Missouri governor says Trump ‘absolutely not’ to blame for U.S. Capitol violence
Gov. Mike Parson condemned the mob that breached the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, but stopped short of blaming President Donald Trump for inflaming supporters before they stormed the building.
The Republican governor of Missouri responded “absolutely not” when asked whether Trump loyalists were emboldened by the president. “My understanding is the president told them not to commit any violence,” Parson said at a news conference.
Parson joined a host of Missouri and Kansas state officials who rushed to denounce the violence at the Capitol. But many avoided faulting Trump, who stoked a rally crowd earlier in the day as Congress gathered to certify the election of President-elect Joe Biden over the objections of Trump and some Republican lawmakers.
At a rally near the White House, Trump encouraged supporters to march on the Capitol and suggested at one point that he would join them on Capitol Hill. In his remarks, he used incendiary language with violent undertones.
Trump had urged his supporters to “get rid of the weak Congress people” and said “get the weak ones get out. This is the time for strength.”
Parson said “you don’t violate the law” and that he is a “law and order guy,” repeating a theme of his election campaign last year.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, said in a statement that violence and destruction is unacceptable. “Now more than ever, we need to come together and fight this virus – not each other,” Kelly said.
Kansas House Speaker Ron Ryckman, an Olathe Republican, tweeted that what had happened wasn’t democracy. “This is not how we transition power. Threats, violence and destruction have no place in America,” he said.
Missouri House Speaker Rob Vescovo, of Arnold, and other Republican leaders issued a joint statement calling the violence and destruction “unacceptable.”
House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat, linked the Capitol storming to Republican rhetoric over the election.
“The armed insurrection currently taking place in our nation’s capital is an affront to democracy and everything America represents,” Quade said in a statement. “Although today’s events are shocking, they unfortunately aren’t surprising and are the inevitable outcome of months of Republican leaders – including many in Missouri – pushing the lie of a Trump victory and attempting to overturn a legitimate election.”
Most Republican members of Congress in both Kansas and Missouri had said they planned to back efforts to block certification of the election results.
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican who lent his support to an unsuccessful legal challenge of the election results, called the “lawlessness” at the Capitol “sickening, shameful, inexcusable and counterproductive.”
The Star’s Katie Bernard and the Associated Press contributed to this story
