DeWine: Capitol Siege ‘Embarrassment to Our Country’

COLUMBUS, Ohio — As supporters of President Donald Trump forced their way into the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Mike DeWine called the situation “an embarrassment to our country.”

DeWine issued a statement Wednesday on a continuing situation that halted the certification of the Electoral College votes and forced the evacuation of members of Congress.

“This is an embarrassment to our country. This must stop immediately. The President should call for the demonstrators to leave our Capitol Building,” DeWine said in his statement.

“The final step in the constitutional process of electing our president has been disrupted. The stopping of the count of the Electoral College votes has occurred because the security of the U.S. Capitol has been breached by a violent mob. As a nation of laws, this is simply not acceptable. Lawlessness is not acceptable. This is an affront to our Constitution and everything we hold dear. Those who breached the Capitol breached the Constitution.

“Peaceful demonstrations outside the Capitol are an exercise of the demonstrators’ First Amendment rights. Stopping the constitutional process by which we elect the president is not.”

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost issued a statement also criticizing the protests in the Capitol.

“The rule of law means the same rules for everybody. Those of us who called for prosecution of the people who stormed the federal courthouse in Portland must apply the same demand to those who stormed the Capitol today,” he said. “The color of your skin or the slogan upon your banner must not change what is and is not acceptable.”  

Yost also called on Ohioans to remain peaceful and not to “let a sense of injustice produce more injustice.”

Pictured: In this Dec. 13, 2019, file photo, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine speaks during an interview at the Governor’s Residence in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.