An assault that cannot go unpunished

He has already announced that he will not attend the Inauguration of the new President's mandate. Donald Trump has announced this as a voluntary act, almost as a gesture of simple disagreement. "It's the best he can do," replied Joe Biden. Too short, too soft for what the still top US executive provoked on Washington's Capitol. 

The determination of the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, the country's third in command, that Trump should leave the White House without consummating the few days he has left in office, is not motivated by mere revenge. As the embodiment of the legislative power, she regards the attempt to hijack its seat as a direct attack on democracy, on the sovereign power of the people that populism claims to defend. 

As a character used to the spotlight, Trump encouraged an operation which, in the words of the Republican Senator Ben Sasse, was intended to sow chaos and to engulf Washington, a chaos which was furthermore broadcast live by all the television stations. In short, a coup d'état, a description that for Pelosi, practically the entire Democratic Party and an increasing number of members and leaders of the Republican Party, is beyond doubt, insofar as its aim was to sabotage the result of an election that he and his party had lost at the polls. This sabotage was backed by the violence of thousands of his supporters, whom he had not ceased to encourage throughout his term of office, and was crowned by his last, inflammatory speech in which he launched precisely this definitive attack on Congress. 

As is known, fortunately Trump did not achieve his goal and, having vacated the Capitol, his vice president and president of the Senate, Mike Pence, refused to back the coup and ratified Joe Biden's victory. A performance that earned him the anger and labeling of "traitor" from a Trump whom he had served loyally, but who ultimately preferred to put the legality, legitimacy and interests of his country above those of his boss.

Having been unable to show any reliable proof of the alleged electoral fraud, and having been disavowed by all the courts, many of them headed by judges appointed by himself, Trump thus saw his desperate attempt to prolong his stay in the White House go up in smoke. A desire he was probably pursuing more than just staying four more years and running out of two consecutive terms to which he would be constitutionally entitled. There are many indications that Donald Trump, in his hypothetical second term of office, intended to undertake a constitutional reform that would allow him to represent himself and be elected indefinitely. In other words, like many southern hemisphere warlords, but above all like Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin, who is credited with having contributed to the defeat of Hillary Clinton in 2016 and with installing Donald Trump in the White House, could have encouraged all the latter's manoeuvres in pursuit of this goal.  

Like Putin, already immune by law until the end of his days, the acquisition of such a privilege by the US president would be a guarantee that never again would any court be able to reopen any of the many possible cases pending in tax, sexual and abuse of power matters. All this, in short, in his sole and exclusive interest and in view of the facts, without the slightest concern for his own country's reputation or any respect for the democratic values it embodies. 

Mike Pence, as he has already said, will not push for the application of the 25th Constitutional Amendment, which would allow him to replace, even for a few days, his boss who is unable to carry out the duties of his post. It is therefore more than possible that Nancy Pelosi will activate the procedures for the impeachment of Trump, even though she knows that this process cannot be completed before the 20th, the date of the transfer of powers to Joe Biden. But the Speaker of the House does not want Trump to go quietly to his new private residence and the assault on the seat of popular sovereignty can thus go unpunished.

As Professor Eddie Glaude of Princeton University states, "if after the act of insurrection no one is held to account, we will be condemning ourselves to a repetition of this. Glaude focuses especially on white supremacists when he also states that "we have condoned these elements since our birth as a nation, and they have threatened to overwhelm our democracy ever since. We must uproot them once and for all if we are to overcome them. 

The events at the Capitol surely exceeded the expectations of Trump, who seemed to realise the consequences of his outrages when, in less than 24 hours, he recorded a video in which he condemned the assailants' acts of vandalism, omitted to mention that the elections had been stolen from him and ended up accepting his defeat. Such an ostensible change in discourse is attributed to pressure from his own daughter, Ivanka, but above all to the White House legal adviser, Pat Cipollone, who warned him that inciting insurrection is a serious offence. 

That Trump did not resign in any case at the end of his political career seems to be proven by his subsequent proclamation, also just one day later, that "the 75 million American patriots who voted for me, for putting America first, and for making America great again will have a giant voice in the future". 

It is surely very true that a large part of those 75 million have believed in good faith the lies I administered to them daily and without the slightest blush. Detoxification will not be easy, especially as Trump leaves behind him the most poisonous legacy of the polarisation of a country, which he unblushingly led to a confrontation that historically is often referred to as civil war. 

That cannot go unpunished.