Ezra Klein: “When the literalists rushed the chamber, Pence, Cruz and Hawley were among those who had to be evacuated, for their own safety. Some of their compatriots, like Senator Kelly Loeffler, rescinded their objections to the election, seemingly shaken by the beast they had unleashed. But there is no real refuge from the movement they fed. Trump’s legions are still out there, and now they are mourning a death and feeling yet more deceived by many of their supposed allies in Washington, who turned on them as soon as they did what they thought they had been asked to do.”

“The problem isn’t those who took Trump at his word from the start. It’s the many, many elected Republicans who took him neither seriously nor literally, but cynically. They have brought this upon themselves — and us.”

“The Republican Party has been put in a state of civil war.”

— GOP strategist Karl Rove, on Fox News.

A new YouGov poll found that 45% of Republican voters approved of the storming of the U.S. Capitol, while 43% opposed it.

Just 27% of Republicans think this action should be considered a threat to democracy, with 68% saying otherwise.

GOP strategist Frank Luntz told CNBC that Republicans in Congress must offer explanations for why they did not more forcefully condemn President Trump’s false election claims prior to the riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Said Luntz: “I think that the Republicans have a lot to do now to repair this breach. They have a lot to do to explain why they did not stand up to the president before this, why these protests were allowed to get out of control like this.”