Megan Rapinoe has claimed that the “murderous mob” of President Donald Trump's supporters who stormed the Capitol showed the United States’ true colours.
The attack led to five deaths after Trump’s followers breached the Capitol while Congress’ moved to certify Joe Biden's victory following November's presidential election.
Rapinoe, who has criticised Trump on numerous occasions in recent years and recently labelled him as “completely crazy”, blamed the unrest on “white supremacy” when discussing the events of last week.
"This was about white supremacy and holding up white supremacy," Rapinoe told reporters.
"Hopefully (it's) the final straw for so many people to really understand the reason we're here is because we never have actually had a reckoning with what our country really is.
"I think we showed very much our true colours. This is not the first time we've seen a murderous mob like that."
Rapinoe, a World Cup winner with the USWNT, spoke at the national team’s training camp in Orlando and called for accountability and punishment immediately before the healing process could start.
"All the calls for unity and moving forward cannot come without justice," she added. "If we do not punish this and investigate this to the fullest extent, it only encourages more of this to happen.
"So anybody thinking, 'Oh well, they really wouldn't have done that much and we should give them sort of a pass'. Maybe we haven't seen this in our lifetimes.
"But we should make no mistake about what the intent was. It was a murderous moment. Five people are dead ... we can't bring them back."
The FBI has opened 160 case files in its investigation of the storming of the Capitol, the head of the agency's Washington field office said on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the president said his remarks in a speech to his followers before they attacked the Capitol were "totally appropriate".
Reuters contributed to this report
