Republicans say Capitol attack is ‘legitimate expression’

DAmerican Republicans have called the violent storming of the Capitol a “legitimate political expression.” According to American media, a party convention in Salt Lake City on Friday approved a resolution formally reprimanding Republican MPs Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their work on the investigative committee into the Capitol attack.

Cheney and Kinzinger participated in a Democrat-led “persecution” of ordinary citizens who have exercised their right to legitimate political expression, the resolution said. With their work, the two Republicans supported the misuse of educational work by the Democrats for political purposes. Cheney and Kinzinger are the only Republicans on the House of Representatives panel. The Republican leadership in Parliament refused to cooperate with the Democrats in solving the attack.

Pence: President Trump is wrong

After an inciting speech by the then Republican President Donald Trump, his supporters stormed the seat of Congress in the capital Washington on January 6, 2021. They wanted to prevent the confirmation of the election victory of the Democrat Joe Biden. The attack killed five people and injured dozens.

Before the vote, Cheney said, referring to Trump, that the party had willingly “held itself hostage” to a man who wanted to overturn the results of a presidential election and who had suggested that the January 6 attackers should be pardoned. She was conservative and adhered to the constitution, she continued on Twitter. Kinzinger criticized Republicans for losing sight of reality in the face of “conspiracy theories” and a “toxic” culture of obedience. Republican Senator Mitt Romney, who is critical of Trump, said the crackdown on Cheney and Kinzinger was a “disgrace.”

Meanwhile, former US Vice President Mike Pence has contradicted Donald Trump in no uncertain terms about the 2020 election. “I heard this week that President Trump said I had the right to overturn the election. President Trump is wrong, I had no right to overturn the election,” Pence said during an appearance in Florida. “Under the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election,” the Republican continued. And Vice President Kamala Harris will have no right to overturn the election result if the Republicans beat the Democrats in the 2024 presidential election.

Pence had refused to give in to Trump’s pressure to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the November 3 presidential election. Trump wanted to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory at the last minute. Pence had already declared at the time that his oath to protect the constitution did not allow him to do so. Trump has therefore approached his former deputy publicly several times. He had distanced himself from Trump in the past. However, it is the first time that he contradicts Trump with such clear words.

In Washington, it has long been suspected that Pence himself may have ambitions to run as a Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential election. Should Trump also declare his candidacy, the two would compete against each other as competitors in the internal party competition. Vice Presidents play only a ceremonial role in officially confirming the results of the election in Congress.