US Capitol attack: Trump at bay as first
Republican senator calls for resignation
President faces second impeachment and calls to quit
Twitter bans Trump to prevent ‘further incitement of
violence’
Sidney Blumenthal: This was a perverse civil war
re-enactment
Martin
Pengelly in New York
@MartinPengelly
Sat 9 Jan
2021 14.40 GMTLast modified on Sat 9 Jan 2021 15.03 GMT
Pressure
was mounting on Donald Trump on Saturday, as Democrats in the House prepared to
impeach him a second time and after a first Republican senator called publicly
for his removal and Twitter banned his account, removing his most powerful
means of spreading lies and incitements to violence.
Democrats
in the House were preparing articles charging Trump with inciting an
insurrection and having “gravely endangered the security of the United States”
and its institutions.
From the
Senate, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said: “I want him to resign. I want him out.
He has caused enough damage.”
Seeking to
overturn election defeat by Joe Biden, Trump incited a riot at the heart of US
government. On Wednesday, the president looked on from the White House as a mob
he told to “fight like hell” breached the Capitol, faced off with police
outside the House chamber and entered the Senate and offices of congressional
leaders, smashing and stealing as they went.
Five people
died, including a police officer who confronted rioters and a rioter shot by a
law enforcement officer. Multiple arrests have been made.
Trump has called
for calm and promised to respect the transfer of power on 20 January but he has
also continued to claim the election was stolen by means of massive electoral
fraud. It was not.
The House
speaker, Nancy Pelosi, spoke to the leader of the US military, seeking to
ensure Trump cannot launch a nuclear attack in his remaining days in office.
The speaker
also called for Trump’s removal via the 25th amendment, which provides for the
ejection of a president deemed unable to fulfil his duties. The Treasury
secretary, Steven Mnuchin, was reportedly among officials to discuss such a
course. But it seems unlikely to succeed, particularly as cabinet members who
would participate in the process have resigned.
A second
and high-speed impeachment therefore looms, with House Democrats set to
initiate proceedings as early as Monday. In his first impeachment, over
approaches to Ukraine for dirt on political rivals, Trump was acquitted by a
Republican-held Senate.
Some
Republicans in the House have now called for Trump to go but on Friday
Murkowski became the first GOP senator to do so, telling the Anchorage Daily
News: “I think he should leave.
“He’s not
going to appear at the inauguration. He hasn’t been focused on what is going on
with Covid. He’s either been golfing or he’s been inside the Oval Office fuming
and throwing every single person who has been loyal and faithful to him under
the bus, starting with the vice-president.
“He doesn’t
want to stay there. He only wants to stay there for the title. He only wants to
stay there for his ego. He needs to get out. He needs to do the good thing, but
I don’t think he’s capable of doing a good thing.”
Murkowski’s
intervention was dramatic, echoing the delegation of Republicans who went to
Richard Nixon and told him to resign before he was impeached over Watergate in
1974. But Trump seems unlikely to go voluntarily – unless, some speculate, he
attempts to grant himself a pre-emptive pardon first – and many more Republican
senators would have to turn for the president to be convicted and removed, if a
trial could be held before inauguration day.
Trump will
be vulnerable to prosecution, either state or federal, after leaving the White
House. But if he was successfully impeached he would also lose all benefits of
life after the Oval Office, including pension and Secret Service protection.
“If the
Republican party has become nothing more than the party of Trump,” she said, “I
sincerely question whether this is the party for me.”
If she did,
the Senate would tip further from the Republicans. It is now split 50-50, two
Democratic wins in Georgia runoffs this week giving control via the casting
vote of the vice-president-elect, Kamala Harris.
Twitter’s
move to ban Trump came on Friday evening. The company, which had previously
removed Trump tweets, cited repeated violations of rules and risks including
the “further incitement of violence”.
Twitter
said two tweets sent on Friday were “highly likely to encourage and inspire
people to replicate the criminal acts that took place at the US Capitol”. Plans
for “future armed protests” were spreading, the company warned, “including a
proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on 17
January”.
A 7ft
“non-scalable” fence was being erected around the Capitol, where it was set to
remain for at least 30 days. A state of emergency was declared in Washington,
until the day after the inauguration. More than 6,200 national guard personnel
would be in the city this weekend, Mayor Muriel Bowser said.
Amid
widespread anger over how easily the rioters gained entry to the Capitol, some
who broadcast their activities on social media or were photographed in the act
have been arrested.
In Seattle
on Friday night, the interim police chief said two city officers were
apparently in Washington on Wednesday. The officers, who were not identified,
were placed on administrative leave.
In a
statement, Adrian Diaz said “events that unfolded at the US Capitol were
unlawful and resulted in the death of another police officer”. Officer Brian
Sicknick, 42, was reportedly struck in the head with a fire extinguisher while
“physically engaging” rioters. He collapsed and later died in hospital. About
60 officers were reported injured.
Andrew
Myerberg, director of the Seattle Office of Police Accountability, told the
Seattle Times: “There’s a picture that circulated on social media of the two
officers at the protest rally. So, yes, we believe they were there, but we
don’t know all the facts yet, so that’s why we’re doing the investigation.”
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