President-elect Joe Biden and former President George W Bush have both condemned the “insurrection” at the U.S. Capitol today as “heartbreaking and sickening.”
The former Republican president released a statement saying, “This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic – not our democratic republic. I am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election and by the lack of respect shown today for our institutions, our traditions.”
The US Capitol Historical Society says this was the first time the Capitol has been physically broken into since 1814, when British soldiers stormed the space as part of the war of 1812.
Like Bush, President-elect Joe Biden called the rioting “insurrection” and “chaos.”
“What we’re seeing is a small number of extremists dedicated to lawlessness. This is not dissent, it’s disorder, it’s chaos. It borders on sedition. And it must end, now,” Biden said from The Queen theater in Wilmington, Delaware. “I call on this mob to pull back now and allow the work of democracy to go forward.”
Biden said the rioting, in which protesters smashed windows and rummaged through Senate desks, didn’t reflect the true America.
Rioters swarmed the Capitol, storming the House and Senate chambers on the second floor of the building, shouting and waving flags.
At least one entered the Senate chamber and shouted from the dais, “Trump won the election!”
“At this hour, our democracy is under unprecedented assault, unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times, an assault on the citadel of liberty, the Capitol itself; an assault on the people’s representatives, the Capitol Hill police, sworn to protect them; the public servants who work at the heart of our republic; an assault on the rule of law like few times we’ve ever seen it,” Biden said.
After Biden left the stage, he returned to express confidence in his inauguration.
“I am not concerned about my safety, security or the inauguration,” Biden said. “The American people are going to stand up now. Enough is enough is enough.”