NY State, Local Officials React To Capitol Siege

State and local officials in the Hudson Valley have weighed in on the storming Wednesday of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump.

The events interrupted the debate by both the House and the Senate of the 2020 presidential election results.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said it was a failed coup.

"This is the final chapter of an incompetent, cruel and divisive administration that has trampled on the Constitution and the rule of law at every turn," he said, "and we won't let President Trump, the members of Congress who enable him, or the lawless mob that stormed our nation's Capitol steal our democracy."

SEE ALSO: Trump Mob Breaches Capitol; 1 Killed In Melee; Biden Decries Riot

New York Attorney General Letitia James said the attempted coup was despicable.

"Today, it became violent," she said. "If blood is shed, it will be on his hands. These actions, fueled by lies and wild conspiracy theories espoused by President Trump, must be unequivocally condemned by every corner of our society."

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said in a statement, that, "as president, Donald Trump has been a failure, and the American people, our image and our values have paid the price."

She said Trump began his presidency at his inauguration talking about "American carnage," and "now that is how he is ending his time in office."

Stewart-Cousins said that people stormed the U.S. Capitol because the president has told them he was wronged, despite there being no evidence to support that claim.

"Over the past four years, more than any other time, we have seen that elections matter, voting matters and leadership matters," she said.

Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro called for the "mayhem" to stop.

"And it must stop now," he said in a statement. "America doesn't resort to chaos or violence, and we don't encourage or invite it."

Molinaro said the events at the U.S. Capitol this afternoon do not represent who we are as Americans.

"While we would never suppress vigorous debate and the right to protest — our country, after all, was founded on the right of its citizens to voice their opinions — the violence witnessed today is wrong and unacceptable, and it must come to an end," he said.

Rockland County Executive Ed Day called the scenes playing out today in the nation's capital were disturbing and called into question the values that Americans hold dear.

"As the duly elected leader of our country and given the violence and shocking images we have seen," he said, "it is the clear duty of the president to help mitigate this situation and to tell his supporters to immediately stand down and go home. Left unabated, the further risk to innocents, that include our law enforcement personnel, will greatly increase."

Day said that the United States is a nation of laws, "and we must all respect the electoral process which has been part of our history since the birth of this great country.

"As a nation, it is time for us to come together and move forward to a peaceful transition of power," he said.

Noam Bramson, the mayor of New Rochelle, told Patch that, "like so much associated with Donald Trump, the ugly and frightening insurrection at the Capitol is at once shocking and yet unsurprising — the natural and predicted culmination of years of provocation from a president who seems incapable of perceiving any national interest distinct from his own self-interest, and who revels in division."

He said the more tragic aspect of the Trump presidency was that "he has successfully dragged so many other Americans, most of whom genuinely think of themselves as patriots, into such a dark place, consumed by lies and grievance."

Bramson said that this will not be overcome by a single election or change in leadership, "but rather one that requires all Americans to reflect on and recommit ourselves to the values and norms which have made our nation an inspiration to the world."

Westchester County Executive George Latimer issued a statement on Facebook that said, in the history of the nation, Americans never go from disagreements to inciting violence or expecting a mob can control a legislative body in order to impose its will outside of its legislative structures.

"We have the right to free speech and the right to free assembly, but you don't have the right to impose your will, which you perceive to be the truth, upon all the rest of Americans because you feel so strongly about it," he said. "We all feel strongly about the things we believe in but we don't go beyond that in the world of violence to impose that."

Latimer said that no democracy has existed indefinitely and that it's easier to rule completely if one person rules the whole nation, without the need for debate.

"You have that in Russia, China, North Korea, Iran," he said, "and we don't want that here in the United States of America.

"It is time for our fellow Americans to understand that the election process has played out and has given us a new president and a new Congress," Latimer said. "Mob-ocracy is not the American system.

"Let this be a reminder we have a civic responsibility to not only vote but to uphold the basics of our democratic society," he said. "Or else, as Ben Franklin said, 'It's democracy only if we can keep it.' "