Capitol Hill Storming: A Brief Explanation to The Storming

Ada beberapa berita besar yang telah terjadi di awal tahun 2021 ini. Salah satunya adalah berita mancanegara yang menggegerkan dari Washington DC, Amerika Serikat. Ya, berita kerusuhan yang terjadi di Gedung Capitol/Capitol Hill Building yang terjadi pada Rabu (06/01) minggu lalu. Berita ini membuat semua orang geger karena para perusuh berhasil menjebol ke dalam gedung tersebut.

Sebaliknya, Engliven membawa berita baik di awal tahun ini. Ada promo untuk kelas SpeakToSpark yang mengajak kalian untuk tetap produktif dan aktif menambah kemampuan terutama dalam berbicara bahasa Inggris di awal tahun ini.

Nah, pada hari Rabu siang pada minggu lalu pada waktu setempat, (6/1/2021) telah terjadi penyerbuan di Gedung Capitol, Capitol Hill, Washington DC. Massa yang melakukan penyerbuan merupakan kelompok pendukung garis keras Presiden AS Donald Trump. Mereka menerobos masuk ke dalam gedung di mana para anggota Kongres AS sedang melakukan pengesahan pemenang Pemilu AS 2020, Joe Biden. Aksi tersebut berujung ricuh dan mengakibatkan penetapan Joe Biden sebagai pemenang Pemilu Presiden AS yang berikutnya harus tertunda.

A Brief Background

The 59th US presidential election was held on November 3rd, 2020. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the use of postal ballots in every state gets more abundant. However, people can still come to the voting place to vote. At the same time, Trump asks American citizens to vote in the voting place as he assumed that the postal ballots could result in voter fraud.

The representatives of the Democratic Party, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris dominated votes with 306 projected electoral votes. They receive the most popular vote which surpasses 270 votes, being the highest number of popular votes in the history of the US elections. Because of the election’s results, Trump has filed lawsuits in several states since he considered the election to be rife with missing ballots and fraudulent acts.

The Rising Action

According to NBC News, Trump’s lawsuit against the election results has been shot down or withdrawn in multiple places. No court has found a single instance of fraud in alleged states, such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Mexico, Minnesota, Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia. Moreover, it has been found that the lawsuit was based upon vague and unsupported allegations or unsubstantiated claims.

However, after the declaration of the election winner, Trump’s campaign efforts still moved from state to state to overturn Joe Biden’s win. Furthermore, all of those efforts were in vain as they were unsuccessful to turn the result in Trump’s favor. As a result, since the election results were published, hardline Trump supporters incited violence and chaos in multiple places due to their unacceptance of the election results.

The Climax to Capitol Hill Riot

As we know, Trump is still seeking to overturn the result of the election. Prior to the suspension of his social media accounts, Trump’s tweets on Twitter roused supporters in his claims toward the fraudulent election. Those tweets consisted of false claims and conspiracy theories regarding the election, one of them being that the election had been “stolen” from him.

On Wednesday (6/1/2021), the US Congress members held a meeting to announce the Presidential-election winner officially. The votes from every state were collected to the Congress for the formalization of the President-elect Joe Biden. However, Trump was unwavering in his beliefs that the election had been sabotaged. As a result, he agitated his supporters to storm the Capitol Building during the formalization process to regain his “victory”.

The Storming of US Capitol Building

According to The Washington Post, on Wednesday (6/1/2021), Trump told thousands of his supporters, which gathered on the Ellipse in front of the White House, that this was the last stand. He urged his supporters to not lose in the election result and ensure a second term for Trump. Therefore, this was the moment when the mob, motivated by Trump’s words, to storm the Capitol Building.

Trump supporters demanded that Trump should be the President again. The supporters marched down to the US Capitol Building and stormed the location while waving Confederate flags and yelling while the Congress held a joint session to count the result of the election. The rioters ransacked the Senate office and disrupted the Electoral College vote count during the joint session.

Some people said the storming was an act of terrorism and rebellion. The rioters’ attack caused members of Congress to evacuate the Capitol building from the dangers of the storming. The rioters were disorderly during the attack, which caused confusion from the authorities. As a result, the attack caused the deaths of five people before the storming was halted by the authorities.

Aftermath

Due to the storming, social media corporations from Facebook to Twitter suspended Trump’s accounts because of his role during the storming. On January 8, Twitter suspended Trump’s Twitter account due to the fear of further violence since the storming. The company said that the suspension was “due to the risk of further incitement of violence”.

Because of their actions, the authorities charged and arrested the rioters who broke through the building and conducted violence. According to Now This, the authorities charged the rioters with federal charges including theft, disorderly conduct, and being in a restricted area without authorization.

Vocabulary Corner

Now then, how was the article that you read just now? Did you have any confusion about certain vocabularies in the article? If so, you can check a list of words below that can help you:

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