The US Presidential election was held on November 3rd, 2020. The results were finally announced on November 7th, 2020, with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris winning by about 81 million votes. The results were so late because of all the mail-in votes, which are counted by a different process from in-person votes. The response by Republicans was generally very aggressive and not understanding, while the Democrats’ response was very positive and accepting (because their candidate won).  

Shortly after the election, there was a riot at the US Capitol in Washington DC. The reason for the riot was that some Republicans believed that the votes were not counted fairly and that it was an unfair election, especially with the mail-in ballots that kept coming in. Now, many of those protesters are being arrested.  According to NBC news, “Federal authorities are using the images some rioters posted to make arrests as more information comes to light about who stormed the Capitol.“ Many of these people asked former President Donald Trump for a pardon. A pardon is the action of forgiving or being forgiven for an offense.

During the riot at the Capitol, former President Trump got banned from Twitter and other social media platforms because they claimed that he was responsible for the riot. His tweets were seen as egging the rioters on. He tweeted, “The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!” He then tweeted, “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th,” which Twitter believed would encourage rioters to continue disagreeing with the election results.

Donald Trump’s tweets, as well as the things he said in multiple speeches, are one of the reasons that many people feel that the rioters at the Capitol were not treated the same as the BLM protesters from earlier in the year. During the BLM protests, many police officers/sheriffs were called in to stop/deter the protesters and they were throwing teargas at the protestors, even though it was just a protest outside. But then, the Capitol riot was actually INSIDE an important government place and there was comparatively very little security, and the response was much less severe. Many people have pointed out these discrepancies.