The penultimate stages of the global drama that is the US Presidential elections took an ugly turn on the 6th of January, 2021, when pro-Trump supporters breached the US Capitol building while Congress convened to validate President elect Joe Biden’s victory. President Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse the results of the US Presidential elections escalated to an entirely new level when his supporters and well-wishers decided to storm and invade the US Capitol building.
The mob, described as a raucous group of demonstrators by many a commentator, bypassed security and even managed to enter the Senate Chamber. The protestors roamed around the halls of the building and vandalized different parts of the premises.
Lawmakers on both ends of the political spectrum of the country condemned the riots and criticized the rioters. Senator Mitt Romney, who was a candidate for the 2012 Presidential Elections, branded these actions as an “insurrection” and said that “They’ll be remembered for their role in this shameful episode in American history.”
Attacking and looting one of America’s safest buildings will have serious consequences and repurcussions and we are starting to witness this now. There have been reports of rowdy and unethical behaviour from passengers on various airlines out of Washington D.C. which led to the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), the union representing American Airlines’ flight attendants, to raise the alarm of passengers “exhibiting politically motivated aggression towards other passengers and crew” on flights out of Washington D.C.
According to the Chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, the Capitol building rioters should be placed on the federal no-fly list.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been cracking down on these protestors and has started barring them from flying. The hashtag #NoFlyList started trending on social media.
In a video that has gone viral, staff of Delta Airlines can be seen removing people for their role in the Capitol building attacks. One of the persons involved claimed that she was removed for “freedom of speech.”
But according to the Associated Press, claims of this no-fly list has been widely exaggerated as most of these passengers have been removed from flights due to their refusal to comply with the airlines’ policy to wear a mask. Numerous videos with the hashtag #NoFlyList have been widely shared on Twitter with false and exaggerated information. Most of these passengers acted unruly and created chaos on the flights which led to them getting kicked off rather than them being involved in the Capitol riots.
Two other videos that were circulated featured passengers who were removed from American Airlines flights. The incidents occurred before Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called on to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to add anyone who was identified breaching the Capitol last week to the federal no-fly list, part of the U.S. government’s Terrorist Screening Database. The FBI, which manages the list, said in a statement that it’s considering adding Capitol rioters.