Democratic Party nominee for US President in 2016 Hillary Clinton on Monday expressed solidarity towards impeachment of President Donald Trump by saying it is essential to impeach him in wake of the Capitol riots but warned that impeachment alone "won't remove white supremacy from America".
In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, Clinton wrote that Wednesday's attack on the Capitol was the "tragically predictable result" of white-supremacist grievances fueled by Trump adding that his departure from office -- whether immediately or on January 20 -- "will not solve the deeper problems exposed by this episode".
"Removing Trump from office is essential, and I believe he should be impeached. Members of Congress who joined him in subverting our democracy should resign, and those who conspired with the domestic terrorists should be expelled immediately. But that alone won't remove white supremacy and extremism from America," Clinton stated.
"There are changes elected leaders should pursue immediately, including advocating new criminal laws at the state and federal levels that hold white supremacists accountable and tracking the activities of extremists such as those who breached the Capitol," she added.
The former First Lady said what happened in Capitol on Wednesday is cause for grief and outrage and it "should not be cause for shock".
"What were too often passed off as the rantings of an unfortunate but temporary figure in public life are, in reality, part of something much bigger. That is the challenge that confronts us all," the former New York senator wrote.
Recalling the time of being a senator from New York during the September 11 attacks, she said, she thought about that day and the 9/11 commission report that followed.
"The report's authors explored the failures that opened the door for a devastating terrorist attack. 'The most important failure,' they wrote, 'was one of imagination. We do not believe leaders understood the gravity of the threat'," Clinton wrote.
"Almost 20 years later, we are living through another failure of imagination -- the failure to account for the damage that can be done to our nation by a president who incites violence, congressional leaders who fan the flames, and social media platforms that sear conspiracy theories into the minds of Trump's supporters. Unless we confront the threats we face, we risk ensuring that last week's events are only a prelude to an even greater tragedy," Clinto stated in Washington Post's opinion piece.
Clinton stated that by the time Trump lost in 2020, he had whipped a dangerous element of "our country" into a frenzy adding that Trump's supporters began planning their insurrection, making plans to march on the Capitol and "stop the steal."
The former secretary of state raised the question that how do Americans move forward as a country adding that what does the Capitol riots say about the US that so many were complicit, while those who sounded the alarm were dismissed as hysterical.
"It's sobering that many people were unsurprised by what occurred last week, particularly people of color, for whom a violent mob waving Confederate flags and hanging nooses is a familiar sight in American history," she said.
The 2016 Democratic Presidential candidate lauded Twitter and other social media accounts to permanantly suspend Trump's accounts but added that they "will have to do more to stop the spread of violent speech and conspiracy theories."
Clinton, in her Washington Post opinion piece wrote that the incoming Joe Biden-led administration will need to address this crisis "in all its complexity and breadth, including holding technology platforms accountable" prosecuting all who broke the laws, and making public more intelligent and analysis about domestic terrorism.
On January 6, a group of Trump's loyalists stormed the US Capitol building, clashing with police, damaging property, seizing the inauguration stage and occupying the rotunda. The unrest took place after Trump urged his supporters to protest what he claims is a stolen presidential election.
( With inputs from ANI )
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