New Delhi: United States’ Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster Thursday said the breach of Capitol Hill in Washington DC was horrific and shouldn’t have taken place in a democracy.
“While it is fine in democracies to protest, there is no place whatsoever for rioting and lawlessness,” said the ambassador, whose tenure in India concludes this month.
Juster was in conversation with ThePrint’s Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on Off The Cuff.
“It was a very horrific scene to see the storming of the US Capitol and this is not something that should ever take place in a democracy,” he added.
He asserted that this breach wasn’t America “at its best”, but remained hopeful that the country would recover and “move on”.
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‘America has strong institutions, will bounce back’
Gupta pointed out that the incident proved to be a “bad example” for democracies where institutions weren’t as strong. To this, Juster replied: “We do have strong institutions. We will recover and bounce back, but it was a sad scene this morning to wake up to.”
Thousands of supporters President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol and clashed with police in the process. They breached the building in the first of such an incident in over 200 years.
At the time, the House of Representatives and the Senate were holding a rare joint session to begin certifying the results of the presidential election held in November 2020.
Both the House and the Senate were placed under a lockdown.
The pro-Trump mob was subdued after several hours, with the National Guard being eventually called out and more than a dozen protesters arrested. Four persons reportedly died in the violence.
After authorities regained control of the Capitol complex, the Congress held two rounds of votes and Joe Biden was formally certified as the next president of US.
The last time such a breach occurred was in 1814, when a British force destroyed multiple buildings, including the President’s mansion, in the US capital in an event known as the ‘Burning of Washington’.
This episode of Off The Cuff featuring Kenneth Juster will be telecast on 9 January.
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