MICHELLE OBAMA has launched a scathing attack on Donald Trump who was branded “infantile and unpatriotic” for his role in the riots that unfolded in the US Capitol this week.
The former First Lady also hit out at the police’s handling of the mob in comparison with the heavy-handed approach taken when dealing with Black Lives Matter protesters last summer.
Speaking in a statement posted to social media, Obama described the chaotic scenes witnessed in the US as a "fulfilment of the wishes of an infantile and unpatriotic president who can't handle the truth of his own failures."
Trump spoke at a rally held ahead of a meeting of Congress to confirm Joe Biden’s victory in last year’s US elections.
The outgoing President used the rally to reiterate his unfounded claims that the election was stolen.
He also encouraged his followers to take a stand against the result.
Those remarks sparked extraordinary scenes, with rioters invading the Capitol building and forcing lawmakers into hiding.
Responding to the violent chaos that followed, Trump posted a video to social media making yet more baseless claims about the election and telling fans, "We love you."
Five people died during the riots, including one supporter who was shot dead and a police officer who was assaulted with a fire extinguisher.
Trump has since hit out at the behaviour of those who invaded Congress, however there are growing calls for the President to be impeached.
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) January 7, 2021
As well as criticising Trump, Obama also hit out at the law enforcement response, suggesting it woild have been stronger in different circumstances.
"What if these rioters had looked like the folks who go to Ebenezer Baptist Church every Sunday?" she said. "What would have been different?"
"Seeing the gulf between the responses to yesterday's riot and this summer's peaceful protests and the larger movement for racial justice is so painful," she added.
"It hurts. ... in city after city, day after day, we saw cracked skulls and mass arrests, law enforcement pepper spraying its way through a peaceful demonstration for a presidential photo op."
She also noted how Trump and many of his allies had criticised the act of athletes kneeling during the national anthem and compared it with the “unpatriotic” scene that played out in Washington DC, saying it "made it painfully clear that certain Americans are, in fact, allowed to denigrate the flag and symbols of our nation. They've just got to look the right way."
She concluded with the promise that "even in the darkness, there are glimmers of hope".
Obama has been critical of Trump and his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in the past few months.
During a speech the Democratic National Convention,she branded Trump "the wrong president for our country."
"He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head," she said.
"He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us."
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