Representative Ayanna Pressley: ‘We have been cleaning up violent white supremacist mobs for generations and it must end’

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“One of the images that haunts me is black prison staff cleaning up the mess left by this violent white supremacist mob,” the Massachusetts Democrat told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday on “State of the Union.” , reflecting his experience on Capitol Hill during the murderous siege of January 6.

“It’s a metaphor for America. We have cleaned up violent white supremacist mobs for generations and it must end.”

Flags, signs and symbols of racist, white supremacist and extremist groups were displayed with the Trump 2020 banners and American flags during last month’s insurgency. It took such a “heartbreaking and traumatic” event, Pressley told Tapper, for many Americans to begin to recognize the threat of white supremacy.

The congressman’s comments come as the Senate is set this week to hear arguments in Trump’s impeachment trial, where the chamber will consider whether to convict or acquit him on a single charge of “incitement. to the insurrection “. With the former president set to be acquitted for the second time, Pressley called on his fellow congressmen to hold Trump accountable.

“If we truly believe this is a counting moment in all respects then we must act on it, and that means Donald J. Trump must be held accountable as he is guilty of instigating this insurgency by perpetuating this “big lie”, “she said in reference to Trump’s false allegations of widespread electoral fraud and that the election was stolen from him.

“This House has done its job twice. He will forever be the president twice deposed by this House led by the Democratic majority,” she continued.

But it’s not just a question of impeachment or securing the Capitol, the congresswoman said.

“For those who continue to feign great surprise about what happened on January 6. As a black woman being barricaded in my office, using office furniture and water bottles on the floor in the room. “darkness, this terror, these moments of terror, is familiar in a deep and ancestral way to me,” Pressley said, referring to the racial history of black Americans in the United States.

“I want us to do everything to make sure such a breach never happens on Capitol Hill, but I want us to tackle the evil and the scourge that is white supremacy in this country.” It’s not just about securing the Capitol to ensure members and staff, on-call staff, and food service employees are safe on the Capitol. It’s because we’re safe in America. “

CNN previously reported that white Americans receive coronavirus vaccinations at much higher rates than black and Latin Americans, despite data from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that black and Latin Americans – Americans are already dying from Covid-19 at three times the rate of whites and being hospitalized at a rate four times the rate.

Referring to these disparities on Sunday, Pressley said while she is encouraged that there is a national distribution strategy, she believes more needs to be done.

“We knew early on which communities would be hit the hardest due to unequal access to health care and the co-morbidities of structural racism,” she told Tapper.

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