“Now I’m in shock”, she said remembering the horrifying photos posted on social media from the protest. “Not in shock that it happened but I’m in shock to the extent of the magnitude in which it was allowed to happen.”
Hafeezat Bishi, a Major in Communication and Social Influence at Temple University, Philadelphia, reacted to the appalling event that took place at the American Capitol
She also expressed some thoughts about the future for the Biden Administration in an exclusive Platform interview by Kieran Burt.
The 20-year-old said: “My first reaction when I saw this was confusion.
“Why are people rallying?
“I later find out that everyone was planning for today, to come to the Capitol and storm it.”
“If it was any other protest, like a BLM or an Islamic protest, they’d be bodies all over the floor.
“They’d be hundreds of arrests.”
“This is the proof that police brutality is real.
“The police know what de-escalation tactics are, that they know how to bring these types of crowds down and they choose not to.
“You can definitely see that there is a bit of comradery between the officers and the protestors.”
“It’s very embarrassing. We’re a spectacle to the rest of the world and I’m embarrassed to be a part of it.”
Hafeezat explained that she didn’t watch the video that the President tweeted out, but that she read snippets.
Because of what people were saying and because Twitter took it down, she knew it was ‘nonsense’, and that the President was the one who incited the violence.
“People are saying that they want to invoke the 25th Amendment.
“I don’t see it being invoked. I know there are some more progressive Congressmen who are trying to bring impeachment.
“It’s going to get shot down.”
“There are so many Republicans who are completely brainwashed into following Trump they will stop anything that goes against Trump.
“I don’t see him facing any repercussions for his words or his actions that incited what happened.
“I don’t see any repercussions for Rudy Giuliani or anybody on the Trump team because they’ve been able to come out unscathed for many things they’ve done.
“I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for justice to be served because justice should have been served a long time ago, but it was not.”
“We impeached him, but he wasn’t convicted.
“And I knew he wasn’t going to be convicted because it was a majority Republican Senate.
“But for Republican Senators, to just forgo all legal proceedings and blindly rally behind him because he’s the Republican president baffles me.”
“Trump does not uphold Republican values; he upholds white supremacist values.
“Nobody is going to hold him up to the law because we’ve become used to his antics.”
“I don’t understand why no one has held him up to the law. If any other president, Republican or Democrat had done the things Trump’s done over the past four years, they would have been persecuted to the highest authority of the law.”
Moving onto what Hafeezat expects in the next two weeks before Biden takes office, is that there will be more insurrection attempts.
“All the Republicans and Trump supporters, Tomi Lahren, Ted Cruz, all of them were saying that if we lose the election we won’t be rioting in the streets and that they would concede peacefully.
“But now, you’re calling it a fraudulent election, and you’re not taking the results peacefully.
“When experts have said multiple times there is no signs of fraud.”
“When Biden is be sworn in, I’m scared that during his inauguration that there will be people trying to harm, because that’s something people might try and do.
“There will be people trying to incite violence.”
Hafeezat explained her hopes for the Biden Administration, firstly talking about healing the division in America.
She explains that because Biden “likes to play both sides” and that he “knows how to play the game”, that Biden will be able to pull more people onto his side and unify them.
However, there are still several Trumpist Republicans who will try to stop Biden from creating the unity and healing he speaks about.
She then spoke about if she thought Biden would be able to pass his policy agenda.
“I think with the Democratic majority in the House and Senate it’s more likely. I won’t say for sure though.”
“The House has been overwhelmingly Democrat and will support Biden.
“There may be some Democrats who occasionally won’t support Biden, but we will still have that majority to pass bills.”
“The Senate is where it gets dicey.”
“I’m really happy we won a majority, but because it’s so slim we would need every Democrat to vote for something for it go through.”
Finally, Hafeezat spoke a little about the content of what Biden is offering.
“Biden is already backing away from some of the campaign promises he has made, when it comes to immigration, stimulus and healthcare. He’s gone on TV and backed away from some of them already.”
“I knew he was lying.
“A lot of people knew he was lying. I think the main issue is that we really needed Trump out.
“We had to vote for the lesser of two evils in this election. I didn’t want to do that, but it had to be done.
“But after another 4 years of a Trump presidency, I think America would have been burned down.”
“I would have packed my bags and gone if Trump won again.
“I don’t know where, but I knew I couldn’t stay in the US if that happened.
“I was very anxious about this election and I’m so happy that it went the way it went.”
“A lot of the progressive democrats are going to try their best to sway Biden to get him to do the things he needs to do.
“They will hold him accountable as well.
“All we can do is hope.”
By Kieran Burt
Featured image: BBC
Input image: Haafeezat Bishi