Right off the floor of the House of Representatives, immediately behind the speaker’s lectern, is the “Speaker’s Lobby.” During my time in Congress, I spent many hours there, chatting with fellow members, working, and spending time between votes and debate. Last week, I watched a woman get shot — and her blood spilled on the House floor — as she and dozens of other violent instigators attempted to smash through the doors to get to that same lobby on their way to ransack the Capitol.

This didn’t just materialize. It wasn’t led by the guy wearing a buffalo-horned headdress or by any of the MAGA-hatted devotees. This coup was inspired by men in suits, the very same members of Congress who have sworn to “protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic.” The storming of the Capitol was an act of insurrection, intended to disrupt the most fundamental act of our democracy — the peaceful transition of power.

Since November, Republican lawmakers have kindled and stoked Donald Trump’s bonfire of lies and conspiracies about the 2020 election. We all saw the consequences of those lies last Wednesday when rioters stormed and seized control of the U.S. Capitol to thwart the final certification of the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Today, the greatest threat to our unique American democracy isn’t from some foreign nation — our greatest threat is internal. Democracies aren’t taken away, they are given away. For four years, Donald Trump has been trampling all over our Constitution, with almost every elected Republican on Capitol Hill serving as his accomplice.

For more than four years, Republicans have allowed and even joined Trump to weaken our nation. Together, they degraded our democratic norms, waged a war on the free press, and upended our system of checks and balances. And now these lawmakers who spread Trump’s lies are shocked to learn that you reap what you sow. Trump began his presidency speaking of “American carnage.” It’s exactly what he delivered.

Some legislators are now trying to disavow this week’s violence in carefully parsed tweets. But these bootlickers have done far more damage to our Constitution and our country than the mob who trashed the Capitol.

Disgracefully, even after condemning the insurrection they inspired, over half of the House Republicans — led by the Valley’s own Kevin McCarthy — still voted early Thursday morning to endorse Trump’s vicious election fraud lie and then attempted to unconstitutionally overthrow the will of 81 million voters, in order to deliver the presidency to Trump. That’s inexcusable. It’s traitorous.

Trump incited a violent attack on the Capitol to prevent the Congress from exercising its lawful duties. There’s no question that his incitement that led to the raid on the Capitol is an impeachable act — treason and a high crime. Unfortunately, Republicans, in one last measure of servitude to Trump, are still trying to shield him from any responsibility and to conceal their own complicity.

But the work to repair and defend our democracy has never been more urgent or daunting and it must start immediately. It cannot wait until Joe Biden’s inauguration. There is only one remedy. Republicans need to acknowledge that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won a free and fair election and admit the truth, that Trump is a disgraceful menace to our democracy. Every minute that he remains in office, he is a danger to our nation. He must resign, be removed, or impeached today.

In solidarity,

TJ Cox