While political leaders in Washington, D.C. make sense of yesterday's Capitol Hill riots, lawmakers from around the world are offering their opinions on the matter. Most notably, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying weighed in.
As lawmakers were being evacuated, Chunying posted a video of the riots. During a media briefing later in the day, she pointed to U.S. media descriptions of the riots as “violence” and a “disgrace." She also compared the riots to the 2019 events in Hong Kong that Speaker Nancy Pelosi called a “beautiful sight to behold.”
“[We urge] people to reflect on why some people and media in [the] United States provided [a] different narrative [of the] social turmoil in Hong Kong in 2019,” China's Foreign Ministry tweeted.
Other world leaders blamed President Donald Trump for how the day played out. Even Trump's former ally, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, blamed the President for the nature of the riots.
"On the United States and the election, I want to say that all my life America has stood for some very important things — an idea of freedom and an idea of democracy. And ... so far as he encouraged people to storm the Capitol and insofar as the President has consistently cast doubt on the outcome of a free and fair election, I believe that that was completely wrong," Johnson said.
"President Trump and several members of Congress bear substantial responsibility for developments," Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven added.
Despite critiques from world leaders, the President has not taken responsibility for the recent riots. Instead, he issued a short video message asking that rioters respect police officers while continuing to make false claims that the election was illegitimate. Shortly after it was posted, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook removed it.
Photo Credit: Getty Images