Rapinoe on the invasion of the Capitol: "This is America. Make no mistake about it"
The USWNT star spoke about the invasion of the Capitol: “Unleashing a white supremacist mob is nothing new to America”.
USWNT star Megan Rapinoe has spoken out about the attack on the US Capitol, which today led to President Donald Trump being impeached.
The 35-year-old striker began her press conference on Tuesday with a statement on what happened at Congress when a mob of pro-Trump supporters descended on Washington DC and rampaged into Congress.
“Hopefully [it’s] the final straw for so many people to really understand the reason that we’re here is because we never have actually had a reckoning with what our country really is,” Rapinoe said. “This is America. Make no mistake about it. I think we showed very much our true colors. This is not the first time we’ve seen a murderous mob like that. Unleashing a white supremacy mob is nothing new to America as people of color, black and brown, know very well.”
Rapinoe asked lawmakers to take swift action over the events: “All the calls for unity and moving forward obviously cannot come without justice. If we do not punish this and investigate this to the fullest extent, it only encourages more of this to happen,” she said. “We should not underestimate what could have happened. I think we are very lucky that that officer led that mob away from the Senate. We saw people with weapons and people with zip ties and they put a gallows up outside the Capitol building where they were chanting to hang the vice-president of the United States.
“So anybody thinking, ‘Oh well, they really wouldn’t have done that much and I think we should give them sort of a pass’. Maybe we haven’t seen this in our lifetimes, but I think that we should make no mistake about what the intent was. It was a murderous moment. Five people are dead and we can’t bring them back.
“Hopefully this is the last layer that we needed to rip off, although it’s been abundantly clear for a number of hundred years what the real issue is. This was about white supremacy, and holding up white supremacy, and I hope that we can see this and move forward with justice. I think that’s the only way that we can actually move forward. I think it’s all out in the open, it’s all stripped bare, and so hopefully the lawmakers will have the courage to do what needs to be done and every day citizens as well.”