Even some of Donald Trump’s enduring supporters have had enough.
“I can’t even cover my head around what happened at the Capitol,” said Neil Shaffer, chairman of a county Republican party in northern Iowa. “I’m disappointed in Trump.” Clearly, astronomy had nothing to do with inciting chaos. “
As Trump’s presidency goes down with the last explosion of chaos and belligerence, the Capitol’s storm with supporters who opposed Joe Biden’s victory proved a step too far for some of those in the American region who have gone through Trump through a turbulent four years.
Shaffer, a farmer and river conservator in rural Howard Iowa, still has many questions about the validity of the primary election. But the prospect of a move into Congress, with what looked very much like the president’s blessing, was too much.
“I have been to the Capitol many times, and it is a place of honor and respect. It would be like walking into a cathedral and screaming or throwing things. You have respect. What they did was just utterly disgraceful. I’m definitely not the people I live with in Howard County, “he said.
Over the past two years, the Guardian has spoken regularly to Trump supporters in swing counties across the northwest and has returned to seek their views in the aftermath of the attack on the Capitol.
Trump took over Howard County in 2016 after Barack Obama won twice. In November, the president stepped up his share of the vote as support strengthened in reserved rural areas even though it was not enough to overcome a rise against Trump in major medieval cities. the choice for him.
But some Trump voters have overcome the violence in Washington and have found themselves drawing uncomfortable parallels with the riots that sometimes went against Black Lives Matter protests that, in some cases, as the basis of the support for Trump.
“I thought what happened was horrible, the violence,” said Terri Burl, a substitute teacher and former Republican party chairman in northern Wisconsin who was an early member of Women for Trump. “We are not violent people.” The violent people are on the left. “
But Burl struggles when asked if Trump is responsible for his interesting speech to the Save America rally just before the Capitol was blown away.
“It’s very sad because on the one hand he knows the integrity of that election and he wanted us to go to DC, and he wanted us to support it. He did not want people to be violent. They were violent, though. Do I think that was probably caused by his astronomy? Well, yeah, maybe for some of those people who don’t have their brains the right way.
“When he says, fighting for me does not mean using violence. It means, support me by going there, tell your reps what you want them to do. I do not believe in my heart that he thought there would be violence. “
Shaffer is not persuaded, partly because Trump was slow to call on the insurrectionists to stop.
One medieval Republican who traveled to Washington on a coach with other Trump supporters to seek reversal of Biden’s influence – and refused to be named for fear of arrest – said Trump had nothing to apologize for The protesters calling for Congress “did not scrutinize the vote. “Even if the presidential campaign could not provide reliable evidence about rigging.”
“The election was stolen, what else should people do?” We went to court and the courts would not even look at the evidence. We asked for mitch [McConnell, the Senate majority leader] and Republican leaders to stop naming Biden the winner and look at the evidence, and would not. So what choice did we have left? “said the protester who declined to say whether they were among those who broke into the Capitol.
“Some of the people there were fools, dressing them up as if they were in the shinty stick. But most of them were good-natured conservatives who defended the foundation to stop Congress from stealing the election. “
While Shaffer has no truck with Washington campaigners or Trump support for them, he sympathizes with allegations that the anger was fueled by what he said did not take major allegations about election irregularities.
“Everything that has happened since the election is a tragedy, and Trump is certainly in charge. But those who say there was none of the questions about the election are concerned. We should have a valid investigation into how our elections are conducted and results gathered and things like that, ”he said.
However, Shaffer acknowledges that state and national authorities, including Republican-run administrations in states such as Georgia, as well as state and federal courts, have all backed the election as valid.
“If there had been anything that could have changed my mind or even changed the outcome it would have been to the high court something that would have risen to the stage of legal review,” he said. .
Burl said Trump has been subjected to “four years of hatred” and would definitely have won the election on his record on the economy and immigration had it not been for a coronavirus pandemic.
She remains skeptical about the outcome, saying there were “too many weird things going on” that should have been investigated. But Burl had accepted that the outcome was not to be reversed.
“A few days ago, when I knew this whole thing was futile, I sat down and started crying.” A long time has come. I shouted on election night, and then I shouted a few days back because it is a process. I’m lamenting now. I don’t know if I’ll ever take it, ”she said.
“You have a lot of Republicans out there saying, Biden is not my president and he will never be my president.” Honestly, I feel that way. I will not accept it. “
Shaffer also believes it is time to move on. He is concerned that the mob on Capitol Hill has caused permanent damage to the cause of detention.
“People remember this. We certainly remembered what happened in Minneapolis and Portland over the summer. It doesn’t matter to a mob on the left, ”he said.
Burl agrees. “These few violent people have caused a great deal of controversy. They ruined it for us. They were weakening what should have been done. We are not antifa. You want to be an antifa, go with antifa, ”she said.