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Fresh Republican congressman quotes Martin Luther King Jr. before equating violent uprising with Black Lives Matter protests

Mace was recently sworn in for his first term after winning a race for Congress in South Carolina with Trump’s endorsement. But she has sharply criticized the president in recent days for his role in inciting the deadly uprising.

Mace said on Wednesday that although the House has “every right” to impeach the president, she believes that the way the impeachment is taking place raises “questions about the constitutionality of this process”.

She continued, “I believe that we need to hold the president accountable. I also believe that we need to hold each person accountable, even members of Congress, if they contributed to the violence that has occurred here.”

Mace then quoted Martin Luther King Jr. before trying to draw a match between last week’s violent coup attempt on Capitol Hill and the anti-racism demonstrations that swept the country last year after George Floyd’s death by the police.

“If we are serious about resolving the divisions in this country, Republicans and Democrats need to recognize that this is not the first day of violence,” she said. “Our words have consequences … there is violence on both sides of the corridor.”

Fact check: The overwhelming majority – 93%, according to a report – of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 were peaceful. And while a small minority of protesters were involved in riots and looting, both protesters and thousands of peaceful protesters were met in many cases with a hyper-aggressive police response.

Perhaps in the most notorious example, the Secret Service and law enforcement officials were seen using tear gas and pepper spray on peaceful protesters in Washington, DC, to make way for a presidential photo.

But last week, the pro-Trump crowd besieged the Capitol building as Congress tried to ratify the presidential election in a direct attack on democracy. Republican lawmakers tried to combine looting and skirmishes with the police in social justice protests and a coordinated violent attack instigated by the president.

In the siege, one Capitol Police officer was seen taking selfies with violent pro-Trump rebels, while another was seen directing them around the Capitol as they broke into the building. Additional reports since the riot revealed that many members of the crowd itself were active police and ex-military personnel.