Editorial: The domestic terrorism Trump incited at the U.S. Capitol cements him as the worst president ever

Jan. 6, 2021, will be remembered as the day American democracy died. Now the revival is up to all of us.

The peaceful transfer of U.S. presidential power dating back to George Washington and John Adams more than two centuries ago ended with Donald Trump’s incitement of an insurrection Wednesday when hundreds of his supporters broke into the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. This domestic terrorism was meant to prevent the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s decisive victory in the Electoral College, and it left at least one person dead — a San Diego woman — and several people injured. The chaos cemented Trump’s reputation as the worst president of all time. But it will also cement the ruined reputations of shameless cheerleaders who put party over country for a president for whom lying came as naturally as breathing.

As the violence built outside the Capitol on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said on the Senate floor that attempts by GOP lawmakers to invalidate the presidential election based on the losing side’s unsubstantiated allegations put democracy at risk of a “death spiral.” Why didn’t McConnell say this right after the election when Trump began his weeks of fabricated claims about being the rightful winner?

After being forced to evacuate her Capitol office, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, went on Twitter to declare, “This is wrong. This is not who we are. I’m heartbroken for our nation today.” Why wasn’t she heartbroken long before that by a president who has encouraged sedition for more than two months with his tweets and public remarks?

Sen. Mitt Romney, the Utah Republican who has been a beacon of honesty in his party about Trump’s amorality, yelled, “This is what you’ve gotten, guys,” on the Senate floor as rioters bore down on the chamber, referring to some of his GOP colleagues who backed Trump’s absurd and arsonous claims that he won in a “landslide” on Nov. 3.

The hope that the damage that Trump could do as president would be limited by judicial guardrails has held up. State and federal judges have turned back dozens of lawsuits challenging the integrity of election results for the most basic of reasons: They have offered no proof.

But the fears that so many expressed in 2016 when Republicans chose Trump as their candidate have been realized. The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board called him “vengeful, dishonest and impulsive.”

“Terrible leaders can knock nations off course,” we wrote. “Venezuela is falling apart because of the obstinance and delusions of Hugo Chávez and his successor. Argentina is finally coming out of the chaos created by Cristina Kirchner and several of her predecessors. Trump could be our Chávez, our Kirchner. We cannot take that risk.”

Republican leaders knew that risk. Evangelical leaders knew. Judicial conservatives knew. Each made their deal with Trump cynically, setting aside their values because they saw a path to power.

In coming weeks and months, pundits and academics will attempt to explain how American democracy got to this point, how to restore its lost shine and how to salvage its reputation abroad. There will no doubt be some who are sympathetic to Trump supporters and their grievances. But trying to steal an election that your candidate lost by more than 7 million votes — while pretending to hold the high ground — deserves contempt, not sympathy.

The next two weeks may be the most nailbiting of Trump’s shameful presidency. They can’t end fast enough. It’s not clear that the 25th Amendment can be effectively invoked right now. But all Republican politicians who haven’t should denounce the violence — and Trump’s election assault. Trump’s Cabinet should quit. Everyday Americans should do anything and everything they can — peacefully — to expedite the widespread acceptance of the vaccines the nation so desperately needs now — shots for COVID-19 and Biden for the cancer that is Donald Trump.

George W. Bush, the last Republican president before Trump, was exactly right when he called Wednesday’s events “sickening” and an “insurrection.” The president-elect also struck the right tone: “Like so many other Americans, I am genuinely shocked and saddened that our nation — so long the beacon of light and hope for democracy — has come to such a dark moment,” Biden said. “The work of the moment and the work of the next four years must be the restoration of democracy, of decency, honor, respect, the rule of law.”

That work must start today, now, this moment. Don’t demonize those we disagree with. Settle differences through civil debate. Collaborate when we can. Move on together from the momentous mistake of the Trump presidency.