National Association of Manufacturers President Jay Timmons issued a statement Wednesday slamming rioters who "stormed the U.S. Capitol (yesterday), attacking police officers and first responders because Trump refused to accept defeat in a free and fair election." He also called on Vice President Mike Pence to "seriously consider" invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.
Despite the insurrection, Congress persisted, and officially affirmed President-elect Joe Biden's election victory at 3:38 a.m. Eastern time.
"Throughout this whole disgusting episode," according to the statement from Timmons, "Trump has been cheered on by members of his own party, adding fuel to the distrust that has enflamed violent anger. This is not law and order. This is chaos. It is mob rule. It is dangerous. This is sedition and should be treated as such. The outgoing president incited violence in an attempt to retain power, and any elected leader defending him is violating their oath to the Constitution and rejecting democracy in favor of anarchy.
"This is not the vision of America that manufacturers believe in and work so hard to defend," he added. "Across America today, millions of manufacturing workers are helping our nation fight the deadly pandemic that has already taken hundreds of thousands of lives. We are trying to rebuild an economy and save and rebuild lives. But none of that will matter if our leaders refuse to fend off this attack on America and our democracy—because our very system of government, which underpins our very way of life, will crumble."
Click here to read the full statement from Timmons.
