One year ago this week, a violent mob of President Donald Trump’s political supporters gathered at the White House, and after hearing speeches from President Trump and his allies, marched down Pennsylvania Avenue and committed an act of domestic terrorism against the U.S. Capitol. These political supporters who included known members and leaders of right-wing extremist and/or domestic terrorist organizations assaulted police, broke into the Capitol—including the Senate Chamber—and made violent threats against Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and others, while a gallows was erected out front.
People across the United States are commemorating the first anniversary of the deadly attack on the US Capitol, described by top officials in Washington, DC, as an “unprecedented” assault on the country’s democracy.
The percentage of Americans who blame Trump for the Jan. 6 riot has grown slightly over the past year, with 57% saying he bears significant responsibility for what took place. In an AP-NORC poll taken in the days after the attack, 50% said that.
The uptick is seen among Republicans as well, even as relatively few think Trump bears significant responsibility. Twenty-two percent say that now, up from 11% last year. Sixty percent say he had little to no responsibility.
The insurrection was the closing act of Trump’s desperate effort to overturn his election loss to Joe Biden. After Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud were soundly rejected in the courts, he shifted his focus to the Electoral College certification on Jan. 6, publicly pressuring then-Vice President Mike Pence to stop Congress from naming Biden the winner. Pence did not have that power under the law, as the vice president’s function is largely ceremonial.
On Wednesday, the Capitol police chief, Thomas Manger, said his forces would never be caught unprepared again, as they were last year.
But the political risk may be, if anything, higher than before.
Writing in The New York Times, former Democratic president Jimmy Carter said Wednesday that the United States “teeters on the brink of a widening abyss.”
“Without immediate action, we are at genuine risk of civil conflict and losing our precious democracy. Americans must set aside differences and work together before it is too late,” Carter wrote.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also called for a profound look at the state of the nation.
“Without addressing the root causes of the violence on January 6, the insurrection will not be an aberration — it could well become the norm,” he warned.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday that authorities have so far arrested and charged about 725 people in connection with the attack.
Facing criticism that the Justice Department has moved too slowly in addressing accusations of a deeper plot to overthrow the election, Garland suggested that investigators are moving up the chain.
The department is “committed to holding all January 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law — whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible.”
The Jan. 6, 2021, assault has shaken the foundations of the Capitol, a symbol of American strength and unity, transforming how lawmakers view their surroundings and one another. The shadow of January 6 still looms over America. This date has been recorded as a black chapter in the US politics. What has not happened in American politics in the history of last 200 years, happened on this black day. Undoubtedly, the scars will be long in healing.