Rep. Ayanna Pressley: ‘We have been cleaning the violent mobs of white supremacy for generations and this must end’

Rep. Ayanna Pressley: ‘We have been cleaning the violent mobs of white supremacy for generations and this must end’

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“One of the images that haunt me is the black custodian team cleaning up the mess left by that violent white supremacist mob,” the Massachusetts Democrat told CNN’s Jake Tapper in “State of the Union” on Sunday, reflecting on his experience on Capitol Hill during the deadly siege on January 6.

“This is a metaphor for America. We have been cleaning up the violent mobs of white supremacy for generations and this should end.”

Flags, signs and symbols from racist, white supremacy and extremist groups were displayed along with Trump 2020 banners and American flags during the uprising last month. It took such an “agonizing and traumatic” event, Pressley told Tapper, for many Americans to begin to recognize the threat of white supremacy.
The congresswoman’s comments came at a time when the Senate is preparing to hear the arguments of Trump’s impeachment trial, where the chamber will consider whether to condemn him or absolve him on a single charge of “inciting insurrection”. While the former president is due to be acquitted a second time, Pressley asked his colleagues in Congress to hold Trump accountable.

“If we really believe that this is a moment of reckoning in every way, we must act accordingly, and that means that Donald J. Trump should be held responsible because he is guilty of inciting this insurrection by perpetuating this ‘big lie’ “she said in reference to Trump’s false allegations of widespread electoral fraud and that the election was stolen from him.

“This House has done its job twice. It will forever be the president twice impeachment by this House led by the Democratic majority,” she continued.

But it is not just a matter of impeachment or getting the Capitol, said the congresswoman.

“For those who continue to pretend a big surprise at what happened on January 6th. As a black woman, being locked in my office, using office furniture and water bottles on the floor in the dark that terror, those moments of terror, are familiar in a profound and ancestral way to me, “said Pressley, referring to to the racial history of black Americans in the United States.

“I want us to do everything we can to ensure that a violation like this never occurs on Capitol Hill, but I want us to face the evil and scourge that is white supremacy in this nation. It’s not just about protecting Capitol to ensure that members and our teams and custodians and food service workers are safe on Capitol. We are safe in America. “

CNN previously reported that white Americans are receiving coronavirus vaccines at much higher rates than blacks and Latin Americans, although data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that blacks and Latin Americans are already dying. of Covid-19 three times the rate of whites and hospitalization at a rate four times higher.

Weighing these disparities on Sunday, Pressley said that while she is encouraged by a national distribution strategy, she thinks more needs to be done.

“We knew from the beginning which communities would be hit the most because of unequal access to health care and the comorbidities of structural racism,” she told Tapper.

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