President Donald Trump is facing growing calls for his removal from office following violence at the U.S. Capitol. And some former Trump administration officials are calling out his behavior in the wake of his election defeat and the storming of the Capitol.
In an op-ed published by Politico on Monday afternoon, Fiona Hill, who served as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council from 2017 to 2019, accused Trump of carrying out a “slow-motion” coup attempt by trying to overturn the results of the election.
Hill also charged that the president’s actions have brought the country to “the brink of civil war.”
She noted that a coup is usually a “sudden, violent seizure of power involving clandestine plots and military takeovers.” However, she argued that while Trump’s efforts to overturn the election played out over several weeks, “that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a coup attempt.”
“Trump disguised what he was doing by operating in plain sight, talking openly about his intent. He normalized his actions so people would accept them,” she wrote, adding, “Technically, what Trump attempted is what’s known as a ‘self-coup’ and Trump isn’t the first leader to try it.”
“The storming of the Capitol building on Jan. 6 was the culmination of a series of actions and events taken or instigated by Trump so he could retain the presidency that together amount to an attempt at a self-coup. This was not a one-off or brief episode.”
She noted that Trump made baseless allegations that the election was stolen from him through widespread fraud. Additionally, she proceeded to compare Trump’s actions to a “checklist” to evaluate whether he attempted a “self-coup.”
Hill noted that Trump was met with resistance, and his efforts to overturn the election failed. However, she added, “As in the case of other coup attempts, the president’s actions have put us on the brink of civil war. Trump did not overturn the election results, but, just as he intended, he disrupted the peaceful democratic transition of executive power.”
“The president’s actions and his falsehoods have shattered America’s democratic norms, exacerbated its political divisions, and put people’s lives at risk.”
Finally, she said, “If we are to restore democratic norms and make sure this does not happen again, these congressional Republicans will have to take personal responsibility for their actions in support of Trump’s coup attempt.”
“They must tell the truth to their constituents about the election and what the president tried to do in January 2021. They owe it to the people they represent as well as the country they serve,” she added.
