In the banner headline article of last week (“Violence Erupts in DC” January 7, 2020), the editors quoted verbatim a number of senators and congressmen who spoke unequivocally about the “dark day” of the “anarchist mobs violently swarming the Capitol.” Earlier in the article, the editors wrote that “both President Trump and President-elect Biden called for the crowds to disperse.” I was taken aback that both men were spoken about in the same sentence, as if to imply that their words to the American people were identical, when nothing was further from the truth. Biden, who spoke a mere two hours after the storming of the Capitol, called it “an unprecedented assault unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times.” Trump, on the other hand, resisted calls by politicians from both parties to condemn the attack, before finally giving a videotaped speech much later. His words and tone lacked any sign of indignation and were instead, lukewarm. Whether one believes that Trump incited the crowds to storm the Capitol or not, at the very least, as president of the United States, Donald Trump should have addressed the nation immediately, and unequivocally and forcefully condemned the attack.
Laura TurkTeaneck