More Republicans are weighing in to condemn the attack – and the president’s rhetoric.
North Carolina Senator Richard Burr placed the blame on Trump.
“The President bears responsibility for today’s events by promoting the unfounded conspiracy theories that have led to this point.”
Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming also said there was “no question that the president formed the mob, the president incited the mob, the president addressed the mob. He lit the flame.”
Her fellow congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington State said she has now decided to vote to uphold Joe Biden’s win, calling today’s incidents “unlawful and unacceptable” as she urged Trump “to condemn and put an end to this madness”.
Colorado’s state Republican leadership also condemned the mob attack, “just as we condemned the actions of protesters at our own Colorado State Capitol this past spring” amid Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
And the national Republican Party communications director Michael Ahrens wrote on Twitter that the attack amounted to “domestic terrorism”.
“Our soldiers have died carrying the American flag into battle for our freedom. To see that flag used in the name of unfounded conspiracy theories is a disgrace to the nation, and every decent American should be disgusted by it.”
Donald Trump’s message to protesters as they attacked the US Capitol has been taken down by Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
Trump had called for his supporters to go home, but also reiterated false claims about election fraud.
Facebook said: “We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.”
Before the violence, President Trump had told supporters on the National Mall in Washington that the election had been stolen.
Hours later, as the violence mounted inside and outside the US Capitol, he appeared on video and repeated the false claim.
YouTube said it removed the video because it “violated policies on spreading election fraud”.
Twitter initially didn’t take down the video, removing the ability to retweet, like and comment on it and another tweet.
However, it later removed them.
Twitter said: “We have been significantly restricting engagement with Tweets labelled under our Civic Integrity Policy due to the risk of violence”.
Facebook told the BBC: “The violent protests in the Capitol today are a disgrace. We prohibit incitement and calls for violence on our platform. We are actively reviewing and removing any content that breaks these rules.”
Facebook also said it is currently looking for and removing content that incited or supported the storming of Capitol Hill.
The march was partly organised online, including on Facebook groups and pages.
Twitter has just announced President Donald Trump’s account will be locked for the next 12 hours due to his tweets about the election earlier today.
“As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, DC, we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy,” the social platform said.
If Trump does not remove the three tweets in violation, the account will remain locked.
Twitter also warned that future violations of integrity or threat policies “will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account”.
BBC
