Introduction: 

During the session of when Congress was certifying the victory for Former Vice President Joe Biden and California Senator Kamala Harris, Trump orchestrated a planned protest to stop the certification of the 2020 Presidential Election. Trump and other members of his supporters claimed that the election was rigged, which has been debunked and refuted multiple times. However, Trump told his supporters to go to the Congress to support the blocking of the certification, even if legislatively the Vice President has to read the electoral votes. However, the protest quickly became a riot and Trump adherents stormed the capital with the congressional members having to go into lockdown. So what exactly caused this and what occurred during these riots?

Election Fraud Claims:

Throughout the last couple of months after the election result, Joe Biden was clearly going to become the next president of the United States. Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in his re-election bid by 306-232 electoral votes. Donald Trump immediately after the election consistently claimed that there was fraud in the election, and therefore the results were illegitimate in his opinion. Trump and his allies continued a legal course of action, wanting to dispute results in states that were tipping points for Joe Biden. These states included Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin with many other lawsuits in other contested states. 

Many lawsuits were filed against the state election board, or even the states themselves for the belief that there was fraud in the votes. The Trump Campaign and his allies launched 62 election lawsuits. Almost all of the lawsuits were rejected by the courts, with 61 of the lawsuits fizzling out, or not even being accepted by court. Even the conservative leaning Supreme Court rejected a Texas based lawsuit that would be contested in the election. All of these events caused the results to not be challenged in any sense of the word. 

Chaos in Georgia: 

In the current swing state of Georgia, Biden narrowly won the state by 0.24%. This election was extremely close and was a difference of a little bit more over 10,000 votes. Since the race was less than 0.5%, under Georgia law there had to be an automatic recount. The recount still showed Biden with a lead in the state which concluded the race as no more recounts were being done, and the clear victor was Joe Biden. 

However, Trump later called the Republican Secretary of State of Georgia, Brad Raffensberger, on the phone about the election results. On the phone, Trump said: “So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.” This was pressuring the Secretary of State to find votes due to Trump’s insistent beliefs that he won the state, and that it was stolen from him. Later on the next couple of days, Republicans lost both Georgia Senate Runoffs, meaning that Democrats had control of the U.S. Senate with the tie-breaking being Vice-President Kamala Harris. 

The Set-Up For Trump’s Protest:

On Twitter, Trump stated that it was “statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election,” and that there will be a “Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, it will be wild!” on December 20th. Trump wanted to stage a protest intentionally on the day that Congress was going to certify or record the electoral vote. Trump encouraged the initial protest at the capitol due to supporting the Stop the Steal Movement, a right-wing that believed that the election was stolen. Trump gave a speech, which concluded that he wanted his base to go to the capitol building where the vote was being held. 

Quickly Gone Into Insurrection:

The local police of D.C. were guarding the capitol building from the protesters. The protesters were carrying Trump flags and were trying to charge at the capital. At that point, the supporters succeeded in their mission to charge the capital building, and quickly became violent. This caused the storming of the capitol building with several far-right Trump loyalists seizing upon the capitol halls, causing mass destruction. This eventually caused the Congressional buildings to be locked down and several representatives had to be sent to a safe location. 

Due to the breaking due to the police lines, the building became wide open, and caused the senate to have to halt their vote for confirming President-Elect Joe Biden. During the shutdown of Congress, the hallways were getting stormed, there were sounds of gunshots, and the opening of Congressional offices. This was furthered by the storming of the Senate Room, and the room of Nancy Pelosi being invaded. It showed the extent of the invasion occurring in the capital. Eventually, the capitol was eventually secured by law enforcement and the senate vote and house vote were continued at the very end of the day. 

Aftermath:

The confirmation of the vote in Congress was widely completed. This meant that Joe Biden was confirmed to become President of the United States with future vice-president Kamala Harris. However, several house Democrats called for Trump’s actions to be punished due to their belief that would be extremely questionable. Therefore, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that Articles of Impeachment would be put onto the house floor. Eventually, the House vote concluded that Trump committed impeachable offenses with a vote of 232 to 197. 10 Republicans and All House Democrats who were on the floor supported the resolution. 

For future reference, this meant that Trump will face a conviction trial in the Senate, even after his term would be complete, and as written in this article will not be decided at this point. This means that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Future Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will control most of the process of the impeachment.

Conclusion:

In the end, the riots of the capital show the great political instability in the Country, and the means of people wanting to control the role of the presidency. Again, rhetorical has severe consequences on what is espoused, and word matter because they could incite others to complete dark deeds.