COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — President Donald Trump “poured gas on the fire” ahead of the occupation of the U.S. Capitol, fellow Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio said Thursday in his harshest criticism of the president to date.
The president’s continued refusal to accept the election results, without producing any credible evidence of a rigged election, “has started a fire that has threatened to burn down our democracy,” DeWine said.
“This incendiary speech yesterday, the one he gave preceding the march that he gave to the protesters, served only to fan those flames, encouraging the mob behavior that ensued,” DeWine said.
On Wednesday afternoon, dozens in a pro-Trump mob took over the presiding officer’s chair in the Senate, the offices of the House speaker and the Senate dais, where one yelled, “Trump won that election.”
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Earlier in the morning, Trump told a…
