‘The president sent the people down here.’ Cleaver describes scene at Capitol after riot
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver watched in horror from his office as rioters pried open the Capitol doors with crowbars in what the Kansas City congressman called the “first attempted coup in modern history of the country.”
Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat and early supporter of President-elect Joe Biden, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to limit the number of people inside the House chamber because of COVID-19 also helped keep lawmakers and staff safe as a group of President Donald Trump’s supporters violently disrupted a Congressional debate on Electoral College results.
Under Pelosi’s rules, members were allowed in the chamber in groups of 25 to participate in the debate. Cleaver was in his office waiting for his turn when he saw the riot scene on television.
“The Frankenstein just tore down the doors to the palace. We are witnessing the destruction of a Frankenstein that could pull down this country,” said Cleaver, referencing Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel to describe what unfolded after many of his Republican colleagues spent weeks disputing Biden’s victory.
Cleaver, the chairman of the House Civility Caucus, has long championed bipartisan cooperation and even-tempered debate. But as he sheltered in place Wednesday, the Kansas City congressman was despondent about the prospects for restoring civil politics to the country.
“One third of the nation has bought into a bald-faced lie and they are living in a fact-free America,” Cleaver said.
Cleaver said the president, who has refused to concede and spoke to a rally shortly before his supporters breached the Capitol, absolutely deserved blame for what transpired.
“The president sent the people down here. That’s an uncontestable fact that I think history will record. I happen to have been listening to him when he did it,” Cleaver said.
The congressman was more reluctant to condemn Missouri colleagues who have backed the effort to object Biden’s victory.
Five House Republicans from Missouri— Reps. Sam Graves, Vicky Hartzler, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Jason Smith and Billy Long— announced their support for objections to Biden’s electors from swing states.
Hartzler issued a comment Wednesday evening condemning the violence and using similar terminology as Cleaver to describe the scene.
“The violent rioting on Capitol Hill is appalling and must stop! These so-called protesters have exhibited behavior one would expect to witness during a third world coup. This disgusting behavior is not representative of what we stand for as a country,” Hartzler said in the statement.
“This is thuggery and violators must be punished to the fullest extent allowed under federal law. We cannot heal our divides as a nation if this lawlessness persists.”
Hartzler’s office did not immediately say whether the riot would cause the congresswoman to reconsider her support for the objection to Biden’s electors.
Cleaver said he hoped his Missouri colleagues would reconsider their involvement in the effort.
He said that Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, the first senator to announce plans to object to Biden’s victory, had helped inflame passions before Wednesday, but that “tough words of condemnation will come better from Republicans than coming from some liberal Democrat.”
Cleaver has served as international election observer in Haiti and Turkey on behalf of the U.S. government in the past. He questioned which countries would continue to want help from the U.S. in administering their elections after Wednesday’s events.
The riot came a day after Democrat Raphael Warnock, senior pastor at Martin Luther King, Jr.’s former congregation, became the first Black senator elected in the state of Georgia after winning a runoff election against Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler.
Cleaver, the first African American mayor of Kansas City and a fellow minister, had posted on Twitter about how when Warnock was born in 1969 both of Georgia’s senators were segregationists.
But a day after this victory for Black representation, rioters attempted to thwart the counting of electoral votes based on conspiracy theories promoted by Trump that have largely centered on swing states cities with large Black populations.
“With great intentionality the president and his supporters have directed their ire toward areas in the country that are essentially minority areas: Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia,” Cleaver said.
“I think the reason that they chose to do that is because it’s easy to get people to believe that the other is trying to take over the country,” Cleaver said. “I think that anybody who is… still walking around with anger or hostility about the election should know that is in many ways surrendering their power to the dark side.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2021 at 6:59 PM with the headline "‘The president sent the people down here.’ Cleaver describes scene at Capitol after riot."
