“They’re Not Going to Take It Any Longer” Trump’s Rallying Cry Before Capitol Riot
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On January 6, 2021, a rally that began as a political gathering quickly escalated into one of the most tumultuous events in recent American history. Thousands of Donald Trump’s supporters converged in Washington, D.C., for the ‘Save America Rally’ held at the Elipse near the White House. Trump’s speech, laden with contentious declarations, incited attendees to march to the Capitol and contest the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
During his nearly hour-long address, Trump expressed discontent with the media’s coverage of the crowd size, accusing them of hiding the true numbers: “Media will not show the magnitude of this crowd even I when I turned on today, I looked, and I saw thousands of people here, but you don’t see hundreds of thousands of people behind you because they don’t want to show that. We have hundreds of thousands of people here, and I just want them to be recognized by the fake news media.
As per ABC News, Turn your cameras, please, and show what is really happening out here because these people are not going to take it any longer.” Trump’s rhetoric didn’t stop at media criticism. He vehemently disputed the election results, rallying his base with assertions of electoral theft by Democrats and mainstream media. “All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by bold and radical left Democrats which is what they are doing and stolen by the fake news media.
That is what they have done and what they are doing. We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved,” Trump declared, embedding the term “stop the steal” as a call to action.
He further challenged the legitimacy of the election results, citing his significant voter turnout: “Almost 75 million people voted for our campaign, the most of any incumbent president by far in the history of our country; 12 million more than four years ago…And by the way, does anybody believe that Joe had 80 million votes? Does anybody believe that?”
As per CNBC, The culmination of Trump’s fiery speech was a directive to his followers to march to the Capitol and make their dissent known, a move that resulted in a violent siege of the Capitol building. Thousands marched, overwhelming Capitol security and disrupting the certification process led by Vice President Mike Pence and other lawmakers.
The fallout was immediate and severe. As the violence unfolded, Trump was initially silent but eventually addressed his supporters via a social media video, urging peace and return to their homes: “I know your pain, I know you’re hurt. But you have to go home now, we have to have peace. We have to have law and order, we have to respect our great people in law and order.”
Despite this call for peace, his later tweets seemed to justify the riot, perpetuating the controversy over his role in the events of that day. This chaotic episode not only marked a dark day in U.S. history but also underscored the volatile intersection of leadership rhetoric and supporter action.
