As all hell broke loose in the US Capitol this afternoon, Ivanka Trump took to Twitter to encourage her father's supporters to act peacefully, instead of turning to violence.
In a tweet that has since been deleted, Ivanka referred to this group of rioters as "American Patriots," and she was appropriately dragged for making such a wildly incorrect characterization of the people responsible for the incidnet.
Ivanka, who is Donald Trump's eldest daughter, later backtracked when responding to CNN's Kate Bennett.
At first, the pro-Trump mob was being called protesters because they were in D.C. to baselessly contest the results of the fair and secure 2020 presidential election. However, from the moment they breached the Capitol building, that label, as many have pointed out, has become invalid. Instead, the label of rioters, which seems to be a fitting description after looking at what transpired earlier today, has been assigned to the mob. But then again, this doesn't take into account what they were trying to do, and how they went about doing it. The 2001 Patriot Act defines domestic terrorism as actions that are "intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping."
What we witnessed today was throngs of people attempting to instill fear and possibly harm lawmakers who attended a joint session of Congress in the Capitol to certify election results that had Joe Biden defeating Trump in a landslide victory.
