House representatives gathered on January 6 of 2021 to verify the election after the integrity of the voting process had been challenged by the current president Donald J Trump. There had been further turmoil between the Vice President and the President after Vice President Pence refused to rig the verdict if it wasn’t made in the President’s favor. Later that  day Pence released a statement saying he had no power to overturn the ruling to whoever the election was approved to “It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,” 

Regardless of loyalties Pence was able to see that he took an oath and that nobody is above the law or the constitution, even if it doesn’t go in your favor. Trump’s reaction was one of betrayal because Pence was unwilling to bend the rules for him that he would have to take matters into his own hands. He began tweeting and spewing false and baseless accusations about the election process like he has been doing since Election Day and calling on his supporters via Twitter saying, “Mike pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not The fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!” After that tweet went live later in the afternoon, Trump supporters started to gather outside Capitol Hill in “peaceful protest” where people chanted “stop the steel” and waved confederate and Trump flags- blindly supporting a cause that doesn’t exist. The “protest” quickly turned into a mob and then a riot. Capitol police held them off as long as they could, one even losing their life. Windows were broken, offices vandalized and people killed. Senators Congresswomen and men huddled in rooms scared for their lives. The events on January 6 will forever be remembered as one of the darkest days in American history. Americans watched in horror while the whole world couldn’t believe what was unfolding in front of their eyes; all of this because of a man who said he won even if the votes proved otherwise.

 How could we let it get this bad? We let our fellow Americans become our enemies. They left a stain on our democracy that can’t simply be wiped away. There isn’t just one person to blame either, this country has always been divided whether it’s red and blue, or colored and white. We are the United States of America and we need to start acting like it or our division will be the reason for our demise.

[photo credit: the nation.com]