SAN ANTONIO – The certification of the electoral college votes by Congress was disrupted as President Donald Trump’s supporters breached the capitol building on Wednesday.
“This is the day that we will remember,” said Carey Latimore, Ph.D., an associate professor of history at Trinity University.
Latimore said there have been riots to dispute elections in the past.
“One is the Wilmington riots of 1898, and that’s a case in Wilmington, North Carolina, in which you had some rioters who disputed an election. And so, they decided to go and try to take over a town and sort of decertify, by their own self, a local election,” Latimore said.
As Congress moves forward with the certification of the electoral votes, Latimore said there needs to be an emphasis on vetting information.
“When you hear people in high positions spouting off conspiracy theories and unvetted ideas and just theories, it’s not helpful. We need our leaders to be grounded in evidence and things that have been sourced,” Latimore said.
The presidential election has undergone vote recounts, and no widespread fraud was found. Courts also dismissed claims of voter fraud brought on by the Trump administration.
Latimore said while it has been a difficult day following the riots in the U.S. Capitol, the country has managed to come together even after wars.
“We somehow got through a Civil War that ripped us apart in the two nations. We got through a civil rights movement, and we’re still pushing through that to kind of enact those things to make it a better nation for everybody. But, we found ways of moving forward,” Latimore said.