‘Shameful’ and ‘disturbing’: Modesto-area leaders react to storming of DC Capitol
Modesto-area leaders on Wednesday expressed their shock at and condemnation of the rioters who pushed past police lines and occupied the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., in an effort to halt the certification of the November presidential election.
“It’s a very sad, tragic day in America,” said former Stanislaus County supervisor Kristin Olsen, a Republican. “I feel like it’s been stirring and brewing for some time now, and it’s just erupted into total chaos and madness today.”
The rioters, encouraged on social media by President Donald Trump, lay siege to the building for hours, smashing windows and scaling walls to gain access. Members of Congress were eventually evacuated from both chambers, and CNN reported one woman was fatally shot during the incursion.
The National Guard, as well as federal law enforcement agents and state troopers from Virginia and Maryland, were eventually called to the scene and the Capitol was deemed “secure” shortly before the city’s emergency 6 p.m. curfew took effect.
U.S. Rep. Josh Harder (D-Turlock) was not in the Capitol at the time the rioters entered the building, but about a mile away, waiting to cast a vote about the Electoral College results. In a phone interview with the Bee, Harder said one of his staff members was inside the Capitol and was able to seek shelter, remaining unhurt.
“Elected officials need to make very clear that the people who engage in this violence should be held accountable,” Harder told the Bee Wednesday. “It’s not patriotic; it’s unlawful, and they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
Throughout the day, similar events began unfolding at statehouses across the country, including protests in Sacramento that led Gov. Gavin Newsom to cancel his scheduled briefing regarding the state of the COVID-19 pandemic in California.
Olsen said the violence incited by the rioters “cannot be tolerated, and that she found the president’s approval of the actions “particularly disturbing and shameful.”
Trump encouraged the rioters at a rally Wednesday morning, and has continued to praise those who stormed the Capitol in a series of posts on Twitter that have since been either affixed with warning labels or removed entirely by the platform.
Ripon Republican assemblyman Heath Flora weighs in
Since the November election, where Trump was defeated by former vice president Joe Biden, the president has refused to accept the outcome of the vote and has continually pushed baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, echoed by a number of his Republican colleagues and members of the right-wing media.
Olsen called Trump’s response to the day’s events “lukewarm” and “completely inadequate.” The president at different times told the rioters to “go home” but also that they were “very special.”
“We love you,” he said in a video message.
“These actions have been incited over time by an American president, a president who acts like a child who refuses to accept election results, despite the fact that courts, and even his own attorney general has said there’s no evidence to support his claims of massive fraud that would overturn the election,” Olsen said. “These words and behaviors from the President have ultimately led to today’s chaotic mob mentality. And it has to be condemned; this is not America.”
Assemblyman Heath Flora (R-Ripon), similarly condemned the violent nature of the rioters.
He said he feels as though the freedoms and rights inherent in American democracy are “being exploited for political reasons,” and urged Trump to “take a strong stance” against those who stormed the Capitol and ensure a peaceful transfer of power. He stressed the importance of that process, saying that although instances of election fraud should be found out and corrected, “we cannot sacrifice our institutions, we have to protect what has always made America amazing.”
“I have always defended the rights of people to protest, to express themselves, but I absolutely never have and will never condone violence in order to deliver a political message, no matter what side of the aisle is doing it,” he said. “It’s sad.”
Flora said he was supportive of Newsom’s decision to act out of an abundance of caution and cancel his pandemic briefing, and Olsen told the Bee she would have wanted the governor to hold the briefing remotely, in order to show “strength, leadership and (an) unwillingness to back down in the face of intolerable chaos and violence.”
In Stanislaus County, Sheriff Jeff Dirkse told the Bee that the department does not expect any immediate protests in response to the events in D.C. Turlock Mayor Amy Bublak told the Bee in a written statement that she is “focused on our city.”
“I support people’s rights to peacefully protest and freedom of speech but abhor violence in any fashion,” she said.
Stanislaus County’s local chapter of the NAACP on Wednesday supported calls by its national organization to impeach Trump following the insurrection. In a news release, the national NAACP said it “calls for President Trump’s immediate impeachment so that he will never again be able to harm our beloved country, and more importantly, its people.”
Democratic members of Congress have already drafted articles of impeachment against the president, following an acquittal from impeachment last January.
Olsen said she hopes that following Wednesday’s events, Stanislaus County residents can find a way to “lead each other toward a spirit of unity.”
“We need unifiers in order to move America forward again,” she said, “and I hope that those of us who call Stanislaus County home can be role models in that regard.”
This story has been updated with comments from Rep. Josh Harder and the NAACP.
This story was produced with financial support from the Stanislaus Community Foundation, along with the GroundTruth Project’s Report for America initiative. The Modesto Bee maintains full editorial control of this work.
To help fund The Bee’s economic development and children’s health reporters with Report for America, go to https://bit.ly/ModestoBeeRFA
This story was originally published January 6, 2021 at 5:09 PM.
