Governor Gavin Newsom canceled a press conference on Covid-19 “very cautiously”, calling the chaos “reprehensible and a direct attack on our democracy and democratic institutions”.
“We always knew that this responsibility would carry us through the night,” wrote Mayor of San Francisco, Nancy Pelosi, in a letter calling on her colleagues to meet on Wednesday night after the crowd, whipped by the offended president , postponed the formal certification of the Election 2020 for more than six hours. “We also knew that we would be part of the story.”
There was also fear: Ms. Pelosi, a frequent target of the president and his supporters, wrote that the episode presented a “shameful image of our country” that was “instigated at the highest level”. The dispatch left a safe place, where security officials took her and other members of Congress after the imposing government building turned into chaos.
In his absence, invaders plundered his office in search of trophies. The Ars Technica website reported that a conservative Web host The Blaze tweeted and then deleted photos from Pelosi’s desk, exulting that “e-mails are still on the screen next to a federal alert alerting members of the current revolution.”
Another invader was photographed with his feet on her table. “WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN,” said the note he left, scrawled on a manila folder. Later, he was outside the Capitol, his shirt open and his chest bare, and boasted of my colleague Matthew Rosenberg about taking your government stationery. He insisted that he did not steal it, saying, “I left a 25-cent coin on her table.”
California Republicans also condemned the mob, some later than others. Only two of the House Republicans – Deputies Young Kim of Orange County and Tom McClintock of Elk Grove – made it clear before Wednesday that they would confirm the election, disregarding the president’s pleas.
Earlier this week, Congressman Mike Garcia, who represents the high desert regions of northern Los Angeles County, echoed the president’s disinformation in an opinion piece, saying “fraud needs to be eradicated”. By mid-Wednesday afternoon, he was tweeting: “This behavior is not patriotism. It’s sedition. “