On January 15th, of 2021, Libel contributor Viljami Kaskiluoto wrote an article entitled “A Violent End to Trump’s Era”. While my fellow writer made some excellent points, I must however disagree with some ideas presented in his January article. Where he claims that Trump will surely be a lonely man as the world and nation condemn him in disgust, my colleague could not, unfortunately, foresee a future in which Trump’s legacy lasts much longer than we hoped. As much as liberals and progressives across the world hope and pray for the end of the far-right, nationalist Trumpist era, unfortunately, there are problems that persist. Most importantly, and perhaps most dangerously, the core beliefs and emotions inspired by Trumpist ideology including far-right extremist violence, conspiracy, and loyalty to Trump over country have eaten away at the foundations of American democracy.
Lots of people, myself among them, have followed the aftermath of the January 6th riot at the Capitol Building closely. In this article, I will recap and review everything that has happened the year following the insurrection as well as provide commentary on the importance of these events in relation to youth and American democracy.
One year later, what has happened and how can we prevent the tragedy of that day from ever happening again?
Before the Attack
In November 2020, Democrat Joseph R. Biden, a former vice president and senator, won the presidential election. The incumbent, Republican Donald J. Trump, immediately decried the election as being rife with fraud and illegal manipulation. Across the country, Republican-governed states launched investigations into voter fraud. It should be noted that the claims of fraud were also made by Trump after he lost the popular vote in the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton. Unsurprisingly, no widespread voter fraud was found by anyone.
Trump and other Republicans, despite glaring evidence, undertook massive efforts to overturn the election results including audits, investigations, and filing (and ultimately losing) over 63 lawsuits. Trump began a movement of conspiracy theories, factual inaccuracies, and blatant ignorance which came to be known as the “Big Lie”. Multiple experts, and even Republican politicians, have characterized the effort to overturn the democratic election through the violence on January 6th and the Big Lie as a coup d’état[1]. The effort led by Trump turned to pressure Republican governors, secretaries of state, and state legislators to overturn the election results of their states. These efforts may put Trump under investigation by some state and local prosecutors.
On January 6th, 2021, the United States Congress was scheduled to meet jointly to certify the winner of the Electoral College vote under 3 U.S.C. §15. Normally this process is ceremonial. In December of 2020, Representative Mo Brooks (R-AL) met three times with President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Representatives Hice (R-GA), Jordan (R-OH), and Biggs (R-AZ), representative-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and Trump legal advisors to discuss how to overturn the election during this meeting. Beginning in mid-December and continuing until the violent insurrection, Trump called for a large rally in front of the Capitol to challenge the certification of the election results. This rally was organized by pro-Trump organizations and was joined by members of far-right militia groups.
It is estimated that there were over one million discussions of storming the Capitol Building on social media. Many news sources reported that violence was to be expected on January 6th in the District of Columbia near Congress. Additionally, online open-source intelligence-sharing websites note warnings of violence.
On January 4th, the National Park Service granted a permit for a First Amendment rally to Women for America First with an estimated 5,000 attendees for January 5th. Also on January 4th, then-Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller ordered in a memo that the D.C. Guard could not be deployed with weapons, helmets, body armor, or riot gear without his approval.
On January 5th, then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund held a conference with top officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Secret Service, and the National Guard. Sund later claimed that none of those in attendance provided reports that there would be a coordinated attack on the Capitol by well-armed insurrectionists. Staffers and aides to members of the Senate “asked for briefings with Michael Stenger… [the] Senate sergeant at arms”, per the Washington Post. CNN reported that new orders from the Secretary of the Army required the D.C. National Guard Commanding Major General William J. Walker to seek permission before responding to a civil disturbance. This was a horrible mistake that would lead to the situation to evolving quickly during the next day.
Attack on the U.S. Capitol
At 1:13am on Wednesday, January 6th, 2021, Ali Alexander, a far-right activist and organizer of one of the groups attempting to overturn the election tweeted “First official day of the rebellion.” What follows is chaos, as Trump supporters descend on America’s Capitol to fight for the overturn of a democratic election.
For the next several hours, Congress meets while Republican members object to the Electoral College votes. Simultaneously, the rally outside has grown larger, and President Trump incites emotions and excitement, calling for his supporters to “take back our country”.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) warns senators that refusing to certify the election results would push American democracy into a “death spiral”. He was right.
Trump waits idly, with reports of actual enjoyment of the chaos, as law enforcement is overwhelmed, and politicians are hidden and evacuated. At 4:17 Trump uploads a video to Twitter denouncing the riots but continuing his false claims of election victory. He affirms the claim that “it was a landslide election” “that was stolen from [Trump supporters]” in the video meant to pacify his supporters. After all the violence has ended and the Capitol is secured, six senators still vote to overturn election results.
After the violence, a total of five people have died amidst or because of the riot. Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old veteran of the Air Force was shot in the chest by a police officer after she attempted to climb through a broken window in a barricaded door. Brian Sicknick, a 42-year-old Capitol Police officer was pepper-sprayed during the riot and suffered two strokes the next day, dying soon after. Rosanne Boyland died of an amphetamine overdose during the riot. Kevin Greeson and Benjamin Philips, two other rioters, died naturally of heart disease. 138 police officers were injured, with 15 hospitalized.
The psychological trauma caused by the attack led to four responding police officers to later commit suicide.
According to Insider Magazine, 727 people have been charged in connection to the Capitol insurrection.
Immediate Aftermath
With Congress still in session overnight, tensions from the previous chaotic day boiled over. The Associated Press reported that at 2:20 in the morning of January 7th, a “small group of House lawmakers came close to physically fighting”.
That afternoon in a televised press conference, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi asked for the resignation of Capitol Police Chief Sund, noting that he hadn’t “called [congressional leadership] since this happened”. In that same press conference, Pelosi called on members of the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution[2], essentially a vote by senior administration officials to oust the President.
On Wednesday, January 13th, only a week after the insurrection, President Donald J. Trump wass impeached for the second time for “inciting violence against the Government of the United States”. Before he can be convicted, former vice president Joseph R. Biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States and California Senator Kamala Harris is sworn in as the 49th vice president.
After a five-day Senate trial, Trump is acquitted by a vote of 57-43, falling short of the 67 votes needed for a conviction. Seven Republicans joined all Democrats in the vote to convict, resulting in the most bipartisan support of a presidential impeachment trial.
Aside from his political enemies, Trump also faced strong condemnation and opposition from his own administration officials and political supporters. Before their terms ended as a result of the incoming president, Trump aides and administrators resigned in protest[3]. It should be noted that some senior officials chose not to resign, in an effort to stimy further opposition to a peaceful transition of power. Several corporations and PACs (political donation non-profits) pulled financial support of Trump and Republicans who voted to overturn the election results.
Investigations
Despite attempts to form a bipartisan, bicameral commission in the design of the commission that investigated the September 11th attacks, Republican opposition resulted in two separate investigations by the Senate and the House into the attacks on the Capitol.
On June 8th, 2021, the Senate released its investigation. A bipartisan group of the top members of the Senate Rules and the Homeland Security Committees conducted the investigation with some cooperation from the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and the House Sergeant at Arms. The report stated that the Capitol Police where aware of a threat but did not take it seriously, share intelligence, incorporate warnings into plans for January 6th, or prepare the force. According to the report, more than a dozen intelligence failures were counted. Some new legislation and other measures were recommended. The report only investigated operational and intelligence failures and did not investigate the motivation or incitement of the rioters.
On July 1st, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi appointed seven Democrats and one Republican to serve on a Select Committee whose purpose would be to investigate the January 6th insurrection. Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced the five members he would recommend to the committee. Of those five, three of them had voted to overturn the results of the election, with two of that group even signing onto a Supreme Court case aiming to overturn the results of the election in four states. In a statement, Nancy Pelosi said she had rejected two of the recommended members who had signed onto the Supreme Court case, citing her concern of the integrity of an investigation of which they were a part. McCarthy rescinded all his recommendations, stating that he would refuse to choose anyone unless all five recommendations were approved. Pelosi, in an effort to bring about more bipartisan balance, appointed Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) in addition to the committee’s vice chair, Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY).
The investigation by the House Select Committee on the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol is ongoing but has resulted in information previously unknown to the public. Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows provided thousands of documents and text messages to the committee. For example, while the events of January 6th were unfolding, Donald Trump Jr. asked Meadows to convince the president that he needed to stop. Fox News, a conservative news network which espoused the claims of election fraud and consistently shows support for the former President, had several news hosts who texted Meadows in an attempt to persuade Trump to stop the riot. A January 3rd, 2021 report from CNN states that the House committee found that “Trump did nothing to stop the violence, which [the committee chair and vice chair] see as a dereliction of duty”.
Dereliction of duty is an understatement as it fails to grasp the true magnitude of what inciting a riot against the government in order to maintain power is.
What It Means
For the first week after the attack, journalists struggled to find the word that described the events that took place at the Capitol. Per the Associated Press, initially, U.S. media outlets described the developing situation outside the Capitol as a “rally” or a “protest”. As the events escalated and worsened, the press began to describe the attack as “an assault, a riot, an insurrection, domestic terrorism, or even a coup attempt”.
Naunihal Singh, an assistant professor at the U.S. Naval War College and the author of Seizing Power: The Strategic Logic of Military Coups, described the attack as “an insurrection, a violent uprising against the government” but not a coup, because Trump did not order the military to take the country on his behalf. The FBI labeled the attack as domestic terrorism and the Congressional Research Service agreed, saying the attack met the federal definition for domestic terrorism. Fiona Hill, an academic and former member of Trump’s National Security Council described January 6th as a “self-coup”.
Perhaps Fiona Hill’s analysis of the events provides the most enlightenment. She examines the six key parts you need to successfully have a coup: controlling the military, communications, the judiciary, government institutions, and the legislature; and mobilizing popular support. Hill notes that in 2020, when Trump used the military to clear a passage for military officials to take a photo in front of a church during the Black Lives Matter protests, he was testing his control of the military. Trump’s most dangerous critic was the American press and so, by deeming them false or manipulative, he allowed supporting news networks like Fox News, Newsmax, and OAN to take the stage as “credible” news sources for his supporters. Hill says that this, as well as his use of Twitter and Facebook, demonstrate the grasp Trump held on communications. The judiciary, a supposedly unbiased institution, was crammed full of Trump’s nominees for judges, especially with “his” three justices on the Supreme Court. Hill draws a comparison between this and Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who put loyalists on the bench, allowing him to put opponents in prison easily and skirt around the rule of law. As far as control of government institutions goes, Trump repeatedly fired or forced the resignation of Cabinet members and career officials who did not show complete and total loyalty to him. Trump placed acting officials in important national security positions without the approval or input of Congress. Speaking of Congress, his grip on Republican lawmakers seemed, at times, unshakable. He bullied, taunted, and threatened Republicans who did not show unwavering support for him; he then offered support to those who were willing to overturn democracy for the chance to please him. Self-coup seems like an apt label now, doesn’t it?
What does it all mean, especially for us: youth? What it means is that our democracy is more fragile than ever. Still, even after the horrible attack on the very foundations of the United States of America, the onslaught of battle continues as a war against democracy continues to be waged in the courts and in legislatures as Republicans tighten voting restrictions, cut down voting accessibility, and continue to propagate the false idea of widespread electoral fraud. If we are to inherit the United States of America as its citizens and its leaders, we must ensure that the United States stay the free and democratic republic it is destined to be.
Youth across the nation are fighting for the issues which will affect us all: voting rights, climate change, racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and liberty. It is imperative that we take up metaphorical arms: our skills, our talents, and our passion to fight for the future of America. Freeing our nation from the danger that awaits it if we do not act is not a partisan movement. Youth, as it is always said, are the future and it is important we do not take that for granted. We must protect the future we wish to inherit and that means defending our nation from those who put power and politics above patriotism.
[1] Coleman, Justine. “GOP Lawmaker on Violence at Capitol: ‘This Is a Coup Attempt’.” The Hill, The Hill, 6 Jan. 2021, https://thehill.com/homenews/house/532944-gop-lawmaker-on-violence-at-capitol-this-is-a-coup-attempt.
Graham, David A. “This Is a Coup.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 13 Jan. 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/attempted-coup/617570/.
Musgrave, Paul. “This Is a Coup. Why Were Experts So Reluctant to See It Coming?” Foreign Policy, Foreign Policy, 6 Jan. 2021, https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/01/06/coup-america-capitol-electoral-college-2020-election/.
Solnit, Rebecca. “The Violence at the Capitol Was an Attempted Coup. Call It That.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 6 Jan. 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/06/trump-mob-storm-capitol-washington-coup-attempt.
[2] “Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”
[3] Including the chief of staff for First Lady Melania Trump, the White House Deputy Press Secretary, the White House Social Secretary, a White House Deputy Chief of Staff, the Secretary of Transportation, the Secretary of Education, the Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Mental Health and Substance Use, the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, the Acting Secretary for Homeland Security, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Acting Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Security in the Department of Commerce, the National Security Advisor, and the Deputy National Security Advisor.
1 comment