WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday hit back at assertions that a mob attack on the Capitol showed the United States to be a “banana republic”.
A number of foreign critics, as well as former president George W. Bush, made the analogy after rioters stirred up by President Donald Trump rampaged through a session of Congress that certified his loss to Joe Biden.
“The slander reveals a faulty understanding of banana republics and of democracy in America,” said the top US diplomat, a staunch Trump loyalist, as two other members of the cabinet resigned over the violence on Wednesday.
“In a banana republic, mob violence determines the exercise of power. In the US, law enforcement officials quash mob violence so that people’s representatives can exercise power in accordance with the rule of law and constitutional government,” Pompeo tweeted.
Bush in a statement on Wednesday made veiled criticism of the “reckless behaviour” of members of his Republican Party in fuelling the “insurrection”.
“This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic – not our democratic republic.” – AFP, January 8, 2021
