Committee: violence in the US Capitol was an attempted coup
A year and a half after the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, the committee investigating the events presented initial findings in public hearings: part of the blame was placed on former president Donald Trump regarding the question of whether he incited his supporters to attack by alleging election fraud. Commentators are concerned about democracy in the United States.
What happened once can happen again
Even the hearings are unlikely to change the minds of Trump supporters, comments Deutschlandfunk:
“And that means every other Republican voter. Republican politicians encourage this when they talk of a witch hunt and party politics. ... The danger to America's democracy did not disappear after 6 January. Systematically and supported by the Republican Committee, Republicans loyal to Trump are running for office at all levels across the country, hoping to serve in positions enabling them to influence vote-counting and elections. Co-conspirators of the attempted coup have plentiful campaign war chests and good prospects for offices such as governor of Pennsylvania. What happened once can happen again.”
The system is showing cracks
El Mundo is baffled that Trump still thinks he has a chance of winning:
“This report is a foretaste of a long list of public hearings in the coming weeks. And it does not look like the case will act as a brake on Trump's intention to run again. ... All this is evidence of the deterioration of the institutional edifice of the United States, which for centuries has taken pride in its 'checks and balances', set up to defend a liberal model. ... Trump is a populist who embodies the opposite of what one expects of a leader committed to a constitutional order. His term in office made abundantly clear that the system's capacity to regulate itself is showing cracks.”
US democracy on the brink of disaster
The hearings illustrate the extent to which former president Donald Trump has lost touch with reality, says Dagens Nyheter:
“Some of the anecdotes during the hearing came across as absurd depictions of a powerful president who appeared incapable of accepting the truth. But the details revealed during last week's hearings are also a reminder of how incredibly close American democracy came to genuine collapse in January 2021. Trump's election fraud campaign was baseless, but it still managed to get hundreds of thousands of supporters to send him money and thousands to risk lengthy prison sentences when they stormed Congress.”
Ivanka Trump is positioning herself
Trump's daughter's interview indicates that she would like to throw her hat into the ring as a future presidential candidate, believes the Irish Examiner:
“By far the most revealing commentary of Thursday's opening came from Donald Trump's daughter and adviser, Ivanka Trump, who told the hearing over video link that she does not believe the former president's claims that his 2020 election defeat resulted from widespread voting fraud. She said she respected the judgment of attorney general William Barr that there was no evidence to support such allegations, which continue to be made by her father. ... We may just have heard the firing of first shots of the next campaign.”