and replaced with “Trump 2020” flags. Police officers injured. Confederate flags carried proudly through the halls of the United States Capitol. At least one person has died. And yet these rioters were allowed to stroll into the chambers of Congress with little resistance from police and security, while Black Americans begging for their lives this summer were met with tear gas and rubber bullets. Black Americans were called “thugs” and “monsters,” while today’s rioters were characterized as “patriots” and “very special.”
This is why we are calling for the immediate removal of President Donald Trump.
While many will dismiss it as a futile attempt or a spiteful political move, we see a dangerous precedent being set by a president that scoffs at democracy. Today’s events cannot be without consequence, and it would be irresponsible not to consider how we even got here in the first place. President Trump is dangerous. It would be even more dangerous to write him off as an anomaly. This is not the end of a tumultuous presidency — this is the beginning of an alt-right movement that will endanger the very foundations of our nation.
This is not about politics — this is about democracy. The soul of our nation is at stake.
