EDMONTON -- Political and security experts are “astounded” that armed rioters managed to breach one of the most secure buildings in the U.S., disrupting congressional deliberations over challenges to Joe Biden's Electoral College victory, making history in the process.
"I'm humiliated for my country today, this is really a low point in American history,” Tom Nichols, U.S. Naval War College University Professor, told CTV News Channel Wednesday as images of Capitol police, guns drawn, barricading the doors of the House Chamber emerged online.
Lawmakers were rushed from the chamber Wednesday afternoon after supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the building in a chaotic protest aimed at thwarting a peaceful transfer of power.
Footage showed “unprecedented chaos” unfolding inside the Capitol as rioters smashed windows, vandalized lawmakers’ offices, put their feet up on desks, and replaced the American flag with Trump banners.
Though some described the scene as an attempted coup, experts say the protest was egged on by President Donald Trump who continued to falsely claim electoral victory.
"I think we're just witnessing mob violence. To call it a coup would mean it would have direction,” Nichols said Wednesday.
Others note that continued protest and threats of violence over the results of the 2020 presidential election have been fuelled by disinformation and unfounded claims of voter fraud, much of which the president himself has shared.
“[Trump] was in several instances inciting these types of protests that are really undermining democracy,” Keesha Middlemass, associate professor of political science at Howard University, told CTV News Channel Wednesday.
“It is an attack on the very heart of democracy in the United States.”
Middlemass noted that to end violent shows of support for the outgoing president, the incoming president must work with the Republican party to dispel the disinformation Trump has been spreading.
“Because of the lies, the disinformation, the conspiracy theories, there are millions of people in the United States right now that believe the election was stolen from President Trump,” she said.
“We have to figure out how to change people’s beliefs. Biden and Harris are really going to have to do a lot of explaining and talking about the validity of the election. But also you have to have more Republicans, elected officials particularly on the Republican side, stand up and disavow the lies that is instigating this type of process.”
Security experts marvelled at how the mob managed to breach the Capitol, one of the most secure buildings in Washington, next to the White House.
"We have to remember how difficult it is to get into a state building like that with firearms. It’s near impossible, I don’t know how they did it,” said Black Lives Matter Canada co-founder Sandy Hudson.
"People have decided, ‘we don’t care about the democratic process, we don't care that we lost.’”
Jeanne Meserve, senior fellow at the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute and CTV News international security correspondent, noted there were distinct differences between the reaction to Wednesday’s riot and the Black Lives Matter protests last summer.
"It seems almost incomprehensible to me that the authorities knew that there were thousands of people descending on the Capitol; there were threats of violence; there were promises that they were going to try to bring guns,” Meserve told CTV News Channel Wednesday.
“They were not quiet about what their intentions were, and yet the authorities seem to be totally unprepared for the strength and numbers of people on capitol hill today."
She noted there is a “direct contrast” between Wednesday’s events and the summer’s protests.
“The official reaction was much more harsh, and the vast majority of those protests were also peaceful,” she said.
President-elect Joe Biden addressed the nation Wednesday afternoon, decrying what he described as an “attack on democracy and an assault on the rule of law.”
“[Today’s events] do not reflect a true America… do not reflect who we are,” said Biden, calling on Trump to demand an end to the protests immediately.
“To storm the capital, to smash windows… threatening the safety of duly elected officials is not protest its insurrection.”
Shortly after, Trump posted a video to his Twitter account telling supporters to “go home,” while continuing to claim the election results were fraudulent.
