On January 6, the one-hundred-and-seventeenth congress met for their first joint session to affirm the electoral college votes for a final time when chaos disrupted their plans.

Everything was seemingly normal at Capitol Hill despite the growing crowd of “Make America Great Again” and far-right activists inching closer towards the Capitol.

The United States Capitol cornerstone was placed by President Washington in 1793.  Since then it has been built, burnt, rebuilt, enlarged, and restored.  But not since 1812 has there been a breach and attack on the Capitol. The ambitious rioters broke into the Capitol building and stormed around with “MAGA,” confederate, and “blue lives matter” flags.

The rioters eagerly pushed through several security points and attempted to force their way into the House of Representatives. The breach caused the ongoing deliberations over the objection of electoral votes to come to a complete halt.

The senators, congressmen and women, and news reporters were all securely escorted from their deliberations into a safe and secret location. At the same time, some protesters went searching for specific areas.  Nancy Pelosi’s office was being broken into, her computer and papers were stolen, and damage to the actual office occurred.

Trump supporters were seen all over the building defacing, destroying, and damaging areas of the Capitol. The front door windows were busted open and side windows were shattered.

President Donald Trump stated at a rally nearby, “All of us here do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened, left, radical Democrats,” and “That’s what they’ve done and what they’re doing… We will never concede. This was not a close election.”

President Trump’s reaction to the riots was perceived as careless, irresponsible, and impeachable to many American’s. Many of Trump’s former colleagues have since turned against him and resigned.

When President Trump eventually released a video in response to the Capitol being breached, he stated that his supporters needed to leave, go home; they are special to him and he loves them. Many Americans, including government officials, considered the acts of the supporters to be serious acts of domestic terrorism.

In fact, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar drew up Articles of Impeachment for President Trump on January 7, only a day after the attacks on Capitol Hill. Numerous other house representatives have taken the initiative to join the Articles of Impeachment. As of January 7, at 7:23 CST, 112 members of congress have become cosponsors to the initial impeachment articles.

January 7, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senator Schumer placed calls to Vice-President Pence to urge him to invoke the 25th Amendment. Later in the day, Nancy Pelosi made a televised broadcast calling out President Trump on his dangerous actions and speech that he had given in which many people think incited the riots at the Capitol and led to the initial breach.

Coincidentally, the same day as the calls were placed, the country of Iraq placed an arrest warrant on President Donald Trump. The warrant states he is guilty of premeditated murder because of a drone strike that left two Iraq military commanders dead.

Many members of Congress have spoken out against Representative Josh Hawley and Senator Ted Cruz after Senator Cruz’s campaign sent out messages during the riots trying to fundraise to reject the electoral votes in several states.

Representative Hawley was pictured cheering on the “MAGA” mob, and in turn, resulted in his upcoming book deal being canceled. Senator Cruz and Representative Hawley came under serious backlash and have been told to resign by many colleagues and citizens.

On the same day, the Council of DC released a statement detailing the fact that when asked for the National Guard’s support, the request was denied and led to Mayor Muriel Bowser of D.C. to ask a second time pleading for help at the Capitol.

Interestingly, three days prior the Pentagon asked the U.S. Capitol Police if they’d need the National Guard’s support as well as FBI agents; both offers were rejected by the D.C. Police.

Despite all the chaos that has happened, the democracy and nation have stood strong, with the Congress continuing to count votes and affirm Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ victory as President-elect and Vice President-elect of the United States.

Trump has said that he will not attend the inauguration of President-elect Biden. Vice-President Pence has stated he will be in attendance, despite the security and safety worries.

Many members of the Trump administration have since resigned after the attack on the U.S. Capitol. As of January 7, at 8:50 CST, 11 members have resigned including two members of President Trump’s cabinet.

Many people are referring to this event as domestic terrorism on the U.S. Capitol and an attack on democracy.

There are people, including House members, who have also related this back to the “Black Lives Matter” movement, questioning whether the color of the rioters’ skin was a darker tone and did that influence the response by the police.

There is only one thing we can learn from this travesty: America needs to do better, stand up for what is right, take actions to move towards equality, and make world peace.

The democracy was in danger and may still be as long as Trump is in the White House, but we must not let this nation fall,

As President-elect Joe Biden said, “President Trump stand up, may God bless America, may God protect our troops and all those folks of the Capitol who are trying to preserve order,” followed by, “The American people are gonna stand up and stand up now, enough is enough is enough.”