Michelle Obama breaks silence on US Capitol violence, calls Trump ‘infantile and unpatriotic’

In a statement posted on Twitter, Michelle described Trump as “infantile and unpatriotic” as she said, “the day was a fulfillment of the wishes” of a President “who can’t handle the truth of his own failures. “

Former first lady Michelle Obama on Thursday voiced her outrage against Wednesday’s violence in Washington, DC when thousands of protesters supporting President Donald Trump laid siege to the US Capitol as the process to validate Joe Biden’s victory was on. The protesters were demanding that presidential election result be overturned.

Former first lady Michelle Obama. (REUTERS)

In a statement posted on Twitter, Michelle described Trump as “infantile and unpatriotic” as she said, “the day was a fulfillment of the wishes” of a President “who can’t handle the truth of his own failures. “

She also suggested that the protesters would have been treated differently had they been Black. “This summer’s Black Lives Matter protests were an overwhelmingly peaceful movement... And yet, in city after city, day after day, we saw peaceful protesters met with brute force.” In contrast, those who “desecrated the center of American government” this week “were led out of the building, not in handcuffs, but free to carry on with their days,” she said.

“Yesterday made it painfully clear that certain Americans are, in fact, allowed to denigrate the flag and symbols of our nation. They’ve just got to look the right way,” she also said.

Further noting that true progress can only be possible once “we acknowledge that this disconnect exists and take steps to repair it,” she wrote, “That also means coming to grips with the reality that millions voted for a man so obviously willing to burn our democracy down for his own ego.”

Michelle also called on Silicon Valley which is home to many startups and global technology giants like Apple, Facebook and Google, to address its role and ban Trump from its platform for fuelling insurrection.

“Now is the time for Silicon Valley companies to stop enabling this monstrous behavior - and go even further than they have already by permanently banning this man from their platforms and putting in place policies to prevent their technology from being used by the nation’s leaders to fuel insurrection, “ she said.

On Wednesday thousands of protesters - spurred on by a speech given by President Donald Trump - marched to the seat of the US legislature, where some broke down barriers and doors to invade the building in an unprecedented act that played out on live television. But police officers in charge of security held off using tear gas until intruders had reached the heart of the building, where they roamed freely, ransacking offices.

The scene stood in stark contrast to last year’s anti-racism protests in the nation’s capital and beyond, which saw demonstrators forcibly dispersed by police, and the National Guard regularly deployed as an early preventive measure. During the Wednesday’s protests, National Guard reinforcements did not arrive until several hours into the chaos despite public knowledge of the protests.

Following this, many Americans have accused authorities overseeing Wednesday’s underwhelming response of “double standards.”

(With inputs from agencies)