The country is still reeling after the U.S. Capitol fell under siege of angry Trump supporters on Wednesday (Jan. 6) during the congressional session to count and finalize Electoral College votes from the presidential election.

Former first lady Michelle Obama has now released a statement in response to the violent chaos.

“I woke up yesterday elated by the news of Reverend Raphael Warnock’s election victory. He’ll be Georgia’s first Black senator, and I was heartened by the idea that the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church—the home parish of Dr. King and a spiritual and organizational hub during the Civil Rights Movement—would be representing his state in the United States Senate,” Mrs. Obama started the powerful statement.

“In just a few hours, though, my heart had fallen harder and faster than I can remember. Like all of you, I watched as a gang—organized, violent, and mad they’d lost an election—laid siege to the United States Capitol. They set up gallows. They proudly waved the traitorous flag of the Confederacy through the halls. They desecrated the center of American government.”

She also called out Trump and the Republician Party, “The day was a fulfilment of the wishes of an infantile and unpatriotic president who can’t handle the truth of his own failures. And the wreckage lays at the feet of a party and media apparatus that gleefully cheered him on, knowing full well the possibility of consequences like these,” Mrs. Obama continued.

Mrs. Obama added, “It all left me with so many questions—questions about the future, questions about security, extremism, propaganda, and more. But there’s one question I just can’t shake: What if these rioters had been like the folks go to Ebenezer Baptist Church every Sunday? What would have been different?”

However, she ended on an optimistic note, “The work of putting America back together, of truly repairing what is broken, isn’t the work of any individual politician or political party. It’s up to each of us to do our part. To reach out. To listen. And to hold tight to the truth and values that have always led this country forward. It will be an uncomfortable, sometimes painful process. But if we enter into it with an honest and unwavering love of our country, then maybe we can finally start to heal.”

There are many questions on how hundreds of people were able to break into the Capitol building during the certification of Electoral College votes.

It is unclear if the rioters were from an organized group or just random people, but what is clear is that they were determined to stop Biden from becoming president, believing President Trump’s baseless claims of massive voter fraud that cost him the 2020 election.

Nonetheless, Congress certified Biden’s win just after 3:40 a.m. on Jan. 7.

President Trump is being largely criticized for inciting the violence for weeks by complaining that the 2020 presidential election was rigged. After multiple lawsuits in several states, his legal team lost countless cases by failing to provide any evidence of massive voter fraud that would overturn the election.