“Stop the steal,” they cried as the halls of the Capitol building were flooded with rioters on January 6.
“Hang Mike Pence,” they screamed as the hunt for the Vice President began within the breached Capitol
“Fight for Trump,” his loyal followers chanted as the world watched the events unfold in Washington, D.C.
The attempted insurrection occurred on the afternoon of January 6, 2021 following a “March to Save America” Rally hosted by the right-wing group Women for America First, (CNBC,Schwartz). The group got all the proper permits, expecting a crowd of 5000 people, but that number ballooned to tens of thousands when the attendees’ goals shifted from listening to fighting.
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The riots that followed Trump’s appearance at the “March to Save America” rally were the results of months of baseless claims declaring the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged to falsely certify Joe Biden’s victory. The Trump campaign spent the previous 2 months vigorously objecting election results in key swing states to no success. This, however, did not stop the soon-to-be former President to prematurely declare victory.
“We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election,” Trump said on Election Night to roaring applause.
Trump’s re-election campaign faced an uphill battle during his administration’s mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic. The administration’s laissez faire policies regarding Covid regulations assured the public the virus would disappear ‘like magic’, while deaths were multiplying across the country.
“From the very beginning, that minimization … set a tone that reverberated from the highest levels of government to what the average person believes about the virus,” Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said (Lopez, 2020)
His approval rating was waning, so Trump needed a way to discredit the system that he was beholden to: The election of the people. Declaring election fraud was a favorite in Trump’s playbook, using it in 2016 to suggest he won popular vote in addition to the electoral vote against Hillary Clinton.
"In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally," Trump said in 2016.
Clinton won the popular vote by nearly three million (Krieg, 2016). Trump peddled election fraud in 2016 as was peddling it again in 2020. Following months of allegations by the President of ballot stuffing and vote dumping, the MITRI corporation found these claims were baseless and concluded voter fraud conspiracies were false (Durkee, Forbes, 2021).
“The claim that Dominion machines artificially inflated results to Joseph Biden, Jr.’s advantage is not supported in the election results data,” the researchers wrote.
Donald Trump undermined the legitimacy of mail-in voting for months and his rhetoric permeated in the minds of his supporters. A December 2020 poll from Quinnipiac University found 77% of Republicans believed in wide-spread fraud during the presidential election (Keating, 2020).
The lies spread by former-President Trump through misinformation campaigns and repeated by the Republican establishment created a powder keg of tensions in the United States. Major news outlets confirmed Joseph Biden as President Elect after a tense counting cycle, but the saga of Trump is not over.
He still has an Ace up his sleeve.
His cult of personality.
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On December 19, Trump tweeted his support for the “March to Save America” rally that he would speak at. Trump tweeted, “Be there, will be wild!” (Petras, Loehrke, Padilla, Zarracina, Borresen, USA Today).
On January 3, an internal intelligence report circulated within the Capitol Police department, detailed the need for increased security around the Capitol Building. The intelligence memo explicitly warned of the large group of pro-Trump supporters being partnered with white supremacist movements to target Congress itself.
“The memo concluded that Jan. 6 was shaping up to potentially be a perfect storm of danger because of the size of the expected crowds, the urgency of the group’s mission, the call for demonstrators to bring lethal weapons, the location of the two largest protests in proximity to the Capitol grounds and the fact that “both have been promoted by President Trump himself.”” (Leonnig, 2021).
The report was not widely shared among law enforcement agencies, according to an FBI official. The Virginia office of the FBI explicitly warned of a caravan of extremists traveling to Washington.
Other notable speakers that were present at the “Save America” rally include members of Trump’s personal clique like his sons, Eric and Don Jr., along with his lawyer, former New-York mayor Rudy Giuliani. The keynote speakers at the rally backed up the President’s baseless claims of election fraud, with Giuliani going so far as to suggest that “we need a trial by combat” to determine the ‘true’ election results (Daily Mail).
At 11:50 a.m., the President took the stage and delivered a speech full of lies, deception and dangerous rhetoric that threatened the integrity of American democracy. Across Constitution Avenue, about 2.5 miles away, Congress was meeting to certify the electoral results in a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
As Trump finished his speech at 1:10, he delivered a call to action that will live on as his legacy.
“We fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore,” Trump said.
Armed with assault rifles, plastic handcuffs and Trump’s promises still fresh in their minds, the mob marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the steps of the Capitol where they were met by a Capitol Police barricade.
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Capitol Police tried to contain the rioters, but as the angry hoard of Trump supporters swelled, police were forced to give up their positions. The violent scene quickly escalated as rioters surrounded police officers on their way to overrun the halls of the Capitol. Police outside were met with hostility.
"They're throwing metal poles at us," an officer says. "Multiple law-enforcement injuries," he adds in a panicked voice. (BBC, 2021).
Soon after the rioters break past the police barricade and rush up the West stairs to Capitol, police issue an evacuation warning to surrounding federal buildings… but not the Congress in session. As protesters scaled the walls of the Capitol Building, Vice President Pence was rushed away from the session. Soon after, Members of Congress were instructed to evacuate the chamber.
“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution. . . USA demands the truth!” Trump tweeted shortly after. (Petras, Loehrke, Padilla, Zarracina, Borresen, USA Today, 2021).
When insurrectionists breached the Capitol and overran police backup, their goal was to disrupt the counting of electoral votes. Their reasoning was to stop the perceived stolen election from being certified and would do anything to achieve that goal, including the assassination of prominent Democratic leaders.
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York shared her testimony on Instagram Live weeks after the attempted insurrection. She says she didn’t feel safe sharing an extraction point with GOP colleagues, fearing they would lead rioters to her location.
“. . .This is the moment where I thought everything was over,” she said.
She managed to hide in an office with another Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) for five hours during the coup.
“I’m like at a 10 because I’ve probably [experienced] two times today that I already thought I was going to die,” Ocasio-Cortez said recounting the experience.
Ocasio-Cortez disclosed that she is a victim of sexual assault and accused Republican lawmakers like Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) of attempting to downplay the seriousness of the riots like abusers who attempt to discredit and silence victims.
“These folks who tell us to move on, that it’s not a big deal, that we should forget what’s happened, or even telling us to apologize. These are the same tactics of abusers. And I’m a survivor of sexual assault,” she said (Peiser, Washington Post).
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An estimated 140 people were injured during the attempted insurrection and the official death toll of the event was five individuals. The total number of insurrectionists charged for their involvement in the event is up to 420, with more being charged every day.
“I can think of no greater failure by a commander in chief than to allow this kind of disturbance to continue, and not stop it,” Leon Panetta, former U.S. Defense secretary said.
Insider has a searchable list of people with charges relating to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6.
Sources:
Ben-Ghiat, Ruth. “Opinion: Trump's Big Lie Wouldn't Have Worked without His Thousands of Little Lies.” CNN, Cable News Network, 26 Jan. 2021, www.cnn.com/2021/01/25/opinions/big-lie-ben-ghiat/index.html.
Durkee, Alison. “'No Evidence' Of Election Fraud In Battleground States, Statistical Analysis Finds As Trump Continues False Claims.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 20 Feb. 2021, www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/02/19/no-evidence-of-election-fraud-in-battleground-states-statistical-analysis-finds-as-trump-continues-false-claims/?sh=2c3593303315.
Harrington, Rebecca, et al. “420 People Have Been Charged in the Capitol Insurrection so Far. This Searchable Table Shows Them All.” Insider, Insider, 16 Apr. 2021, www.insider.com/all-the-us-capitol-pro-trump-riot-arrests-charges-names-2021-1.
Keating, Christopher. “Quinnipiac Poll: 77% of Republicans Believe There Was Widespread Fraud in the Presidential Election; 60% Overall Consider Joe Biden's Victory Legitimate.” Courant.com, Hartford Courant, 10 Dec. 2020, www.courant.com/politics/hc-pol-q-poll-republicans-believe-fraud-20201210-pcie3uqqvrhyvnt7geohhsyepe-story.html.
Krieg, Gregory. “It's Official: Clinton Swamps Trump in Popular Vote.” CNN, Cable News Network, 22 Dec. 2016, edition.cnn.com/2016/12/21/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-popular-vote-final-count/index.html.
Leonnig, Carol D. “Capitol Police Intelligence Report Warned Three Days before Attack That 'Congress Itself' Could Be Targeted.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 17 Jan. 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/capitol-police-intelligence-warning/2021/01/15/c8b50744-5742-11eb-a08b-f1381ef3d207_story.html.
Lopez, German. “How Trump Let Covid-19 Win.” Vox, Vox, 24 Aug. 2020, www.vox.com/future-perfect/21366624/trump-covid-coronavirus-pandemic-failure.
MailOnlineVideo, director. 'Let's Have Trial by Combat!' Rudy Giuliani Riles up Crowd before Riot. YouTube, YouTube, 11 Jan. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM_OF6jYlwg.
Peiser, Jaclyn. “Ocasio-Cortez Reveals She's a Sexual Assault Survivor, Recounts 'Trauma' of Capitol Riot: 'I Thought Everything Was over'.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 2 Feb. 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/02/01/aoc-instagram-capitol-riot/.
Petras, George, et al. “Timeline: How the Storming of the U.S. Capitol Unfolded on Jan. 6.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 9 Feb. 2021, www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2021/01/06/dc-protests-capitol-riot-trump-supporters-electoral-college-stolen-election/6568305002/.
Schwartz, Brian. “Pro-Trump Dark Money Groups Organized the Rally That Led to Deadly Capitol Hill Riot.” CNBC, CNBC, 9 Apr. 2021, www.cnbc.com/2021/01/09/pro-trump-dark-money-groups-organized-the-rally-that-led-to-deadly-capitol-hill-riot.html.
Smith, Terrance. ABC News, ABC News Network, 11 Nov. 2020, abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-longstanding-history-calling-elections-rigged-doesnt-results/story?id=74126926.
Trial, House Impeachment. “Capitol Riots Timeline: The Evidence Presented against Trump.” BBC News, BBC, 13 Feb. 2021, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56004916.
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