“Armageddon.” “Insurrection.” “Terrorist Mob.”
On January 6th, 2021, as members of US Congress and the Senate voted to confirm President-elect Joe Biden, the US Capitol building was stormed by a mob of pro-Trump rioters. After breaching Capitol security, rioters ransacked the building and forced lawmakers to evacuate. In its aftermath, the fatal attack on the Capitol left five dead, including three protestors who succumbed to medical emergencies and one protestor, Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, who was shot by police while attempting to breach the building’s window. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick also died from injuries sustained while being attacked by protestors, allegedly being beaten with a fire extinguisher. Tragically, Capitol Police officer Howard Liebengood committed suicide just days after being on duty during the riots—it is unclear whether the events of January 6th contributed to his death. When the Capitol was secured and lawmakers reconvened, many representatives from both Democrat and Republican parties condemned the evening’s events, deeming it an attack on the democracy for which the Capitol stands. The House and Senate would go on to confirm Biden’s election later that night, with several Republican representatives sharing that the violence and aggression witnessed that night forced them to reconsider their objections.
In the first breach of the Capitol Building in over two hundred years, the January 6th riots are a sobering reminder of the corrosive and polarizing political climate in the United States—while tragic and horrifying, the attacks are hardly unexpected. Following the attacks, former President Donald Trump has been heavily criticized for directly inciting and encouraging such violence, with many citing a tweet made on December 19 which reads: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!" Trump’s incitement of violence continued up until the day of the mob when he addresses a crowd outside the White House and claims the election was “stolen” from him and the American people. Even as the riots wreaked havoc on the Capitol building later that evening, Trump tells the violent protestors, “It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. ... You're very special...I know how you feel, but go home, and go home in peace."
In the aftermath of January 6th, Trump was impeached for his incitement of violence and encouragement of the attacks on the Capitol, making him the first president in history to be impeached twice. But the messages made abundantly clear that day go much farther than the incapability of a President to protect the democracy for which he stands. The Capitol mob became the face of a polarized and radicalized alt-right movement, donning white supremacist symbols and paraphernalia. However, the attacks terrifyingly showed that protestors included educated citizens within every field of interest and work, from lawyers to real estate agents and veterans. These familiar faces remind us that the radical and violent beliefs that drove the assault on democracy that day not only threaten and endanger the lives of millions of people, but are a product of that same society—a nation divided.
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