Warnock: Loeffler and those who have ‘enabled’ Trump have ‘their fingerprints’ on Capitol riots

Senator-elect Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) weighed in on Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol building, saying Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) and other Republicans have their fingerprints on the attack. 

“The president and all of those who had enabled him, including Kelly Loeffler, who I ran against, and who has yet to concede this race, have their hands and their fingerprints are on this,” Warnock said on SiriusXM’s The Joe Madison Show.

Loeffler’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.

Warnock’s comments come a couple of days after he defeated Loeffler in Georgia’s Senate runoff race. His victory, along with fellow Georgia Democrat Jon Ossof’s win over Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) have given Democrats control of the Senate. 

Loeffler, along with a number of GOP senators led by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), had planned to oppose President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win on Wednesday before violence overtook the Capitol. 

Hours after the attack, Loeffler said she was dropping her plans to object to the results and condemned the violence. 

“The events that transpired have forced me to reconsider and I cannot now in good conscience object to certification of these electors. The violence, the lawlessness and siege of the halls of Congress are abhorrent and stand as a direct attack on what my objection was intended to protect: the sanctity of the American democratic process,” Loeffler said. 

While Hawley and Cruz condemned the violence on Wednesday, the two Republican senators still voted to support objections to the election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania. 

“[Hawley and Cruz], they’re thinking about 2024 and this crazy notion that somehow if they appeal to the worst in people, that they appeal to this base, that that gives them a chance,” Warnock said. “So they were willing to sacrifice the nation, sacrifice its most cherished ideals of democracy, the peaceful transition of power for their own personal ambition.”

Four people died amid the rioting on Wednesday, including one woman who was shot and killed by Capitol Police. The chaos ensued after a rally organized President Trump’s supporters in Washington, D.C., at which the president spoke.