The Capitol in Washington D.C. was met with an angry mob of President Trump supporters on January 6. While Congress was in session to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory, the group stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop the electoral count.
U.S. Representative for the 2nd Congressional District, Jared Huffman, held a live stream via his Facebook page on January 12 to address the attack and plans moving forward. Huffman is the representative for Northern California’s coastal region which spans from San Francisco to the Oregon border.
“When that disgraceful mob stormed the Capitol and literally took it over for a few hours, where no help was coming and they had control of the place, that’s just a wake-up call for all of us. It speaks to the level of violence and insurrection that we all saw with our eyes and ears,” Huffman said.
The mob broke into the Capitol building looting and vandalizing as a sign of defiance to the election results. Trump has repeatedly accused the election of being rigged in Biden’s favor, demanding recounts and overturns of results to no avail.
Though the riot at the Capitol has captured the attention across the world, the FBI has warned states across the country of possible violence in the coming days.
Huffman alluded to the idea of local and state violence in response to the days leading to Biden’s inauguration.
“The intelligence suggests that the threats of violence are not going to be limited to the Capitol,” Huffman said.
Danny Kelley, the Chair of the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee, commented on the vandalism that had taken place at their headquarters where a window was destroyed on the same day as the Capitol attack.
Kelley said that though they could not confirm who was responsible for the vandalism, they can assume it was an action in the spur of the moment.
“It is clear that the vandalism at our headquarters was random and unplanned, but it is also clear that it was spurned by an intense personal belief based on the lie that the election was stolen,” Kelley said.
The Democratic committee was able to repair their window the same day with the help of a local business. The vandalism that occurred is not deterring the local office from reaching out in the community to help cultivate a space for the Democratic party.
“Destruction like this has happened to the local Republican headquarters many more times than it has happened to us. Thoughtless acts like this can’t stop us,” Kelley said.
In plans of moving forward and protecting democracy on a local level here in Humboldt, there are many groups and organizations to get involved with across the political spectrum. As for the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee, Kelley encouraged students to get involved in local politics.
“We need students to get involved with the Humboldt Young Democrats and to step up and become members of our Central Committee,” Kelley said. “There is so much work to be done and so many opportunities for grassroot leadership to really make a difference.”
