Twitter suspects Trump’s tweets may have triggered plans for a second attack on US Capitol and state capitol buildings on Jan 17. Pramila Jayapal reiterates her appeal to invoke 25th Amendment.
Just before 6:30 pm Friday, January 8, Twitter suspended President Donald Trump’s Twitter account permanently. Twitter’s reasons for the suspension include the suspicion that a second attack on the US Capitol was being hatched
Here is what the social media platform said in its explanatory note:
Earlier, Trump’s Twitter account had been suspended for 12 hours following a sequence of events on Wednesday that seemed to many observers as inciting the violence, rioting, and what Joe Biden called terrorism. Facebook has extended the President’s asking on that platform for two weeks, as we reported earlier.
In an explanatory blog, Twitter said the “accounts are not above our rules.”
On January 8, Trump had tweeted:
“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
Twitter said the following reasons were among those that were applied while making the determination to permanently suspend Trump’s account:
- President Trump’s statement that he will not be attending the Inauguration was being received by a number of his supporters as further confirmation that the election was not legitimate and is seen as him disavowing his previous claim made via two Tweets by his Deputy Chief of Staff, Dan Scavino, that there would be an “orderly transition” on January 20.
- That second tweet could be perceived to mean that the Inauguration would be a “safe” target for violence, since he, Trump, will not be attending.
- The use of the words “American Patriots” to describe some of his supporters were also being interpreted as support for those committing violent acts at the US Capitol.
- The mentions of his supporters having a “GIANT VOICE long into the future” who “will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!” were being interpreted as further indication that instead of facilitating an orderly transition, Trump plans to “continue to support, empower, and shield” those who believe he won the election.
- Plans for future armed protests have already begun proliferating on and off-Twitter, including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17. (Emphasis added.)
Reacting to Twitter’s decision, Rep Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) tweeted seeking to remove Trump from office, in alignment with her and 16 other House Representatives’ letter Wednesday seeking that Vice President Mike Pence should invoke the 25th Amendment.
Our previous report:
