The nation continues to reel from the unprecedented assault on the United States Capitol by extremist supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump, who encouraged his supporters to march on the Capitol based on the lie that widespread election fraud coordinated by Democrats delivered a false victory to President-elect Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
The attempted insurrection upended the long-awaited joint congressional session to nationally certify Biden's victory over Trump—a proceeding overseen by Vice President Mike Pence, whom Trump urged to overstep his powers and unilaterally dismiss the electoral votes of swing states Trump didn't win.
The pro-Trump extremists forced Pence and other lawmakers to evacuate to secure locations as they smashed windows, destroyed property, ransacked offices, spread excrement across the walls, and called for the Vice President to be hanged.
The riots resulted in the deaths of five people, including Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, who was beaten with a fire extinguisher by Trump's supporters.
While the chaos at the Capitol prompted some Republicans to backtrack and withdraw their support for Trump's lies about election fraud, other Republican lawmakers have only doubled down, scrambling to dismiss the unprecedented attack on the Capitol committed by some of the very Americans it represents.
Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) is one such Republican.
Issa appeared on Fox Business in an interview with pro-Trump anchor Maria Bartiromo, where he accused Democrats of "overplaying" the murders at the Capitol.
Bartiromo asked Issa about the Democratic House's imminent second impeachment of the President.
Issa said:
"There's no question at all that I think the liberals saw an opportunity, a misstep by the President that they're going to overplay and they're overplaying it as we speak. They're overplaying a lot of things, including the death of these people on Capitol Hill."
The Congressman went on to say that the insurrection at the Capitol was a "terrible event" that Democrats were using to claim violence only occurs on one side. Issa pointed to the overwhelmingly peaceful protests against racist police abuse last summer as an example, despite Democratic leaders at the federal and state levels denouncing instances of violence that arose from them.
Issa's comments were roundly rebuked.
In the wake of the attack, Republican lawmakers have urged their Democratic colleagues to "move on" to healing and "unity," decrying the House's move to impeach the President for a second time. These calls have been largely dismissed, with Democrats emphasizing no unity can be achieved without prior accountability.
Such was the case with Issa.
Trump's final day in office, as of now, is January 20th.
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