60 seconds' difference on US Capitol raid could have ended in 'a martial state': Congresswoman
US progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has censured the January takeover of Capitol building by staunch supporters of former President Donald Trump, saying that a 60-second difference during the violent raid could have ended in “a martial state.”
Ocasio-Cortez said in remarks published on Friday that the attack by pro-Trump demonstrators on January 6 was an “all-out attempted coup,” and elaborated on the ways in which former Vice President Mike Pence's safety was jeopardized and the implications the riot could have had on the election certification process.
“Pence was taken out of the Senate chamber something like 60 seconds before these terrorists, insurrectionists got into the Senate chamber,” the congresswoman said.
“Mike Pence was the one person, arguably, that had one of the most important roles in making sure that procedurally the Electoral College counts went on as proceeded. Sixty seconds could have meant potentially the difference between what we have right now and a martial state,” she added.
On the day of the attack, and before the raid was carried out, Trump told his loyalists in Washington, DC to show their support for him and asked them to "stop the steal" as lawmakers were in the process of confirming his defeat in the 2020 US presidential race.
Video footage taken on January 6 showed hoards of rioters in the building chanting “Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!” and gallows with nooses were also made outside of the Capitol.
“If 60 seconds went differently, if a different door was opened, if a chair wasn't barricaded in a certain way, we could have a completely different reality right now. ... We don't want to acknowledge that that's how close we got, but that is how close we got,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Describing the riot as an “extraordinarily traumatizing event,” four months on, Ocasio-Cortez said, “The cycle has just been moved on, but it has deeply, deeply affected lawmaking, policy making. It has impacted the actual legislative process, the aftermath of it. And it's very quiet, it's not spoken about.”
The assault, which left five people dead, including a member of law enforcement, prompted a historic second impeachment trial against Trump, but the Republican-controlled Senate acquitted the former president.
So far, more than 300 individuals from the mob have been charged on criminal counts ranging from conspiracy to attacking police and obstructing Congress.
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