Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, promoted a baseless conspiracy theory claiming that President Donald Trump did not sincerely concede on Thursday and that he might “incite further violence and further mob action,” Mediaite reported.
“He did not take any responsibility for the role he played in what happened yesterday,” she said on CNN’s Erin Burnett Out Front.
“I am concerned about what is going to happen during the inaugural ceremony, for example, and anything else that he might do militarily that could bring us to the brink of war,” she continued.
Trump has said he does not plan to attend Biden’s inauguration, which already was expected to be a scaled-down affair due to the coronavirus.
The president told protesters Wednesday in a video posted on Twitter to go home in love and peace, but the far-left platform censored the video.
Now, Democrats claim Trump incited and did not de-escalate the violence.
In a concession speech the following day, Trump said “a new administration will be inaugurated.”
Hirono, however, does not believe him.
“It was very clear he was reading off of the prompter under extreme pressure. Once the prompter is gone and pressure is off he will go back to spewing lies,” she said.
“In the teleprompter speech, he lied about deploying the National Guard,” she continued. “He will say one thing one day and next day he is doing something else. He needs the adulation of his supporters so much that I do not expect him to act normal for any length of time.”
Trump exercised statesman-like restraint on Wednesday. With an army of hundreds of thousands of loyal supporters marching on Capitol Hill, he told them to stand down and respect the illegally certified election results.
Hirono said she does not expect Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment.
“Why would it surprise us to know they are not going to stand up to him at this point,” she said. “They would have to grow a conscience. It would not be surprising that they do not do what I would call the patriotic thing is as they exit the door.”
But she encouraged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to pursue announce last-minute, symbolic impeachment.
“If Nancy Pelosi goes ahead with impeaching the president, I would welcome the chance to vote to convict him a second time,” Hirono said with a laugh.
Trump was acquitted the first time around after House Democrats’ impeachment on two noncriminal charges—abuse of power and contempt of Congress—over a phone call to the Ukrainian president failed to move any GOP members of Congress except Sen. Mitt Romeny, R-Utah, to side with them.
