I saw the tragedy of Jan. 6 happen live, because I had the 2020 presidential election certification playing before me on cable news.

Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) seemingly regained their souls after four years of sycophantic Trumpism. All senators talked pedantically, yet profoundly.

That is, until Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) bucked his attorney and Senate norms, to breathe life into a lie about the election’s legitimacy. It was only after Hawley’s objection that the ceremonial procedure came to a screeching, terrified, smoldering halt.

A hundred members of Congress and the media fled for their lives. And it all came under the incitement of a crowd, not far away, from the president.

Basic facets of that day went unverified for some time. But now, the apologists are out of excuses. The truth of the lynch mob’s villainy is out. The mob made a gallows for our vice president, delivered at least 11 bombs to the U.S. Capitol grounds, brought multiple firearms, handcuff zip-ties (“flex cuffs”), and equipped rioters with lead pipes. It is a rule of theater — Chekhov’s Gun — that actors carry objects on-stage only for use, not bluffing. On Parler, plotters debated which and how many of the Capitol’s denizens to murder. “We came close to half of the House nearly dying,” said Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

If you hear calls to come together in healing or unity, remember this.

The United States’ policy is not to negotiate with terrorists. We must stop lending credence to liars with soft, weak language. Cancerous propaganda is not a “conspiracy theory” — it’s only a big lie. The people who murdered Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick with a fire extinguisher are not theorists. They practice conspiracy, treason and bloodshed with expertise. After 159 years, the traitor Confederate flag streamed through the halls of the Capitol.

I do not begrudge anyone for supporting Donald J. Trump in either of our fair elections. Genetics and culture make us either liberal or conservative. But after Jan. 6, supporting a president who incited a cop-killing mob to overturn an election is unconscionable.

This is easier for me than for a Republican to write. I acknowledge that too many of my fellow Democrats are ungracious in victory, too unforgiving. Republicans counted among the most courageous people responding to the sack of Congress. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) confronted Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for Cruz’s lie-peddling as invaders stormed our Capitol, shouting, “See what you have gotten?”

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger interpreted it best of all, calling this our Kristallnacht. Schwarzenegger urged us to heal together while holding the guilty accountable for their “unforgivable” sedition and murder. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) questions her party membership. Cindy McCain, the widow of John McCain, is being served with a complaint from the Arizona Republican Party for daring to criticize and rebuke the president that smeared her war hero-husband’s military service, the same president who attempted a coup.

Our senators and congressmen — Brian Schatz, Mazie Hirono, Ed Case, Kaiali‘i Kahele — must vote to impeach and convict President Trump. If not now, when else would impeachment matter? The thousands who destroyed the ancient marble, iron and wood, who stole, who covered congressional offices in feces and urine, and beat cops with lead pipes, are planning more armed events at Capitol buildings. There is a “clear and present danger.” It is time to use lawful means to remove our president from office.

Dylan P. Armstrong is former vice chairman of the Oahu County Committee of the Oahu County Democrats, and former secretary of the nonpartisan group, Americans for Democratic Action, Hawaii.