Interesting too the reactions of ânormalâ people:
Brad Brooks and Nathan Layne at Reuters have been speaking to some Trump supporters about the aftermath of Wednesdayâs events in Washington DC.
A backer of the president in west Texas, Eddie Emerson said he disliked the violence he saw on TV on Wednesday, but echoing a sentiment held by many Trump supporters, Emerson expressed frustration with what he called the hypocrisy of those who condemned the riots but turned a blind eye to violence at Black Lives Matter protests last summer.
âWhat about Portland?â he asked âWhen itâs the left behind the violence, then itâs just them expressing their voice, their creativity.â
In two dozen interviews with Trump backers across deeply conservative slices of Texas and Georgia, they condemned Wednesdayâs violence, but at the same time did not hold the president responsible. Rather, they said they understood the anger behind it, expressing their own anger with what they believe was a fraudulent election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
They blamed the violence on left wing protesters - without any evidence - and expressed little hope that the deeply divided country would unify anytime soon.
And none were prepared to abandon Trump.âTrump isnât a politician,â said Emerson, 67. âWe sent him to Washington to get rid of the swamp, but the swamp got rid of him. And as far as Iâm concerned, the swamp now includes the Republican Party, along with the Democrats.â
As the threat of a second impeachment loomed, Trump belatedly denounced the violence and finally committed in public to a transition of power. Several administration officials have resigned but Trumpâs fans appeared to care little about what politicians - even Republicans - had to say in Washington.
âYou canât take what happened yesterday and blame it on one person,â said Anslee Payne, a 34-year-old mother of two at her job in Homer, a rural town in northern Georgia.
âNone of us believe in the violent aspect of what happened yesterday. People are getting to a point where they feel like - left, right or in between - they are not being listened to,â she said, describing Wednesdayâs violence as a prelude to a further fraying of society. She said Trump supporters were tired of being wrongly labeled as ignorant, violent or racist.
âIâm sad for our country and for what it is going to come to, but this is just the doorway into what is going to happen because people donât understand what is going on and they donât know what to believe in anymore,â she said.
Despite top Republican election officials in Georgia debunking allegations of widespread voter fraud, the interviews in Homer showed an enduring belief among his supporters that their leader was robbed.
Linda Mashburn, 39, a waitresses at the Tiny Town Restaurant, said they she sympathize with the frustration behind the violence even if she did not condone it. âI feel like he was cheated. We just all feel like our votes didnât count,â said Mashburn.
