In what has been a turbulent week for Trump and his base, the President has been removed from Twitter and Facebook. His alternative, Parler, has been removed from Google’s Appstore.
Bye Bye Birdy
Yes, you heard that right. Trump’s Twitter account has been officially and permanently banned. He has also been indefinitely blocked from Facebook and Instagram leaving Parler as his only main source of social media. Twitter’s reasoning for blocking the President is stated in their own Tweet below:
Prior to Trump’s account being permanently suspended, Twitter removed two of the President’s Tweets from January 6th, temporarily suspended the president for 12 hours, and warned him that further violations would result in the permanent suspension of his account. Twitter’s Tweets with that information are displayed below:
Parler Removed From Play Store
Parler, a free speech social media platform which has been overrun by a majority far-right user base, has since been blocked from Google’s Playstore. It is also speculated that Apple will soon follow suit and ban it from their Appstore.
The Early Week
As all of us know by this point, it has been a hectic week in the United States. In the early part of the week, President Trump seemed to be having issues within his inner circle. The President tweeted at a variety of people in an attempt to persuade them to support is call for opposing the certification of electoral ballots of five states including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Among those Trump Tweeted at was Vice President Pence, who eventually issued a statement on his own Twitter account saying he “would not and could not” stand in the way of certifying electoral votes for Joe Biden, the President Elect. After Pence’s defiance, it seems the Vice President has fallen out of favor of President Trump.
In a tweet that’s no longer available Trump said,
“Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify, USA demands the truth!”
Certifying Electoral Ballots
A joint session of congress was to convene on Wednesday at 1:00 in the afternoon, local time, in the capitol building. Meanwhile, a group of protestors gathered outside the capitol building for a rally in support of Trump.
In a speech to the demonstrators, Trump made multiple statements that some believe incited events to come. Here is a video, provided by Guardian News’ YouTube Channel, of said Speech, which highlights the portions in question:
Throughout the speech Trump also continued claims of election fraud and alluded to “fighting”, “never surrendering”, “never conceding”, and “stopping the steal”.
Insurrection, Rioters Storm the Capitol Building
Shortly after, protestors turned into rioters as they stormed the Capitol building. Some protestors managed their way inside the building. Rioters outside the Capitol injured both Police and fellow rioters. Inside the building, a woman was shot and killed as she attempted to infiltrate a room where legislators were sheltering.
As the riots continued, Joe Biden gave a speech in which he condemned those storming the Capitol and made calls to action for Trump to condemn them also.
Trump's Statement
Eventually Trump also released a statement, which still made claims of voter fraud. He told the rioters he loved them and that they were “very special”. Here is that video provided by ABC News’ YouTube Channel:
Protests continued for a time, but the National Guard and other Federal Law Enforcement eventually made it to the scene. They cleared the building and dispersed rioters, which eventually allowed congress members to reconvene and finish certifying the electoral votes for Joe Biden.
Concession
After votes were certified, Trump put out another video finally conceding the election and declaring Joe Biden the winner. In that video, provided below by The Hill, Trump has a very different tone when it comes to the rioters, finally verbally condemning their actions.
In his concession, he stated he would shift his focus towards a “seamless and peaceful transition of power”.
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