CNN commentators remarked how there were “shockingly” parallels between South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declaring martial law Tuesday and President-elect Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
Yeol declared martial law after accusing the opposition party of taking part in “anti-state” activity and supporting pro-North Korean forces. Images of soldiers attempting to enter the National Assembly quickly went viral as the body voted overwhelmingly to condemn the order.
The “Inside Politics with Dana Bash” panel discussed the news and footage from the scene while openly linking them to Trump.
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A CNN panel linked Trump to South Korea’s martial law declaration. (CNN screenshot)
“We’re seeing soldiers entering the National Assembly. I mean, you talked about, shockingly, the parallels of January 6, just the image of a democracy facing this kind of crisis. I think this is something that people are scared about, or Democrats are scared about when they think about Trump’s return, because he has encouraged the use of force to achieve political goals, and you know, or try to achieve a political goal on January 6, and or at least played with it,” Punchbowl News co-founder John Bresnahan said.
“We’ve talked about now pardoning some of these folks on January 6, the rioters, insurrectionists, whatever you want to call them. So this is on the top of people’s mind,” he continued. “And then I think when they see scenes like this – it’s just shocking to see a decades-long democracy, one of the closest U.S. allies in the region, in the world, have this, go through this kind of convulsion.”
“It stunned Washington, Capitol Hill. I’m trying to get a response from people. Nobody wants to say anything because they don’t know how to deal with it,” he added.
Bash agreed throughout his comments.
Other panelists also referenced Trump while discussing the situation. CNN senior White House correspondent MJ Lee, who was born in South Korea, suggested Americans need to pay attention to the news in light of Trump taking office again soon.
National Assembly employees spray a fire extinguisher towards soldiers at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea. (AP)
“Obviously, we around the table should talk about why this should be an important thing for Americans to pay attention to, particularly given that Donald Trump is about to be president in a number of weeks, somebody who has said he wants to use the military to go after his own enemies,” Lee said.
CNN chief domestic correspondent Phil Mattingly elaborated on the impact of Trump taking office during this chaotic time.
“I think the fact that the president-elect is taking power at a moment where he clearly feels more emboldened than he has ever felt based on the electoral results, based on what we‘ve seen on Capitol Hill with his nominees that are not in any way hewing to kind of a traditional norm in terms of what they represent,” Mattingly said.
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Rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
“This president-elect is coming to power, not just thinking he can do what he wants and what he said he plans to do domestically, but also internationally,” he added. “South Korea is not an insignificant piece of his kind of broader geopolitical strategy, which diverges very sharply from the norms of the United States. Now, that‘s what he ran on. That‘s what he was elected on. Do your thing, man. But this is a very different moment than it was in 2017.”
Yeol lifted his martial law declaration after lawmakers unanimously rejected the move. Under South Korean law, the president must lift martial law if the Parliament demands it with a majority vote.
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