Foreign Affairs Minister Evarist Bartolo has condemned the violent scenes in Washington after supporters of US President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building on Wednesday. 

Bartolo said the riot that forced the suspension of a joint session of Congress to confirm Joe Biden's electoral victory was an attack on democracy and exposed the division in the country. 

"They wanted to erase the choice that American citizens made with their vote,” Bartolo said in a Facebook post.

Bartolo said he checked in with Malta’s ambassador to Washington, Keith Azzopardi, who reassured him that the Maltese community in the area was safe.

“When the Maltese embassy saw what was about to happen, they closed early and sent everyone home to make sure they stayed away from the chaos,” the minister said.

“The violent scenes we saw were shocking in any country, but one certainly wouldn’t expect it to happen in Washington in the US,” Bartolo added.

The minister also explained that when all EU member states had met to discuss Biden’s electoral victory, many believed that hope for the US to become a more benevolent force in the world was “renewed.”

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Bartolo said that Biden had a lot of work to do to heal his own country.  

“A lot of work needs to be put in to convince the divided states of America to truly become the United States of America,” Bartolo said .

“I am sure that what happened yesterday in Washington can serve a lot of good if Americans use the ample good qualities they do have in order to humbly and seriously examine their conscience and ask themselves why this has happened,” he added.

Maltese-American politicians outraged

Maltese-American politicians said they were outraged by the riots.

Biden’s nominee for secretary of transportation Pete Buttigieg said that “words have consequences, especially the word of a president and his allies".

State representative for Michigan’s 23rd district Darrin Camilleri said “a group of fascists and domestic terrorists stormed our nation’s capitol to attempt to overturn the will of the American people in our presidential election.”

“I’m infuriated, sad, and scared, but not at all surprised,” he added.

Camilleri also took aim at Republican legislators who supported Trump’s multiple efforts to claim voting fraud by “attending Trump’s rallies, opening up the doors of the capitol to armed fascists and white supremacists, signing bogus lawsuits and sending supporting letters.”

“Those who were silent are also complicit in their cowardice. GOP representatives who have supported these efforts are not fit for public office,” he added.

Wayne County commissioner Melissa Daub, née Melissa Cauchi, shared dramatic news footage from within the building, wherein MAGA-hat wearing protesters can be seen clashing with police.

Her only comment was “I want to see handcuffs”.

The attack, which Biden labeled as "an insurrection," led to protesters successfully storming the building and going as far as the debating chamber within the building.

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Four people died in the unrest, including an air force veteran and Trump supporter who was shot in the head. 

Although Trump said there will be “an orderly transition” on January 20, the sitting president promised to extend his campaign to “make America great again” whilst referring to his time in office as “the greatest first term in presidential history.”

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