Scenes From a Coup Attempt

This afternoon, as Congress counted electoral votes to confirm Joe Biden’s victory, a mob of Trump supporters who had traveled to Washington at the behest of the president attacked police outside the Capitol and forced their way inside the building. Senators and members of Congress were locked inside their respective chambers; security escorted Vice President Mike Pence out of the building; the mob, facing seemingly little resistance, swarmed the second-floor lobby outside the Senate chamber; and one woman was reportedly shot. All of this was documented in real time by a constant stream of photos and videos posted to social media by journalists and Trump supporters, the latter of whom posed for commemorative pictures. One man sat with his feet up in Nancy Pelosi’s office; others stood next to statues, and one man even grabbed a podium to take with him.

The police response to this attack was notably gentle, especially in comparison to the way Black Lives Matter protesters were cleared from in front of the White House with tear gas and helicopters this summer. The president, in his usual manner, tweeted out statements of support for police and peaceful protest, while doing the bare minimum to call his supporters off. Republican senators who have enabled the president’s fictitious crusade to deny the election results issued statements of condemnation. Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for the National Guard, which has reportedly been deployed. All of these events are the logical outcome of the election of a president who clearly yearns to be an authoritarian ruler. Scroll on for images from today’s American carnage.

Originally Appeared on GQ