ASU professor says people should be ‘very concerned’ after Capitol siege
Jan 8, 2021, 4:45 AM | Updated: 7:34 am
FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo, Trump supporters try to break through a police barrier at the Capitol in Washington. The U.S. registered its highest deaths yet from the coronavirus on the same day as a mob attack on the nation’s capitol laid bare some of the same, deep political divisions that have hampered the battle against the pandemic. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
(AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
PHOENIX — The breach of the U.S. Capitol building Wednesday by supporters of President Donald Trump shows “we’re in a really volatile period in our history,” according to an Arizona State University history professor.
“It’s unprecedented at least since the Civil War,” said Donald Critchlow, who specializes in American political history. “I think we should all be very concerned and take a step back, stop the obsession with Trump … and see that there are larger issues involved.”
Members of Congress were meeting to ratify President-elect Joe Biden’s win over Trump when the president’s supporters stormed the nation’s Capitol, forcing lawmakers into hiding.
After several hours, the National Guard and state and federal police helped clear the building. The mob left behind broken windows, hallways littered with trash and ransacked offices.
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A woman who was part of a crowd that was breaking down the doors to a barricaded room was killed by police and three others died from medical emergencies.
“What this violence reflects — and should be heavily condemned — is a growing and perhaps irreparable loss of confidence in our institutions,” Critchlow said. “Ultimately, democracy doesn’t work if people don’t have confidence in the institutions.”
He added Trump’s legacy is going to be marred by the actions of his supporters on Wednesday.
“Whatever accomplishments he achieved in the White House — and there were many — this is going to be part of his legacy,” Critchlow said. “I think this is very unfortunate for President Trump and for his many supporters.”
The storming of the U.S. Capitol also has “left the Republican Party in tatters” and members of Congress who support Trump vulnerable, according to Critchlow.
“It’s going to take a while for things to repair themselves,” he added.
The U.S. Capitol has been overrun only one other time in history. In 1814, British troops started a fire inside the building.
Critchlow also noted Puerto Rican nationalists entered the House gallery inside the Capitol in the 1950s and began firing at members of Congress, though he added those acts of violence “were not done in the name of the U.S. Constitution.”
“What happened on Wednesday was really unprecedented — the storming of Congress,” he said. “It suggests something larger in this country that’s going on that’s not very healthy for our entire nation.”
