2021 U.S. coup attempt

Any resemblance to the Beer Hall Putsch is purely coincidental.

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“”President Trump was wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.

—Trump's running mate, Mike Pence

“”Yesterday, in my view: One of the darkest days in the history of our nation. An unprecedented assault on our democracy. An assault literally on the citadel of liberty, and the United States Capitol itself. An assault on the rule of law. An assault on the most sacred of American undertakings; ratifying the will of the people, and choosing the leadership of their government.

—President-elect Joe Biden

The 2021 United States coup attempt, also known as the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, the 2021 insurrection at the United States Capitol, the 2021 United States Capitol attack, the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot, January 6, J6, and 1/6, was a failed self-coup attempt and neo-fascist terrorist attack that took place at Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021. Taking place two months after the 2020 U.S. presidential election, it was the culmination of Donald Trump's first term, and marked a crescendo in right-wing populism's creeping influence on American society and the culture war between Democrats and Republicans, all while kickstarting a new era of tension between the parties.

As the US Congress was about to certify former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s victory over President and narcissistic sore loser Donald J. Trump in the 2020 presidential election, a group of a few thousand far-right pro-Trump paramilitaries, rioters, and "patriots" stormed the fucking Capitol building, demanding that Congress subvert the will of voters they didn't like and declare Trump the winner. The building was trashed and vandalized by the insurrectionists, resulting in dozens of injuries and the deaths of four rioters and one police officer. Most of the rioters had attended a "Save America March" (and rally) at the National Mall that morning, where Trump urged his supporters to "fight like hell" and Rudy Giuliani asserted that "trial by combat" was the only way to "save" America from the radical anti-American/commie/SJW/anti-white/Cultural Marxist/antifa/BLM/"globalists", or some trumped-up bullshit like that, and Representative Mo Brooks would also rile up the crowd as well. This was arguably the most terrifying disruption in the day-to-day functioning of Congress since 1954, when a small group of Puerto Rican independence fighters shot five Representatives, and definitely had the potential to become so much worse.

As a result, Trump and his buddies were widely seen as being indirectly, if not directly, responsible for the carnage that occurred – by even some of Trump's most obsequious of loyalists. Indeed, much of his cabinet resigned in disgrace over the next few days.

The riot had a massive effect on the U.S. government, the Republican Party, the United States as a whole, and of course, the Trump presidency, whose end was fast approaching. Following the failed coup, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and now-Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) called for Trump to either resign or be removed from office, with the support of even a few less-than-crazy Republican Congresspeople. Many of the Republicans who added fuel to the conspiracies and red baiting that led to this event, such as Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), the outgoing David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler (both R-Georgia), and Faux News pundits such as Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, suddenly turned their heads and pretended they had nothing to do with the conspiracy theories that led to the violence taking place. Nothing.

Trump was impeached for inciting the riot on January 13, 2021, making him the first President in American history to be impeached not once, but twice. The trial itself occurred from February 9th to February 14th, concluding with a failure to convict Trump as not enough Republican senators would vote outside party lines. To date, it is the only time in history that a President has incited an attack on the Capitol, and only the second time that the Capitol was breached after British soldiers stormed it in 1814 during the War of 1812, over 200 years prior.

Trump, who had helped instigate the incident along with several Republican politicians and right-wing personalities, finally conceded the election (which he had previously refused to do even as he lost case after case after unsubstantiated legal case) before being banned from Twitter and most social media. Keep in mind that these are the people who have the nerve to lecture Democrats and moderate Republicans on what it means to be a patriot.

Um... What the fuck happened?

Here is the timeline of the events leading up to January 6.

Prelude

Rioter parrots Trump's rhetoric...in British English, apparently.

The term "Stop the Steal" originated with ratfucker Roger Stone and the Committee to Restore America's Greatness PAC in 2016, when he was working on the Trump primary campaign for the 2016 U.S. presidential election, initially to assure that fellow Republicans did not keep Trump from being nominated and as a bogus voter fraud reporting site. Even after Trump was declared the winner of the Electoral College vote in 2016, the site continued to claim that there was voter fraud in an attempt to continue raking in donor cash. Almost immediately after Trump's loss in the 2020 election, Stone resurrected the "Stop the Steal" campaign, partnering with Ali Alexander. "Stop the Steal" was the name of a November 14, 2020 rally in Washington, as well as other minor rallies at that time. The Washington rally headlined conspiracy theorist Scott Presler. Stop the Steal later partnered for a December 12 rally ("Let the Church ROAR") with Jericho March, a Christian nationalist organization. On the same day, a competing pro-Trump Christian nationalist rally was held in Washington by Women for America First.

Stuart Rhodes, leader of the Oath Keepers paramilitary group, began inciting his followers on November 9, two days after it became clear that Biden won the election, to be prepared to fight to keep Trump in office. Rhodes cited the 2000 overthrow of dictator Slobodan Milošević, which included the storming and burning of the Serbian parliament. This was paradoxical since Rhodes wanted to overturn a democratic election based on an example of overthrowing a dictatorship. Rhodes was later convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Trump's refusal to accept an election loss under any circumstances can be traced all the way back to the 2016 election. He first trotted out claims of a "rigged election" when he lost the 2016 Republican Iowa Caucus to Ted Cruz. Later in that cycle he implied that he would never accept the outcome if Hillary Clinton won the election. His rhetoric was shady enough, and loud enough, for sitting president Obama to chide him for it in October 2016.

Trump's attempts to overturn the election

Street signs defaced by rioters.

“”Dr. Eastman and President Trump launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history. Their campaign was not confined to the ivory tower – it was a coup in search of a legal theory. The plan spurred violent attacks on the seat of our nation's government, led to the deaths of several law enforcement officers, and deepened public distrust in our political process.

—US District Judge David Carter

Prelude continued

Trump's shameless attempts to rig the 2020 election in his favor against his own people's wishes had begun long before even the first early votes were cast. Over the three months leading up to Election Day on November 3, he had publicly insisted on numerous occasions that mail-in votes were "insecure", and that "Democrats would try to steal the election". He sowed even more division through his many public statements, woo-pushing and dangerous information about COVID-19, which ranged from refusing to wear a face mask in public to claiming that injecting oneself with Lysol cures COVID, holding enormous (mostly unmasked/not socially-distanced) campaign rallies, and encouraging his supporters to "liberate" states from partial lockdowns – all while repeatedly, consistently tweeting to his followers that the virus was no big deal. The logical conclusion from all of this is that Republicans largely took the pandemic less seriously and were far less likely to vote by mail than Democrats were (if they weren't already predisposed towards trying to sow doubt about America's democratic system, Trump made sure they were by first casting doubt on mail-in ballots). As even someone with Trump's level of intelligence could clearly see this, his next course of action was to sabotage the United States Postal Service, one of the most important government agencies by far, by appointing campaign donor and crony Louis DeJoy as Postmaster General, who was alleged to have financial conflicts of interest in running the post office. Under his tenure, the cost to send mail has increased and mail deliveries have become significantly delayed. Mail dropboxes and sorting machines were systematically culled, especially in swing states and minority-majority areas. Trump also refused to boost funding for the Postal Service, because without that money they could not conduct universal mail-in voting, and instead said they should quadruple the price of mail to raise money. Intentionally interfering with the passage of mail is a felony, punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison.

A few days before the election, Trump announced his intention to declare victory prematurely if at any point he looked to be ahead in vote counting. This was later confirmed by a subsequently released audio recording of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon speaking at an audio meeting in July 2020 in which he confirmed Trump's strategy and predicted that there would be a "firestorm" following such an announcement and that Trump's followers would go "crazy". Trump's strategy for falsely claiming victory is based on the so-called "Red Mirage": where early results skew right because Republican voters tend to vote more often on election day, while Democratic voters tend to vote earlier with election day votes generally counted first and other votes counted later. The meaning of all this for all the crimes that later unfolded after the election is that it showed premeditation by Trump.

Spurious lawsuits

“”What [Trump's lawyers] Rudy [Giuliani] and Jenna [Ellis] are doing is a joke and they are getting laughed out of court. They are misleading millions of people who have wishful thinking that the president is going to somehow win this thing.

—Justin Riemer, GOP's top lawyer, November 2020

Immediately after Fox News called the election for Biden on November 7, 2020 the White House inner circle split into two groups according to Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, "Team Normal" (accepting the loss) and Rudy Giuliani's team – never mind that Stepien himself had been part of "team big lie enabler" from July up through at least mid-November. Trump knew that he had lost the election, he had been told so by his lawyers and election advisors, but it was irrelevant. Giuliani went on to lead a constellation of lawsuits in the six battleground states, claiming voter fraud with little to no evidence. Of the 62 lawsuits filed, Trump won only one, and it was one that did not change the outcome of that election. This legal chicanery resulted in the suspension (with possible disbarment) of Giuliani's law license in his home state of New York. John Eastman, Sidney Powell, and other lawyers who filed the lawsuits are also facing disciplinary hearings and possible disbarment.

Following Trump's 2020 election loss, his (as well as other) lawyers filed and lost over 60 lawsuits in an attempt to throw out ballots in swing states and subvert the will of the voters, alleging widespread election fraud while refusing to provide any evidence – all just to scam his deluded supporters out of their hard-earned money en masse. To put it simply, this kind of strategy was paraphrased by Roger Stone in early 2019: "When you don't have evidence, you use theatrics." As the lawsuits failed and the vote certification process moved forward, Trump grew increasingly desperate to chisel himself out a victory. Just four days before the riots, Trump threatened Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to get him to "find 11,780 votes" (one more than Biden had won the state by) for him – a scandal that would have practically torpedoed the career of just about any other politician. John Eastman, who was formerly a dean and professor of law at Chapman University, even represented Trump at the Supreme Court over these spurious lawsuits.

A copy of the memo was later sent to federal Judge David Carter, who criticized it:

The memo is both intimately related to and clearly advanced the plan to obstruct the joint session of Congress on January 6^th, 2021.

During this period of spurious lawsuits, Trump raised $250,000 from marketing a fund called, "Official Election Defense Fund", implying that it was to pay for litigation, but which did not actually exist. The funds instead were siphoned to a newly created political fund, "Save America PAC". The sales tactics and wording used by this fundraising effort closely resembles that of other spammy emails "associated with subprime mortgage loans, odometer-rolling used car salesmen, and shady internet businesses that rely on duping unsophisticated customers." Following the January 6 Committee's revelation, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that she was considering investigating the fundraising for potential fraud.

Attempts at corrupting the Department of Justice

Following the election Trump had put pressure on then-Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate election fraud as part of Trump's attempt to prove that he had actually won the election. This was unusual because although the DOJ does investigate and prosecute election fraud, it normally does not do so until long after elections since it does not have the authority to decide election outcomes. Nontheless Barr did order the DOJ to investigate numerous allegations of election fraud in the 2020 election. Barr explained his rationale for this to the House January 6 Committee:

I felt the responsible thing to do was to be – to be in a position to have a view as to whether or not there was fraud. And frankly, I think the fact that I put myself in the position that I could say that we had looked at this and didn't think there was fraud was really important to moving things forward.

And I – I sort of shudder to think what the situation would have been if the – if the position of the department was we're not even looking at this until after Biden's in office. I'm not sure we would have had a transition at all.

Barr was essentially attempting to establish a bulwark against Trump's attempt to politicize the DOJ.

Barr resigned on December 23, and was replaced by Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting Attorney General. Shortly thereafter, an anti-environmental lawyer in the DOJ named Jeffrey Clark met with Trump directly without authorization. It was against DOJ policy for anyone other than the AG, the assistant AG or someone authorized by them to meet with the president; this was done to keep politicization or the appearance thereof out of the DOJ.

Subsequent to meeting, Clark drafted a letter to the Georgia State legislature for Rosen and Deputy AG Richard Donoghue to sign. The letter claimed falsely that the DOJ had evidence of fraud in the Georgia election that would be forthcoming. Rosen and Donoghue were pressured by the White House to sign the letter, but they refused to sign not just because it made a false claim but because the DOJ had no jurisdiction in deciding the outcome of the Georgia election. In a final act of attempting to corrupt the DOJ, on January Trump called Rosen, Donoghue, assistant AG Steven Engel, Clark and other members of the DOJ for a meeting. Without telling Rosen, Trump had announced that he would be replacing Rosen with Clark as assistant AG.

The DOJ officials at the meeting (other than Clark) explained at length to Trump why sending the letter was a terrible idea. At one point during the meeting, White House lawyer Pat Cipollone called the proposed letter that Clark would send a "murder-suicide pact" because it would require the firing of Rosen and Donoghue and would result in the mass resignation of DOJ attorneys in protest, likely resulting in widespread resignation of other US attorneys. The threat of mass resignation resulted in Trump backing down from his scheme.

Although the DOJ leaders managed to stop Trump from this terrible idea, Trump has endlessly persisted in repeating the big lie despite being told repeatedly by the courts and by leaders of the DOJ (Barr, Rosen and others) that there was no evidence behind any of the allegations of fraud that were sufficient to change the election results.

Coercing the Vice President

Shortly after the United States Electoral College certified Biden's win on December 14, a lawyer named Kenneth Chesebro wrote a memo to Giuliani that during joint session of Congress on January 6, that Vice President Mike Pence should not count the votes from Arizona and that it should be sent back to the states to certify a group of Trump supporters who had declared themselves alt-electors.

January 6 was the day the Electoral College votes were being officially tallied and was basically the last possible moment when any objections to an incoming President's victory could be filed. Indeed, many Trump supporters, including the man himself, wanted Pence to overturn the election results that day – a power he, for obvious reasons, did not even constitutionally have to begin with. The Electoral Count Act of 1887 grants members of the House of Representatives the ability to object a state's electoral ballot if joined by a Senator. Should this happen the chambers recess, debate, and vote on accepting or rejecting the votes. Prior to 2021 this had only happened twice, most recently in 2005 when then Ohio representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones and then California Senator Barbara Boxer (both Democrats) raised objections to Ohio's vote. Their stated intention was to bring attention to disproportionately long lines in predominantly Black precincts in Ohio and this was not approved or encouraged by 2004 runner-up John Kerry. Numerous Senators, notably Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley (Republican-Missouri), filed a challenge to the certification of Arizona's and Pennsylvania's votes respectively just before the mob stormed the Capitol and would challenge Pennsylvania's results even after the riots had occurred.

Following Trump's failure in the Electoral College, Eastman developed a two-fold plan based on what Chesebro had developed to coerce Pence into overturning the election results, "to reject the votes and either declare Trump the winner or send the votes back to the states to be counted again." The problem with this scheme was not just that it was illegal and unconstitutional but the lawyers involved, including Eastman himself, knew this. Pence's legal counsel, Greg Jacob, spoke with Eastman about this problem:

Yes. We had an extended discussion, an hour and a half to two hours on January 5^th. And when I pressed him on the point I said, John, if the Vice President did what you were asking him to do, we would lose nine to nothing in the Supreme Court, wouldn't we? And he initially started it, well, I think maybe he would lose only seven to two.

And after some further discussion acknowledged, well, yeah, you're right, we would lose nine nothing.

Despite Pence having already rejected this scheme based on sound legal advice from conservative lawyers, Trump continued to pressure him on January 6 in private and in public at the rally:

I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope so. I hope so. Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election. All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify and we become President. And you are the happiest people. And I actually – I just spoke to Mike.

One might wonder who was this "we" that would become president was it just the royal "we" of megalomania or was Trump also signaling the members of his cabal who had committed crimes or would commit crimes to enact a coup that they would be pardoned or absolved?

Not content with Pence having supported the rule of law over his desires, Trump's response to January 6 rioters chanting "Hang Mike Pence!" was:

Maybe our supporters have the right idea. Mike Pence deserves it.

The coup plotters had planned for Republicans in Congress to object to the electors from all swing states that Biden had won, thus delaying the Congressional certification, and potentially allowing Pence to send the matter back to the states or just nullifying the election by fiat. This was known as the "Green Bay Sweep" according to ex-Trump White House staffer and coup plotter Peter Navarro. The coup plotters ran this plan simultaneously with the storming of the Capitol plan presumably as backup, but by not having Pence on board with the Green Bay Sweep, the two plans actually worked counter to each other: the storming of the Capitol stopped the vote count, and when the count resumed Pence decided not to allow further objections to the legitimate electors.

Preparation for the insurrection

Trump's speech in DC urging his supporters to go to the Capitol.

“”Be there, will be wild!

—Trump on December 19th, lighting the match for the mob

“”Stop calling this a march, or rally, or a protest. Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die.

—anonymous poster on TheDonald.win

“”If they "certify" biden, we storm capitol hill. Executions on the steps.

—anonymous poster on TheDonald.win

There were several websites that insurrectionists used to communicate with each other for planning and coordination, both before and during the riot, including on Telegram, Parler, Gab, WildProtest.com, TheDonald.win, and Zello In the case of Gab, a hacker stole 70Gb of data from the site some time after the insurrection, including public and private data. TheDonald.win website was where people went after Reddit shut down /r/The_Donald in 2019 due to incitement of violence. TheDonald.win was hosted and moderated by Jody Williams. Williams claimed that he was appalled by the comments that he saw on his site (racism, white supremacy, threats, Holocaust denial, and QAnon), his inability to fully moderate them, and the events of January 6, but nonetheless did not shut the site down until some time after January 21. A consequence of TheDonald.win being an open website was that quite a bit of information was archived by Advance Democracy, which provided a 135-page report to The Washington Post. Much of the planning for January 6 on TheDonald.win did eventuate during the insurrection:

• Debate over whether to construct a gallows or a guillotine (a gallows was decided upon)
• A map of the Capitol, including tunnel locations
• Discussion of how to sneak guns into Washington, DC

March for Trump/Save America rally

A sign at a political insurrection, referencing a tangential YouTube video. Welcome to 2021.

“”This historic event will likely be one of the largest and most consequential in American history

—Charlie Kirk

“” Peter Navarro releases 36-page report alleging election fraud "more than sufficient" to swing victory to Trump [links to fraudulent report]. A great report by Peter. Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!

—Donald J. Trump, December 19, 2020

Immediately preceding the rally on January 5, the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) used an unaffiliated non-profit fundraiser called the Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF) to pay for a robocall that featured false, inflammatory language such as:

[W]e will march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal. We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue to fight to protect the integrity of our elections.

RLDF was one of the rally's sponsors. RAGA director Adam Piper resigned on January 11 amid much criticism for this robocall.

As soon as the tweet was posted, crowds began to gather at around 4:30 at the Ellipse, a park located just south of the White House. Eventually, protesters wearing bulletproof vests and helmets with flashlights attached even in broad daylight began showing up in thousands.

Trump supporter and lawyer John Eastman spoke at the January 6 rally next to Rudy Giuliani. Privately, Eastman had written a memo to Vice President Pence on the same day as to how to overturn the election in the Senate.

As with the prelude activities, White Christian nationalists were heavily involved in both the January 6 rallies and the storming of the Capitol. The main Trump rally was opened by Paula White, evangelist and White House "adviser", who quoted a favored Bible passage among Christian nationalist, Psalm 33:12, "Blessed is the nation whose God is Lord." Senator Mo Brooks and Representative Madison Cawthorn spoke at the main rally and repeated Christian nationalist talking points. Christian symbolism was widespread at the siege of the Capitol. Insurrectionist Jacob Chansley gave a prayer in the Senate chamber that referenced Christian nationalist ideology, that the country would be "reborn" "In Christ's holy name". Other Christian nationalist ideology by insurrectionists was widespread and observed both during and after the riot.

Funding

Logo of Wild Protest

The March for Trump/Save America rally initially started out as a normal, peaceful protest that preceded an unorganized march to the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021. On January 1, a permit was granted to the rally organizer "Women for America First", listing speakers including Rudy Giuliani, Roger Stone and Diamond & Silk. The "most visible financial backer of Women for America First" was Mike Lindell, though he claimed not to have supported the organization subsequent to December 14, 2020. Although the rally was specifically titled "March for Trump", the permit stated that the Women for America First would not be conducting an organized march after the rally ended, but that participants may leave to attend rallies at the U.S. Capitol. The currently known sponsors of the rally were:

• Black Conservatives Fund, a dark money PAC which links to an inactive Twitter account owned by Sharon Middleton
• Eighty Percent Coalition, founded by Cindy Chafian
• Moms for America, another Schlafly-oriented group, run by Kimberly Fletcher
• Mike Lindell, rabid Trump supporter and owner of MyPillow
• Oath Keepers, a self-identified militia
• Peaceably Gather, run by pastor Brian Gibson
• Phyllis Schlafly Eagles, Phyllis Schlafly's sons' organization that split from the anti-Trump Eagle Forum now run by her daughter
• Rule of Law Defense Fund, the most ironically named, associated with the Republican Attorneys General Association. RLDF's chair, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, claimed he was unaware of his association's involvement.
• Stop the Steal, run by Ali Alexander
• Tea Party Patriots, part of the Tea Party movement
• Turning Point Action, run by Charlie Kirk
• Wild Protest, a group run by Ali Alexander
• Women for America First, a dark money non-profit run by Tea Partier Amy Kremer and her daughter Kylie Jane Kremer.

Additionally, Alex Jones said that he pledged $50,000 in seed money and that he arranged for Publix heiress and major Trump donor Julie Jenkins Fancelli to pay for $300,000 of the $500,000 total raised for the event.

Trump advisors Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, and Michael Flynn had all promoted the January 6 rally at events leading up to it.

Speachifying

At around 10:20, Trump gave a speech that would later come to be regarded as the moment the violence was incited. He and Giuliani each delivered rambling speeches calling on the mass of supporters to march to the Capitol. Among the attendees were a mix of rank-and-file Trump supporters, QAnoners and members of more overtly extremist far-right groups (e.g. the Three Percenters and Oath Keepers militas, Nick Fuentes and his "Groypers", Baked Alaska, Black Hebrew Israelites, Neo-Confederates, and Neo-Nazis) — all of whom had traveled to D.C. from around the country. Many were former or off-duty police officers and military personnel. Several Confederate battle flags were present, marking the first time such flags had ever been flown inside the Capitol.

According to Alexander's Wild Protest, the invited speakers were:

• Ali Alexander
• Megan Barth, executive director of the Benjamin Rush Society
• Lauren Boebert, Representative-Elect (R-CO) and QAnon kook
• Alex Bruesewitz, CEO of consulting firm X Strategies
• Tim Canova, law professor and politician
• Matt Couch, The DC Patriot
• Michael Coudrey, chair and CEO of Pharos Investment Group
• Mark Finchem, State Representative (R-AZ)
• Austen Fletcher, TPUSA
• Kimberly Fletcher, Moms for America
• Joe Flynn (Michael Flynn's brother)
• Simone Gold, quack doctor
• Lance Gooden, Representative (R-TX)
• Paul Gosar, Representative (R-AZ)
• Marjorie Taylor Greene, Representative-Elect and QAnon kook (R-GA)
• Arina Grossu, director for the Center for Human Dignity (an anti-abortion group) at the Family Research Council
• Jim Hoft, The Gateway Pundit
• Courtney Holland, conservative commentator
• Jason Jones, anti-abortion activist
• Vernon Jones, ex-State Representative (GA)
• Anthony Kern, ex-State Representative (R-AZ)
• Ed Martin, President of Phyllis Schlafly Eagles
• Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder and national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots
• Doug Mastriano, State Senator (R-PA)
• Shemeka Michelle, #WalkAway advocate
• Rogan O'Handley
• C. J. Pearson, pundit
• Andrew Pollack
• Scott Presler, professional concern troll
• Ricky Rebel (Ricky Godinez)
• Sabo, right-wing street artist
• John Schlafly, gay son of Phyllis Schlafly
• Ian Smith (no relation), trying to recall the Governor of New Jersey because of COVID pandemic regulations
• Roger Stone, ratfucker. Stone is associated with Stop the Steal, and he has raised funds to pay Oath Keepers militia for security at events near the Capitol on January 5 and 6.
• Brandon Straka, launched the #WalkAway campaign
• Melissa Tate, instigated hydroxychloroquine kookery
• Rose Tennet, conservative personality
• Maggie VandenBerghe, actor
• Robert M. Weaver, failed nominee Director of the Indian Health Service of HHS
• Lucian Wintrich, formerly a journalist for the Gateway Pundit

Alexander also organized a separate rally at the same time at a different location near the Capitol under the fictional name "One Nation Under God". The Capitol Police approved the permit for this rally, giving a threat assessment of "highly improbably" and despite raising concerns about the permit. The listed speakers for One Nation Under God overlapped with the Stop the Steal rally and were:

• Rep. Paul Gosar
• Ali Alexander
• Rep. Marjorie Greens^[sic]
• Rep. Lance Gooden
• State Rep. Vernon Jones
• Rep. Mark Finchem
• State Sen. Doug Mastriano – To be confirmed
• Rep. Anthony Kern
• Rep. Lauren Boebert
• Senator — TBD
• Ed Martin
• Rob Weaver
• Roger Stone
• Simone Gold
• Rogan O'Handley
• Jenny Beth Martin
• Scott Pressler
• CJ Pearson
• Rose Tenet
• Jason Jones
• Brandon Straka
• Shemaka Michelle
• Joe Flynn
• Michael Coudrey
• Alex Brueesewitz
• Kimberely Fletcher
• Melissa Tate
• Avina Grossu
• Tim Canova

Four other organizations had permits for rallies in the vicinity of the Capitol on January 6 are also suspected of being connected to Stop the Steal: one by Bryan Lewis, Virginia Freedom Keepers ("rally for health freedom"), Women for a Great America/50+ Days of Blessing ("pray and worship for our nation"), and Rock Ministries International ("prayer campaign encouraging pastors, leaders and citizens to pray for the United States").

The 1st Amendment Praetorian militia group had provided security to Trump rallies in November and December of 2020, and a QAnon conference in 2021. Robert Patrick Lewis, the militia's leader, spoke at a January 5 incendiary rally in Washington, where he said, "I am willing to get up here and walk into danger if we need if, if we need to be there, to make sure we don't cede this country, and have my kids grow up in a Communist hellhole. And I need each of you to fight as hard as you can to ensure that does not happen."

Tea Party Patriots leader Jenny Beth Martin claimed that her organization gave no financial support for the rally, despite them being listed as an organizer and herself being listed as an invited speaker; Martin did not actually speak at the rally. At least six current or former members of the Council for National Policy were involved in organizing the rally, but CNP Executive Director Bob McEwen said his group was not involved.

Chapman University law professor John Eastman, who spoke at the rally, was forced to resign after being accused by university members of incitement.

Anti-vaxx sideshow

Despite Trump having authorized Operation Warp Speed to rapidly develop COVID vaccines in the US, the anti-vaxx group United Freedom Super PAC actively promoted the January 6 event and included speakers on a sideshow stage. The speakers included Del Bigtree, Ty Bollinger, Mikki Willis (producer of Plandemic), David Martin (featured in Plandemic, Mike Smith (creator of the QAnon-promoting film Out of The Shadows), and Roger Stone. Willis was also filmed near the front of the breach of one of the Capitol doors, but not as far as is known entering the Capitol. Willis was also filmed praising the insurrection as it was still happening. Alex Jones also appeared at the Capitol on January 6 and spoke in Washington at a January 3 Washington rally against vaccines. In case there's any doubt that the sideshow was sanctioned by the main event, Stop the Steal organizer Alexander Ali spoke at a January 5 event while introducing Simone Gold, where he referred to not just fighting the election results but also against "medical tyranny", an anti-vaxxer code-word.

Two Minutes Hate

Before Trump regaled his followers with venom and hatred (à la Two Minutes Hate), they were primed with a short video. All synced to a remix of Linkin Park's In The End[2] Though relatively short, it is packed with fascist imagery plainly meant to convince those there that a violent overthrowing of multicultural democracy was necessary. Some particular highlights:

• The first five frames of the film feature a shadowed picture of Trump from the nose up, the camera slowly zooming in on his face, followed by an image of the Capitol Building, the Hollywood sign, and two empty parliament buildings, identified as the UN General Assembly and the EU Parliament.[3] The image of Trump evokes strength; the zoom and the cut to the Capitol building make clear Trump is focused on that as his target. The other three frames play into a common theme of right-wing conspiracies, Jewish control of the media and global governing bodies.

• The next few frames feature a voice-over by Trump of his inauguration speech, "For too long, a small group in our nation's capital has reaped the rewards of government, while the people have borne the cost," while showing an image of Biden with a vacant expression, implying that he is not the one in control. The next two frames send a clear message: the real puppet masters are the Jews. The one immediately after is of Chuck Schumer wearing a Kente cloth, implying both Jewish control and Jewish collaboration with Black liberation. The next frame is a wide shot of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a podium flanked by two House Representatives, Rep. Jerry Nadler and Rep. Adam Schiff, both Jewish. The implication is that Pelosi is also controlled by the Jews.[4] This is followed again by Trump's Inauguration speech, "The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of this our country," then sounds of gunshots and images of dead soldiers returning home, homeless encampments, and emblematic pictures of white America, American flags and pick-up trucks, damaged by rural decay. Again from Trump, "This all ends right here, right now." It's clear who is responsible, and the film makes clear, Trump is the man who will hold those responsible to account.

• The next few sections come right from the authoritarian playbook. Triumphant music plays over images of military equipment, Trump at the Army-Navy football game, teeming supporters at Trump rallies, women crying in awe of Trump. He is the national father whom everyone adores. More military equipment, more factories, more trucks, Trump at the Lincoln Memorial, black and white supporters embrace. The father made all of this happen.[5] More military equipment, then the mood shifts, showing Bill Barr being sworn in followed by Biden smirking. Biden laughs in the face of American justice.

• The last few frames show loss: American cities empty, white women trapped in their homes. For one second, Scrabble pieces spell out "FEAR".[6] Then more loss: empty school desks, "Closed" signs, then images of the Supreme Court building and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) demonstrators, on a street that reads, "DEFUND THE POLICE". While America is idle, Black people seek to rid you of protection from the father's greatest accomplishment, nominating three justices to the Supreme Court. An image of Biden speaking to a solitary man (weakness), then more glorious Trump images: rising stocks, more military equipment, black and white embrace while wearing shirts that say "JESUS SAVES", closing with an image of Trump, showing steely resolve.

Everything about this video, Jason Stanley notes, borrows from the fascist framework. It features a patriarchal cult leader promising revival from undefined humiliation inflicted by a multicultural elite bent upon destroying the "True Nation". It brings together the ideologies that have been building in America since the Ku Klux Klan gained power and Henry Ford published "The International Jew": Jews support Black liberation, control the media, and seek to destroy white history.

Siege of the US Capitol

See the Wikipedia article on 2021 storming of the United States Capitol.

A very fine and special gentleman with his foot on Speaker Pelosi's desk.

While there was no permit for (or even organization of) a march into the actual Capitol building, there were significant comments made in social media in the days leading up to the March for Trump rally that called for a march from the Ellipse to the building. There were also calls for marching to the Capitol during the rally, notably by Trump himself, who stated, "we're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue – I love Pennsylvania Avenue – and we're going to the Capitol and we're going to try and give [Republicans] the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I want to thank you all. God bless you and God bless America. Thank you all for being here, this is incredible." An additional instruction to march on the Capitol was made by Mo Brooks, the U.S. Congressional Representative from Alabama, who told rally attendees to "Stop by the Capitol".

This functional gallows was erected by the same group of people who were chanting, "Hang Mike Pence."

The rallies were organized in part by right-wing personality Ali Alexander, best known for his association with Jacob Wohl and Laura Loomer. Alexander claimed he had help from Republican Reps. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Mo Brooks (R-AL). Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA claimed in a tweet to have organized "80+ buses full of patriots" to D.C. Alex Jones of InfoWars notoriety, who later claimed the riot was set up by Antifa agents provocateurs, was also present and claims to have helped pay for the rally in question. An Infowars host, Owen Shroyer, was also charged with misdemeanors in connection with the riot.

Marchers arrived at the grounds of the Capitol building around 1 p.m. ET on January 6, 2021, and quickly began clashing with police, pushing through security barriers and interacting violently with Capitol police who were trying to prevent unauthorized access to the Capitol grounds. Shortly after 2 p.m. ET, they began to climb the building and break windows, at which point they had successfully gained access to the building. At that time, Congressional sessions on the floor of the House and Senate were proceeding with arguments concerning the objection to the electoral vote count for the state of Arizona. The Congressional sessions were interrupted at around 2:13 p.m. ET when the Senators and Representatives were informed that the rioters had gotten inside the Capitol, and Vice President Pence and congressional members were evacuated. Congress and staffers were evacuated via an underground tunnel to a secure location while rioters breached the building. An armed standoff at the door to the House took place at 3 p.m. ET, during which a rioter was shot and killed. Members of the siege also gained access to the floor of the Senate chamber and various offices in the Capitol building, including the offices of U.S. Representative Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Rioters proceeded to vandalize Congressional offices and chambers, breaking a litany of federal laws in the process. In a stunning lack of operations security, many rioters did not wear masks and livestreamed or posted their activities to social media.

For anyone claiming the rioters were "peaceful", a number had built a fucking gallows and others were chanting their intention to outright lynch Pence (who didn't rig the election for Trump) and Pelosi (for opposing Trump in general). Peaceful, friendly, civil-disobedient types these were not. The gallows directly referenced the white supremacist book The Turner Diaries, and the mass lynching within the book ("The Day of the Rope").

Racism at the riot

During Congressional testimony, District of Columbia police officer Daniel Hodges testified:

The crowd was overwhelmingly White males, usually a little bit older, middle-aged older, but some younger. I think out of [the] entire time I was there, I saw just two women and two Asian males; everyone else was White males. They didn't say anything especially xenophobic to me, but to my Black colleagues and anyone who's not White. And some of them would try to recruit me. One of them came up to me and said, "Are you my brother?" There are many known organizations with ties to White supremacy who had a presence there, three-percenters ... that kind of thing. And people who associate with Donald Trump I find more likely to subscribe to that belief system.

In written and oral testimony, Capitol police officer Harry A. Dunn testified:

I told them to leave the Capitol, and in response, they yelled back: "No, no, man, this is our house!" "President Trump invited us here!" "We're here to stop the steal!" "Joe Biden is not the President!" "Nobody voted for Joe Biden!"

I am a law enforcement officer, and I keep politics out of my job. But in this circumstance, I responded: "Well, I voted for Joe Biden. Does my vote not count? Am I nobody?"

That prompted a torrent of racial epithets. One woman in a pink "MAGA" shirt yelled, "You hear that, guys, this nigger voted for Joe Biden!" Then the crowd, perhaps around twenty people, joined in, screaming "Boo! Fucking Nigger!"

No one had ever – ever – called me a "nigger" while wearing the uniform of a Capitol Police officer. In the days following the attempted insurrection, other black officers shared with me their own stories of racial abuse on January 6. One officer told me he had never, in his entire forty years of life, been called a "nigger" to his face, and that that streak ended on January 6. Yet another black officer later told he had been confronted by insurrectionists inside the Capitol, who told him to "Put your gun down and we'll show you what kind of nigger you really are!"

Underwhelming police response

The response to the violence by law enforcement was completely abysmal. Police presence outside the Capitol was extremely limited, with no dogs, mounted officers, or manned perimeter, only a small line on the building's steps that was quickly outnumbered and overwhelmed by the mob. Some media commentators, however, incorrectly claimed that cops were downright friendly towards the rioters, with others even claiming conspiracy with rioters, with one out-of-context viral Twitter video showing police removing crowd control barriers and seemingly allowing the mob to freely enter the Capitol, though reporters stated that the police were overwhelmed by the crowd and decided that it wasn't worth holding it out.

As it became clear that Capitol police were unable to contain the situation, there were bipartisan calls for Trump to deploy the National Guard. The deployment of the Guard was delayed, and the Pentagon prevented D.C. guardsmen from receiving ammunition or riot gear or sharing equipment with local law enforcement because crowd control wasn't part of the mission and the Pentagon disliked the "optics" of armed soldiers in the Capitol. It eventually took three hours for police and the Guard to retake the Capitol.

The half-assed response to the riot received bipartisan criticism and resulted in the resignation of both Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and the sergeants-at-arms of both houses of Congress. Much of the most vocal criticism came from racial justice activists, who contrasted the skeleton crew law enforcement deployed to handle a violent mob storming the freaking Capitol building with the heavily militarized response to the predominantly peaceful Black Lives Matter protests of the previous summer.

Trump's role

The damning video.

The following day's desperate backpedal and long overdue concession.

Any other U.S. President would have condemned this fascist coup in the strongest possible terms. However, Trump isn't like any other U.S. President, as the United States had already learned four years ago. He started the night with a fairly tame tweet telling the aforementioned fascists to "support the police" and to "respect our great men and women in blue". The closest thing to a condemnation of these actions was him saying "No violence!" Keep in mind this is the same guy who said "when the looting starts the shooting starts" (a racist dog whistle aimed at African Americans) on the exact same platform, because, as we all know, looting a store is so much worse than attempting to overthrow a democratically-elected government.^{[citation NOT needed]} This was followed by a video from the White House where Trump calls for calm while continuing to push the bullshit conspiracy that the election was "stolen" from him, the same conspiracy that caused this brouhaha in the first place. Eventually after he came to his senses and realized the damage he had caused Pence presumably threatened to kick him in the balls, Trump put out a video condemning the coup attempt and conceding to Biden, confirming there would be a "smooth transition of power" to the Biden administration. Hilarity ensued on the likes of Parler and 4chan as Trumpists no doubt felt like they were watching the fall of the Roman Empire. But fortunately for them and unfortunately for the rest of us, Trump immediately contradicted himself and tweeted about how the rioters were "great patriots" and again spouted the same "fraudulent election" nonsense that started it all. This was finally enough for Twitter, who perma-banned his account because of the real fear of more political violence and the possibility of lawsuits against Twitter. Later that week, Facebook and Instagram banned him indefinitely from their respective platforms.

The botched response of the National Guard raised even more disturbing questions. You see, Washington DC isn't like any other part of the U.S. Since it isn't a state, its National Guard is controlled by the Department of Defense, which is subordinate to the President. As the attempted fascist coup was occurring, many observers noticed that the National Guard wasn't responding to this very quickly; this was strange, as when BLM protestors were outside the Capitol during the summer, the National Guard was out in force and, notably, used tear gas and rubber bullets to expel peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square in June so that Trump could walk to a nearby church for a photo op. It later emerged that Trump was "hesitant" (i.e. "not going") to send them in, and in the end, Pence was the one who made the call. By the time the National Guard arrived, it was too late; the damage had been done. The fact that Trump wouldn't send in the National Guard when his supporters were attempting an insurrection despite being more than willing to do the same to BLM just for a photo op was yet another damning indictment of Bunker Boy's presidency.

Aftermath

Officer Brian Sicknick died from a stroke after being attacked by Trump rioters. But MAGA backs the blue, right?

Many of the rioters who broke into the Capitol are being arrested for federal crimes. This has been especially easy since few of the rioters wore anything like a mask which could conceal their identities. Many of them identified themselves on video or livestream and posted pictures on social media, effectively getting self-doxxed. Among them were Derrick Evans, a lawmaker from West Virginia who was forced to resign, and Rick Saccone, a candidate from Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional district who lost to Conor Lamb. As a result of inciting the attack, Donald Trump, as well as over 70,000 other accounts related to QAnon, was permanently suspended from Twitter.

Representative Liz Cheney was ousted from a Republican leadership position for refusing to play along with Trumpublican bullshit about voter fraud.

Casualties and damage

“”That could have been me or my partner. She believed what we believed. That's what made me think I should speak out, tell my story to help bring other conspiracists out, so they don't become the next Ashli.

—Former conspiracy theorist Brent Lee on Ashli Babbitt

"When the looting starts, the shooting starts!" ...due to which five people were killed in the event. One was shot by police, three more died due to apparent medical emergencies, and a Capitol Police officer died a day after the riots. The formermost, Ashli Babbitt, was claimed as a martyr by the far-right less than 4 days after the riot, and by members the GOP mainstream by June 2021.

• Brian D. Sicknick – 42, a Capitol Police officer was attacked with chemical spray during the confrontation and died from a stroke the next day; Washington DC's chief medical examiner concluded that the attack "played a role in his condition."
• Ashli Elizabeth Babbitt – 35, an Air Force veteran and QAnon follower who was shot by police while attempting to breach the House floor.
• Rosanne Boyland – 34, a Trump supporter and QAnon follower from Kennesaw, Georgia, who was trampled to death while wearing a "Don't Tread On Me!" flag.
• Kevin Greeson – 55, a Trump supporter from Athens, Alabama, who died of a heart attack.
• Benjamin Philips – 50, a Trump supporter from Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, and owner of several pro-Trump websites who died of a stroke.

The main suspect in carrying out the bombing, carrying the bomb.

140 Capitol police officers were injured by rioters, including one officer who was stabbed repeatedly with an American flagpole while lying on the steps. Two D.C. police officers who responded to the riot committed suicide in the following days.

Known or charged participants

“”We are ready for the rioters, this week I organized an alliance between Oath Keepers, Florida 3%ers, and Proud Boys. We have decided to work together and shut this shit down.

—Kelly Meggs, who faces conspiracy charges, on Facebook, December 19, 2020

“”Then wait for the 6th when we are all in DC to insurrection

—Kelly Meggs, Facebook, December 26, 2020

After nearly 1 year, 725 arrests were made with 225 of the arrestees charged with assault or resisting arrest, and 75 of the 225 charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon.

As of March 2021, among those charged with Federal crimes, there were at least 18 associated with QAnon, 17 associated with the Proud Boys, 13 associated with the Oath Keepers, and "at least 14% [...] had possible ties to the military or to law enforcement." The majority of those charged did not have known affiliations with militias or other extremist groups. In the early stages of trials of arrestees (July 2021), one person has attempted a sovereign citizen defense, Pauline Bauer, who allegedly threatened Speaker Pelosi's life.

Most of the defendants are facing multiple charges, but most of the charges are misdemeanors. Only 600 of the 2000 charges are potential felonies, suggesting that many of the defendants if convicted might not face serious jail time, although the possibility of additional charges being appended as time progresses and evidence is gathered is not out of the question.

There were rioters from all 50 states, as well as from DC. As of March 2021, 500 people have been charged with crimes at the federal level, including 100 who have been charged with assaulting police. It is one of largest criminal probes in US history. The alleged crimes include a wide range of offenses from the serious to the relatively minor:

• Aiding and Abetting
• Assaulting, Resisting or Impeding Certain Officers
  • Assault on a Federal Officer with a Dangerous or Deadly Weapon
  • Using a Dangerous Weapon
• Carrying a Pistol without a License Outside Home or Place of Business
• Civil Disorder
• Conspiracy
  • Conspiracy to Impede or Injure Officer
  • More than a dozen Oath Keepers have been charged with conspiracy, one of a group of nine alleged conspirators who claimed that 50 to 100 Oath Keepers were planning to travel to DC to "make it wild".
  • More than twenty Proud Boys have been charged with conspiracy
• Curfew violation
• Demonstrating, or Picketing in a Capitol Building
• Destruction of Government Property
• Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building
  • Disorderly Conduct in a Capitol Building
• Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building or Grounds
  • Entering and Remaining on the Floor of Congress
• Forcibly assaulted, resisted, opposed, impeded, intimidated, or interfered with any officer or employee of the United States or of any agency in any branch of the United States Government
• Impeding Passage Through the Capitol Grounds or Buildings
• Knowingly Entering or Remaining in any Restricted Building or Grounds Without Lawful Authority
• Making interstate threats to Speaker Nancy Pelosi
• Obstruction of an Official Proceeding
• Parading, Demonstrating, or Picketing in a Capitol Building
• Possession of a Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device
• Sedition
  • 11 members of the Oath Keepers, including founder Stewart Rhodes, were charged with seditious conspiracy on January 13 2022.
• Theft of Government Property
• Threatening to assault a Federal Law Enforcement Officer
• Threats in Interstate Commerce
• Unlawful Activities on Capitol Grounds, Parades, Assemblages and Display of Flags
• Unlawful Entry on Restricted Building or Grounds
• Unlawful Possession of a Firearm on Capitol Grounds or Buildings
• Violent Entry and Disorderly Conduct in a Capitol Building
• Willfully and knowingly uttering loud, threatening, or abusive language, or engaging in disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place in the Grounds or in any of the Capitol Buildings…

Because five people died as a result of events on January 6, it is possible that people could be charged with murder because of the "felony murder" rule. The federal felony murder statute can be triggered when someone commits any of several crimes (burglary is most likely in this case) in which someone else committed a murder; the burglar can then under specific conditions be charged and convicted of murder.

Police and military involvement

The relatively large number of off-duty police officers who are being investigated and in some cases arrested is remarkable because police departments are in many of these cases turning in their own to the FBI, breaking with the notorious "blue wall of silence".

One off-duty Capitol police officer, Michael Angelo Riley, was charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly warning a riot suspect to remove their Facebook posts. Riley subsequently removed his Facebook posts with the suspect after being warned by said suspect that they were interrogated by the FBI, indicating a consciousness of guilt.

A former FBI supervisor, Jared L. Wise, was not arrested until May 2023 because of an anonymous tip sent to the FBI. Wise was confirmed to have been at the riot based on cell phone data. Wise reportedly confronted police officers at the riot, telling them "You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo. … Shame on you!" and telling rioters to kill the police.

Attacks on journalists

Several people were charged with destroying journalists' equipment and violence or incitement of violence against members of the media, doubtless inspired by Trump's relentless attacks on mainstream media, including during the Two Minutes Hate. One of the arrestees, Joshua Dillon Haynes, allegedly messaged, "We attacked the CNN reporters and the fake news and destroyed tens of thousands of dollars of their video and television equipment here's a picture behind me of the pile we made out of it."

Anti-abortion insurrectionists

Several anti-abortion activists were known to have been present at the insurrection, which given that there has been a conspiracist thread (white genocide) running through part of the anti-abortion movement dating back to the KKK's heday, should not be a surprise since QAnon, a driver of the insurrection, reflects back virtually every conspiracy theory. Known anti-abortion activists at the insurrection were:

• "John Brockhoeft, who was convicted of firebombing a Planned Parenthood clinic in Cincinnati, in 1985, and of conspiring to bomb another abortion clinic in Pensacola, in 1988, live-streamed from outside the Capitol."
• Derrick Evans, a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, resigned after being charged with illegally entering the Capitol. He had frequently harassed staff at West Virginia's sole clinic.
• Leo Brent Bozell IV, son of L. Brent Bozell III, and grandson of L. Brent Bozell, Jr. who was an anti-abortion activist.
• Christine Priola held an anti-abortion sign at the insurrection, wrote a resignation letter that indicated she believed in QAnon ("to expose the global evil of human trafficking and pedophilia", etc.), charged with violent entry and disorderly conduct in the Capitol.

Drivers of insurrection

The Chicago Project on Security and Threats conducted three linked analyses to determine the like drivers that caused people to storm the Capitol: 1) on the 377 people arrested in connection with the insurrection as of March 31, 2021 2) on a 1000-person representative survey of Americans and 3) on a 1000-person representative survey of conservatives.

Fear of The Great Replacement was a significant driver of insurrection. Arrestees were 6 times more likely to come from counties with declines in the percentage of non-Hispanic Whites in the population. Fear that Blacks and Hispanics are overtaking Whites increased the likelihood of being an insurrectionist by threefold in the second study. Fear that Blacks and Hispanics will have more rights than Whites increased the likelihood of being an insurrectionist by twofold in the third study.

Compared to previous right-wing extremist arrests, the insurrectionists were much older and less likely to be unemployed. Many had white-collar jobs (30%) and 14% were business owners.

Using social media for 7 or more hours per day was a significant driver for insurrection (5-6 times more likely).

Coup plotter nothing wrong

“”The only reason I know to ask for a pardon is because you think you've committed a crime.

—Representative Adam Kinzinger, January 6 Committee

According to testimony two members of the Trump White House, several people, including five members of Congress, sought (and did not receive) Presidential pardons, presumably based on their activities in connection with the January 6^th events:

1. John Eastman, Trump's lawyer
2. Mo Brooks (R-Alabama)
3. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida)
4. Andy Biggs (R-Arizona)
5. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas)
6. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia)
7. Scott Perry (R-Pennsylvania), though Perry denied that he had requested a pardon. Perry played a key role in promoting the absurd "Italygate" conspiracy theory that alleged US election fraud.

Reactions

Damage to the building's interior from the rioters.

Numerous outlets, journalists, academics, lawmakers, pundits, and even members of Trump's own administration denounced his actions on January 6 as an attempted coup. The Senate hearing about certifying the election results that ensued was fraught with much anger at the wannabe dictator from both sides. Analysts criticized all who still refused to believe Trump had the capacity for a coup attempt following the wake of this day. Even previously loyalist Republicans and pro-Trump news outlets were disgusted by the treasonous act. Calls to impeach Trump immediately came not just from mainstream media outlets such as Nation, Mother Jones (who correctly called Trump a "terrorist leader"), Slate, Time The Atlantic, and The New York Times, but also from right-leaning outlets like the National Review and The American Conservative. Not only did the NAACP and the Lincoln Project call for the immediate impeachment of Trump, but the frickin' National Association of Manufacturers even suggested that Vice President Pence evoke the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution to remove Trump from office.

After tolerating Trump shamelessly stretching the norms of major social media platforms' terms of service to their very limits for over a decade, this was finally enough for the moderation teams of said platforms to take meaningful action. Twitter locked Trump's account for 12 hours, and Snapchat also locked his account. But surprisingly enough, it was Facebook that finally tired of Trump's bullshit the most, removing him from both their platform and Instagram "indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete". On January 8 2021, Twitter finally had enough of the wannabe-dictator's bullshit, permanently suspending @realdonaldtrump. Twitter also removed tweets whining about mUh fReEzEpEaCh that functioned as attempts at ban evasion from @POTUS, and permanently suspended @TeamTrump.

Splash damage

National Guard soldiers in the US Capitol ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration.

The riot resulted in many people being axed from social media sites, and even got the legs of the wannabe far-right social media site Parler (in practice an ID harvesting operation funded by the same people who funded Cambridge Analytica) metaphorically sawed off. Likewise, 8chan, the far-right imageboard and primary source of the QAnon theories (rechristened to 8kun), had lost its clearnet domain, and is currently slated to go Tor-only "soon".

Again, this bears repeating just in case you didn't get the memo: Trump's Twitter was FINALLY GONE! Now that we have your attention, this also means the Mango Messiah's influence has been greatly diminished, as his inane Twitter babbling gave him a lot of power which has now been stripped from him. And the Facebook ban? That's a second shot to the liver. Overall, Trump's banishment from social media had a HUUUGE impact on social media disinformation – San Francisco analytics firm Zignal Labs found that online disinformation about election fraud plunged by 73 percent after Trump's suspension. This was at least until someone decided to reinstate his account.

Many Trump officials resigned over this event, a clear signal that this riot bigly inconvenienced Trump and broken the back of his entire online presence. Why? Just to be extra clear, the Capitol riot can now be cited as an example at any time, anywhere, by any person, as the ultimate reason why Trump is one of the most dangerous figures to ever hold public office in the United States of America. It also exposes the tatters of the Republican Party as having no position at all besides the raw desire for power; it can no longer claim to even be the party of "law and order".

Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS) filed a lawsuit against Trump and Giuliani, and members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, accusing them of conspiring in violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. In the case of Trump, this could be considered a case of karma since his father was very likely a klansman. The NAACP also sued Trump and the GOP in December 2020 under the Klan Act and the Voting Rights Act, "alleging that they conspired to interfere with the civil rights of Black voters in Michigan."

Representative Eric Swalwell also filed a lawsuit, this one accusing Representative Mo Brooks, Donald Trump Sr., Donald Trump Jr., and Rudy Giuliani of instigating the riot.

Following what appears to be Trump-ally Benjamin Netanyahu's imminent ouster from power in Israel in June 2021, the head of Israel's internal security service (Shin Bet) Nadav Argaman issued a warning that "extremely violent and inciting discourse" and that demonstrations "may be interpreted by certain groups or individuals as one that allows for violent and illegal activities that may even, God forbid, become lethal", reflecting both the January 6 insurrection and the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 by a right-wing extremist.

It remains to be seen whether and how other countries in the world will be affected by this. It certainly presents a stark warning about the dangers of authoritarianism, but the reaction may be quite mixed. That being said, it has already managed to kick a little sense into many of the less-than-competent leaders of democracies across the world, such as Boris Johnson and the UK Conservative Party.

Furthermore, it is now clear once and for all that what happened on January 6, 2021, will not be forgotten by American history. This is most likely for the better in the future, as the union can no longer pretend to be immune to the rise of fascism, let alone ignore its past in slavery and the Civil War and similar events. It will likely mark the US for years, if not decades, to come.

Lawyers in the dock

The lawyers who helped Trump promote his fraudulent claims of election irregularities are facing repercussions. Why? Because it is a lawyer's professional duty to make due diligence in investigating claims that they bring to court as evidence, to not promote hearsay evidence, to not make fraudulent or frivolous claims, and to not file lawsuits in bad faith.

• Lawyers Gary D. Fielder and Ernest John Walker had filed a spurious lawsuit quoting a Trump tweet and hearsay evidence in a lawsuit regarding the Colorado election results. In a scathing 86-page legal judgment, they have been ordered to pay the legal fees for all 18 of the entities that they had sued.
• A committee of judges in New York State suspended Rudy Giuliani's law license for his legal shenanigans regarding the 2020 election. He has since been charged with various criminal offences relating to the election. As a result of his unethical practices, Giuliani has been disbarred in both NY and DC .
• Seven of the lawyers who falsely alleged massive fraud in Michigan, including "Kraken" lawyers Sidney Powell and Lin Wood, were ordered to pay thousands of dollars worth of sanctions for their baseless legal filings. Hilariously, four of them were ordered to sit through legal education classes as the court considered them incompetent to work. Powell was later prosecuted for racketeering, election fraud and conspiracy over her attempts to subvert Georgia's electoral process, and was forced to plead guilty to six misdemeanors to avoid prison.
• The State Bar of Georgia brought disciplinary charges against Lin Wood for his repeated bad faith challenges to the election, forcing him to surrender his license to practice.
• John Eastman was disbarred for criminally conspiring to obstruct the electoral count on January 6.
• Pro-Trump attorney Stefanie Lambert filed a spurious lawsuit alleging massive fraud in Michigan. Lambert and another lawyer, failed Attorney General candidate Matthew DePerno, were later criminally charged for illegally accessing and tampering with voting machines on behalf of other pro-Trump actors.
• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was heavily involved in legal challenges to the election result, even asking the Supreme Court to throw out the election. He now faces ethics charges from the state bar for having misled the Supreme Court during the suit, and if he loses the case Paxton's license could be suspended or he could even be disbarred. He was also suspended from his position pending an impeachment trial over accusations of corruption, and while the bastard was acquitted in a show trial he is under criminal investigation by the FBI into the same charges.

Impeachment

The House votes for a historic second impeachment.

See the main article on this topic: Impeachment

After the insurrection, various parties called for the impeachment of the president, including historians, congresspeople and governors. On January 11, David Cicilline (D-RI) introduced articles of impeachment against Trump. On January 13, 2021, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump 232-197, marking the first time in American history that a president has been impeached twice. Unlike last time, when only Democratic House members voted to impeach Trump, this time ten Republicans joined as well, with four abstaining.

Speaking of McConnell, it also didn't help that the much-hated Kentucky senator, in spite of all his faults, finally had enough, calling on his Republican colleagues to "vote with their conscience", which is likely politicalese for suppressing the will to care about the "party line", and might have also been perceived as a threat to vote for conviction himself.

Impeachment trial in the Senate.

Trump's impeachment defense amounted to two main arguments. The first is that his actions on and leading up to January 6th are protected by the First Amendment. The second is that it's unconstitutional to impeach/convict a President after they leave office. These are both, in two words, complete hogwash. The first is wrong because the First Amendment doesn't protect the President from the Senate convicting them and barring them from holding office. Even if it did apply, there are strong arguments that his actions constitute illegal incitement under the Brandenburg Standard. The second is utterly spurious because Trump was impeached before he left office. There is also precedent for holders of public offices being impeached or tried after they left office or were expelled. Furthermore, while the Supreme Court normally rules on whether a law is constitutional or not; the decision to conduct an impeachment trial is a decision of the Senate alone and is likely not reviewable by the courts.

A dramatic difference in the quality of each side's cases in the impeachment trial was evident from the first day, February 9. During the opening debate over the rules of the trial, the House impeachment managers relied upon presenting the facts of Trump's words and the rioters' actions and noted that accepting the Trump team's spurious arguments for the trial being unconstitutional would create a "January exception" and give presidents impunity for high crimes and misdemeanors committed in their final weeks in office. Trump's defenders, meanwhile, gave a weak, rambling rebuttal that espoused those same spurious arguments and digressed into a myriad of random subjects. The trial moved forward. The prosecution presented even more detailed evidence of Trump's responsibility, using his own words and actions from the election to the day of the riot, and of the danger that the Senators themselves had been placed in by the mob. The defense attempted to downplay Trump's rhetoric by equivocating it with other "robust rhetoric" by Democratic politicians, often out of context, and random civilian celebrities who had expressed antipathy to Trump (ignoring the fact that none of those statements were made to a seething mob of thousands of partisans blocks away from the Capitol while Electoral College votes were being certified).

On February 13th, 2021 the trial ended with a Senate vote. While Trump was again acquitted, unlike last time however, 7 Republicans chose to convict Donald Trump, resulting in a vote of 57-43. Hypocritically, afterwards, Mitch McConnell, who had chosen to acquit Trump of the actions proceeded to declare him guilty of the accusations, claimed that Trump was still responsible for inciting the attack. One can only wonder why McConnell chose not to convict Trump in the trial. Trump wasn't even grateful for McConnell's vote.

The recount that never ends

Fueled by persistent conspiracy theories and a realization that Trump still owns the GOP, many Republicans have sought ways to appease Trump's ego/grift and Trump's voter base. In May 2021, after nearly all the election-related lawsuits had been settled in Biden's favor, the GOP-controlled Arizona Senate ordered the presposterously-named, inexperienced and biased firm Cyber Ninjas to perform yet another recount of Maricopa County's ballots. Among the techniques used by Cyber Ninjas are "inspecting" paper ballots for possible bamboo fibers (thinly-veiled Sinophobia; do people not remember that China invented paper!?), looking for "kinematic artifacts" using a purple light, lax security, installing a carnival directly outside the building called "Crazy Times", and putting the ballots on a turntable while counters have to quickly mark what they see spinning before them. In the end, it turned out that Biden still won the county and that he won even more votes.

Following up on the Maricopa carnival, and also in May 2021, Superior Court Judge Brian Amero of Georgia ordered that plaintiffs and their "experts" could examine copies of all the ballots of Fulton County. Three separate audits had already been conducted. To note: this is one of the wonderful wastes of taxpayer money.

Conspiracy theories/fallacious arguments/denialism

“”Yet, the question before us is not whether there was a violent insurrection of the Capitol. On that point everyone agrees.

—Michael van der Veen, Trump's impeachment attorney in February 2021

It wasn't an insurrection attempt because they "weren't smart enough"

Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) maintained:

This didn't seem like an armed insurrection to me. When you hear the word "armed", don't you think of firearms? Here's the questions I would have liked to ask: How many firearms were confiscated? How many shots were fired?

and

To call that an armed insurrection, it was the most pitiful armed insurrection anyone could possibly imagine.

Tucker Carlson of Fox News has downplayed the severity of the riot.

An opinion piece by Kurt Schlicter on Townhall.com claimed that it wasn't an insurrection.

These claims go against the cold hard and substantial evidence of the insurrection attempt: massive photo and video evidence, hundreds of arrests at the Capitol, violent attacks on police, violent entry into the Capitol by the mob, five deaths, two suicides by police officers shortly afterwards, thefts and destruction of government property. However, their lack of intelligence was a reason the incident took place to begin with.

Furthermore, "Guns, bombs and stun guns were seized from members of the mob, while other rioters used wrenches, clubs and flagpoles as weapons. An officer has said that police 'had been seizing guns all day.'"

It was staged

For more information, see: Denialism

Yes, just over one month after the insurrection, conspiracy nuts already began making this claim. Perhaps the most notable proponent of this absurd notion would be Mike Shirkey, the Republican former Michigan State Senate Majority Leader. His evidence was that there wasn't enough security involved. He also accused then-US Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) of being complicit in it, suggesting that he might have had something to do with the low level of security.

While there is a grain of truth in that many of the Capitol police officers either just stood by or were even complicit in the riots (which led to the dismissal of several officers and the suspension and pending investigation of many more), to use this as evidence that the riot was staged would be a fallacy. In reality, the poor response was largely due to just poor planning, with the police preparing for a smaller crowd and for stabbings and fistfights rather than the wide variety of weapons that the rioters actually brought with them, despite the rather transparent warning signs from alt-tech social media sites like Parler, already indicating a much more credible threat. Additionally, initial requests to send the National Guard, which would have been better equipped to handle the situation, were denied by the federal government (specifically the Department of Defense). So while there is some evidence that some parts of the federal government may have been complicit or at least looking the other way, to truly believe the riots were staged, you'd have to believe all the rioters were participants, when there is no real evidence that they are actors and many have ties to the far right or the Republican Party going back years. Also, there's no real motive provided for why they would stage it; if it was to make Trump or conservatives look bad, that wouldn't make sense since the people with evidence of complicities or looking the other way are in the Trump administration or otherwise overwhelmingly conservative.

But, but, antifadidit!

For more information, see: Didit fallacy

To the surprise of no one, Republican allies of President Trump wasted no time propagating the absurd conspiracy theory that the militant far-left movement Antifa was responsible for provoking the mob that attacked the Capitol.

Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar promoted the conspiracy theory on Twitter on January 6:

This has all the hallmarks of Antifa provocation.

On January 7, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Alabama) let loose a stream of Twitter nonsense starting with the following:

Please, don't be like #FakeNewsMedia, don't rush to judgment on assault on Capitol. Wait for investigation. All may not be (and likely is not) what appears. Evidence growing that fascist ANTIFA orchestrated Capitol attack with clever mob control tactics.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) went even further, citing on the House floor a now-recanted article from The Washington Times that made an unsubstantiated claim about a facial recognition firm identifying Antifa supporters among the rioters who stormed the Capitol.

The lie was amplified by the usual crowd of webshites, including Conservapedia and NaturalNews. Conservative radio blowhard Mark Levin told his listeners, "None of you had anything to do with it." Greg Kelly told listeners on Newsmax, "These people don't look like Trump supporters." On Fox News, Laura Ingraham called out unspecified "reports" of Antifa involvement in the riots. Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Brit Hume also spread the conspiracy theory. MyPillow manufacturer Mike Lindell stated on Newsmax that "there were probably some undercover Antifa people that dressed as Trump people." Media conglomerate Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns hundreds of television stations across the country, sent its affiliates a news report by James Rosen suggesting without evidence that the riot was caused by "far-left infiltrators."

All of this is bullshit. It was bullshit at first blush, and as the years have worn on even more evidence that it was bullshit has continued to present itself. The firm cited by The Washington Times has told news outlets that the story is false. The FBI has identified no Antifa presence in the crowd, and many of those identified and later arrested are all Neo-Nazis, QAnon freaks, Proud Boys, and members of other right-wing extremist groups. Hell, there were even actual GOP legislators, including the aforementioned Derrick Evans and Rick Saccone, who were in the crowd.

According to The Washington Post's Fact Checker, there is no evidence that Antifa was behind the riot.

One good thing to come out of this claim is that it led to the arrest of Brandon Straka, of #WalkAway fame. Straka wrote a Twitter post in which he admitted his participation in the coup to prove that "It was not Antifa at the Capitol" and that he wasn't ashamed of his crimes.

But the tattoo!

One common piece of "evidence" used to paint the crowd as Antifa involves a photograph of a man in a yellow sweatshirt with a tattoo on his left hand. Due to the quality of the image, some viral tweets misinterpreted the tattoo to be a stylized hammer and sickle, thereby proving there were leftists in the crowd. However, the tattoo is actually that of the "Outsider's Mark" from the video game Dishonored, and not a Communist symbol.

John Sullivan

In the days after the riot, conservatives on social media began claiming that a "known Antifa member" named John Sullivan had been a member of the mob. While Sullivan, a political activist and photojournalist, was indeed involved in the riot, there is no evidence that he is associated with Antifa. Crucially, BLM members told the Washington Post that they suspected Sullivan of association with the Proud Boys, who were involved in the riot. PolitiFact rates the claim as "mostly false".

QAnon Shaman

Moo!

See the main article on this topic: Q Shaman

Jacob A. Chansley, aka "QAnon Shaman", aka Jake Angeli, is a far-right conspiracy nut from Phoenix, Arizona, who was at both the Capitol riot and at a BLM rally a few months prior. However, he was also present at many far-right rallies before. Contrary to what many of his fellow alt-righters like to claim, there is no reason to believe he was at the BLM rally as anything other than a counter-protestor; indeed, he was really upset when he was called a member of Antifa. Angeli's Lawyer, Al Watkins, said that Chansley was just accepting President Trump's invitation, and asked Trump to pardon him for his actions on January 6, 2021.

But Trump wasn't responsible!

During the impeachment debate, Rep. Brian Mast (R-Florida) floated the theory that the rioters weren't acting on Trump's behalf or request. This is fallacious however because several of the rioters, including QAnon Shaman, have said that they went to the Capitol on Trump's instigation. Also, in announcing the event, Trump had tweeted, "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!"

Another argument is that Trump didn't incite the riot from his speech that day because there was preplanning by the rioters. Donald Trump Jr., Representative Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Representative Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), and conservative journalist David Martosko have floated this idea. This amounts to a strawman argument because no one has claimed that Trump incited the riot solely based on his speech that shortly preceded it, but rather that it was the totality of Trump's actions and speech up to and including that day, which included support for violence by his admirers.

Trump's longtime enabler, Mitch McConnell, is not buying this steaming pile of bullshit. He threw Trump under the bus on this one, and has even said before the Senate, "The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people." He later, however, voted to acquit the former President.

And, of course, there was pathetic chatter that Trump specifically intended a peaceful demonstration and discouraged his followers taking violent actions – solely on the grounds that, in the middle of an entire speech of inflammatory rhetoric, he once mentioned "peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard."

It was Nancy Pelosi!

In the first 2024 presidential debate, Donald Trump made the wild claim that the riot was the fault of Nancy Pelosi, who supposedly turned down Trump's offer to send in 10,000 soldiers to the Capitol. Needless to say, this claim is false; Nancy Pelosi does not have the ability to direct the national guard, and she was indeed calling for assistance when the Capitol was under attack.

Someone got tased in the balls!

It was widely circulated that during the protest, one man died of a heart attack after tasing himself in the balls. The man died of a heart attack but did not taser himself.

Flag torn down

Another story that was widely spread around were that protesters tore down a US flag and replaced it with a Trump flag. According to Snopes, the evidence for this one is inconclusive.

They were just tourists or petitioners

It shouldn't need to be said, but tourists don't ransack the US Senate chamber.

“”At first it didn't dawn on me, but later I realized that if every person like me, who wasn't violent, was removed from that crowd, the ones who were violent may have lost the nerve to do what they did.

—Anna Morgan-Lloyd, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from the riot

A grandmother from Indiana was the first person sentenced in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Representative Andrew S. Clyde (R-GA) compared the January 6 event to a "normal tourist visit", this was despite the fact that there is a photo of Clyde barricading a door to keep the 'tourists' out on January 6.

Vladimir Putin similarly offered the opinion, "These are not looters or thieves, these people came with political requests." Never mind that there were many charges of property destruction and theft, and for assaulting police officers. If the "petitioners" had done that shit at the Kremlin, they'd surely be dead or at best in a gulag. Keep in mind that actual peaceful protesters who opposed the invasion of Ukraine were either arrested or violently beaten by Russian police.

Ashli Babbitt was a martyr

Related to this narrative is the idea that insurrectionist and QAnon nutter Ashli Babbitt was somehow a martyr because she was shot and killed by security while entering a broken window of the Capitol. This has been perpetrated by Senator Ron Johnson concern trolling, Congressman Paul Gosar and Tucker Carlson JAQing off. Supporters of her case have actually had the gall to draw false equivalencies with the cases which have inspired the Black Lives Matter demonstrations. Ex-President Trump fed into this fallacious narrative by claiming that the officer was "getting away with murder."

An internal investigation by the Capitol police cleared the officer who shot Babbitt of any wrongdoing. The US Justice Department also stated that they would not be filing any charges against the officer.

The FBI did it

Tucker Carlson further claimed on Fox News that the FBI organized the January 6 riot because federal indictments of Oath Keepers included unindicted co-conspirators:

Strangely, some of the key people who participated on Jan. 6 have not been charged. Look at the document. The government calls those people unindicted co-conspirators. What does that mean? Well, it means that in potentially every single case, they were FBI operatives.

This argument was also parroted by Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz.

This line of bullshit by Carlson shows his willful ignorance of the law – and more shockingly by two lawmakers, Greene and Gaetz. The existence of an unindicted co-conspirator is actually conclusive evidence that the unnamed person is not an FBI agent working undercover. According to Professor Lisa Kern Griffin of Duke University Law School, "An unindicted co-conspirator has committed the crime of conspiracy, and investigative agents doing their jobs undercover are not committing crimes."

The police let them in

See the main article on this topic: 2021 U.S. coup attempt § Underwhelming police response

There have been extremely viral videos on Twitter that purport that the Capitol police cooperated with rioters and let them in, which had the MSNBC host Joe Scarborough deride the police for "politely" "opening "the fucking door for them." Indeed, unlike during the widespread BLM protests, the police response was practically a skeleton crew. Due to this, however, the police couldn't hold out against the riot and had to fall back and remove the barricades, thus leaving thousands of private investigative "journalists" on Twitter with a misleading impression that the police were simply letting rioters in. The reality that the police were overwhelmed was supported by the journalist who originally shared the video. This is a standard military practice when outmatched in battle, tactical withdrawal. There are a lot of questions on the police response, exactly why an insurrection incited by the president was met with a disorganized skeleton crew compared to the less dangerous BLM riots and protests, why thirty-five officers are being investigated, and why six police were suspended after the riot; but the idea that the police let them in is not supported. Even some the rioters mistakenly thought they were being let in.

Sedition caucus

After the rioters were evicted and the security of the Capitol was restored, the House and the Senate reconvened. Eight Republican senators and 139 Republican House members were still in support of objections to certifying the election, thus tacitly supporting the insurrection.

Setting the stage for 2022 and 2024 elections

If a situation like this were to have happened in 2000, 2008, or even 2016, such violence would have been seen as unimaginable, and would have destroyed the reputation of whatever party or political movement that instigated it for years if not decades. However, as the 2022 midterms somewhat indicated, such hubris wouldn't matter to most people anymore.

As the months have passed since the January 6 insurrection attempt, Republicans by-and-large have increasingly tried to make it go away, either by trying to recharacterize it with historical revisionism, or by attempting to stymie any chance of an unbiased investigation into the events leading up to and during January 6. The attempt to stymie a non-partisan investigation did not succeed due to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi creating a bipartisan commission even without House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy's assistance. The Republican attempts to block a nonpartisan Congressional investigation, as well as state-level Republicans that criminalize teaching about systemic racism represents what historian Timothy Snyder calls "memory laws", laws that intended to guide the public interpretation of the past. These actions are akin to George Orwell's concept of the "memory hole" in the book Nineteen Eighty-Four that is used to facilitate propaganda.

Snyder, an expert on tyranny, has said that "a failed coup is practice for a successful coup", and he is not alone in that thinking. Snyder has said of the Republican Party, "One of our two political parties is currently on an undemocratic track. That's just the way it is, I think, for the 2022 and 2024 cycles." A survey of 327 political scientists found that 55% thought that at least some local officials will refuse to certify the 2024 election results; 46% thought that at least one state legislature would pick electors contrary to the popular vote; and 39% thought that Congress would refuse to certify the election.

Many reporters are aware that American democracy is in peril, but American media outlets are not making this a focal point of coverage. Conspiracy theorists harass election officials, death threats against elected officials have become more common, state-level GOP officials have made it more difficult to vote and easier to overturn legitimate voting results, and it seems less likely that the GOP will ever accept election defeat again. Trump's big lie of refusing to accept that his defeat in 2020 was legitimate continues to have resonance among his followers.

Historical precedents and similar cases

People with a cursory knowledge of American history are likely to think that the 2021 coup attempt was a black swan, i.e., a rare and unexpected event. That is not the case however, there were several other coup attempts in US history, including the first successful coup in 1898. These occurred most notably during and after Reconstruction when whites in The South eventually wrested control of local and state governments from African Americans.

• New Orleans, Louisiana: the Battle of Liberty Place (1874), in which whites attempted to overthrow the Republican state government
• Wilmington, North Carolina (1898): the Wilmington massacre, when ~2000 armed white Democrats violently overthrew the government of African American Republicans.
• Hawaii: the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi (1893), led by white sugar barons who wished to have duty free importation of sugar into the US by Hawaii being declared a territory
• The Business Plot of 1933, which discussed overthrowing Franklin D. Roosevelt's nascent presidency (foiled by Smedley Butler)

1934 attempted assault against the French parliament by the Leagues

It turns out that far-righters invading a legislative seat isn't a novelty.

Although the Great Depression came late in France, when it came, it came hard. Political instability, and reports of political and financial scandals, such as the Marthe Hanau Affair or the Albert Oustric case (the Minister of Justice being involved in the latter) didn't help things, with the authoritarian far-right leagues (ligues d'extrême droite) regaining influence. The methods of these leagues involved street demonstrations, often violent, and their ideology included monarchism or authoritarian republicanism, with some younger sectors being fascist.

In this background, the discovery of Alexandre Stavisky, a conman who used his political contacts to have his trial postponed for 19 months before mysteriously dying while on the lam, only added oil on the fire. All the elements were present: Stavisky was Jewish and foreign-born while Camille Chautemps, the head of the government and seated one of Stavisky's friends, was a Masonic official. The far-right couldn't dream a more perfect scapegoat.

And then the Prefect of Paris Pierre Chiappe, accused of being lax against these groups, was dismissed after a socialist government was elected, causing even more anger among these leagues, who called for a demonstration.

On February 6, 1934, several of these leagues such as the monarchist Action française ("French Action"), the authoritarian republican Jeunesses Patriotes ("Patriot Youth"), and Solidarité Française ("French Solidarity"), along with the Croix-de-Feu ("Cross of Fire"), along with veteran groups (including a communist one) angered at fighting World War One for these corrupt officials, marched in Paris, shouting "Down with the thieves, long live France!"; after the veterans' groups departed, more radical elements of the leagues attempted to march on the Bourbon Palace where the French parliament was seated. They converged on the Place de la Concorde, separated from the parliament by a bridge which was heavily defended by police units. Thereafter, 16 people were killed and 2000 injured, most of them belonging to Action française. Meanwhile, the Croix-de-feu limited themselves to surrounding the parliament before dispersing, leading them to be nicknamed the Froides-Queues ("Cold Tails") by the rest of the leagues; they were more mainstream right-wingers and La Rocque, their leader, didn't support the violent overthrow of the regime.

While the socialist government collapsed days after, the aftermath saw the French left-wing fearing a Fascist coup àlà March on Rome, and the communist and the socialist parties finally allied, finally ending in the 1936 Popular Front.

Meanwhile, the right-wing started to radicalize and approach the far-right, which kept regretting these riots as a missed occasion to do away with the hated parliamentarianism.

2017 storming of the North Macedonian parliament

On April 28, 2017 a group of Macedonian nationalists stormed the Parliament in Skopje after Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski of the VRMO party lost the election to social democrat Zoran Zaev. The VRMO party is well known for being very conservative in nature and holding anti-Albanian views. When the new coalition formed, ethnic Albanian Talat Xhaferi was made the speaker. The long standing issue of marginalization of the Albanian community in North Macedonia was the catalyst for the riot. Specifically, the conservatives opposed a law which made Albanian a co-official language with Macedonian as the national language. President Gjorge Ivanov put fuel on the fire when he expressed so-called concerns about the law as it would "disrupt national unity". Not long after, far-right nationalists stormed the Parliament building and caused major damage. Multiple injuries occurred, including the winner of the election. Eventually the police gained control of the violence. People involved were arrested for various reasons. The assault on democracy was condemned by most Western nations and the EU. Former Speaker Trajko Veljanoski, former transport minister Mile Janakieski, former labor minister Spiro Ristovski, and the former head of the secret police, Vladimir Atanasovski, were arrested for "terrorist endangerment of constitutional order".

2019 South Korean Capitol riot

In 2019, there was a riot in South Korea that was very similar to the US Capitol riot. On December 16, 2019, pro-Park, anti-communist and ultra-conservative far-right organizations in South Korea illegally entered the Capitol. They committed physical violence and terrorism against liberal politicians with the aim of blocking liberal reform. Unlike the United States, this is even more frightening in that politicians have actually been victims of violence. Fortunately, South Korea has not suffered irreversible damage, in part because it has some of the the toughest gun control laws in the free world.

According to the Pew Research Center survey, the political conflict between liberals and conservatives in South Korea is almost the same as that of the United States. In the United States and South Korea, 90% of citizens said there was a strong conflict between those who supported different political parties.

2020 Oregon State Capitol breach

On December 21 2020, just a couple weeks before the coup attempt, a large group of right-wingers began demonstrating outside the Oregon State Capitol to protest the controversial health measures taken against the COVID-19 pandemic. The mob began attempting to force their way into the building, at which point a Republican lawmaker opened the door to the Capitol to allow the mob into the building. The events that followed closely mirrored what would happen in 2021, with the rioters assaulting Capitol police and journalists and vandalising the building until they were cleared out.

Mike Nearman, the representative who allowed the attackers to enter the building, pleaded guilty to malfeasance in office and was expelled from the House. Notably, even other Republicans were disgusted by Nearman's crimes to the point of voting to expel him - out of the 60 people who voted on the motion to expel, the only opponent was Nearman himself.

The attack was perpetrated by the same groups who carried out Trump's coup: the Proud Boys and QAnon. Even some of the specific rioters later took part in the unrest in DC.

2022 German coup

Mirroring both the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 and January 6th, a far-right party known as the Patriotic Union planned a coup against the German government on December 7th, 2022. The coup would have allowed the group to install a government similar to Nazi Germany and the German Empire, with an ethnostate and a monarchy. Fortunately, all people involved were arrested before they could even put the plan into action. The group also planned on starting a civil war in the country that would allow other far-right parties to rise and take control. About 5,000 police officers (1,500 of which were part of the special forces), were engaged in a high search across Germany, searching approximately 130 locations within the country to locate the perpetrators.

2022-23 Brazilian coup attempts

This section requires updating.

Damage in the Brazilian Supreme Court building after the storming.

In December 2022, Jair Bolsonaro supporters tried to storm the HQ of the Brazilian Federal Police.

Shortly after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was sworn in as President of Brazil on January 1, 2023, Bolsonaro supporters attacked and briefly seized the primary buildings of the three branches of government in Brasília on January 8. Bolsonaro has been accused by his opponents (including President Lula) of inciting the coup attempt.

On the same day, Brasília's governor Ibaneis Rocha, a notorious Bolsonaro supporter, was suspended by the Brazilian Supreme Court for 90 days alleging security flaws that allowed the invasion of government buildings. Some police guards just left the barricades during the riot to buy soft drinks. Over a quarter of the Brazilian police force is composed of radical Bolsonarists.

Due to Brazil's history with coups, the police wasted no time in arresting the insurrectionists. Within less than 24 hours, around 1,200 people were detained in what was called by the Brazilian press and authorities a terrorist attack. Meanwhile, like his inspiration Trump, Bolsonaro was hiding in Florida rather than joining his supporters.

In November 2024, Bolsonaro, along with 36 other people, was indicted for his role in the coup attempt.

2023 Paraguay Coup attempt

In 2023, after coming out in third at the country's presidential election, the far-right Paraguayo Cubas made allegations of electoral fraud. This unsurprisingly led to protests across the country, with the police putting up fences around the electoral court's headquarters and firing rubber bullets at young protesters who were themselves throwing stones. Unlike in other countries, however, the Paraguayan institutions worked remarkably well, and over 100 people were detained in the first days, including Cubas himself.

Gallery of shame

• 

  Antifa did it, right?

• 

  Building the gallows

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  Proud Boys assembling near the Capitol

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  Banana Republicans assembled near the Capitol

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  List of "traitors" with a noose drawing

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  The face of white "supremacy": Robert Keith Packer. He wore a "Camp Auschwitz" shirt to the Capitol.

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  White Jesus QAnon MAGA

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  Person suspected by the FBI of leaving live pipe bombs at DNC and RNC headquarters on the night of January 5

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  Florida man is Antivaxx/Anti-high tech

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  Trump-as-Calvin pissing on Biden/Harris

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  Wanted for assault on federal officers

Symbols of shame

A variety of far-right symbols were found at the Capitol riot, including appropriated "American, Confederate, Germanic, Celtic, Greek, and Roman iconography."

• Proud Boys' (PB) logo with "Stand Back Stand By" (taken from a Trump speech)
• Betsy Ross' flag (co-opted by white supremacists)
• The co-opted "OK" hand sign
• "1776" clothing, referring to the American Revolution, but co-opted by Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio's shop of the same name.
• Three Percenter symbols that include the Roman numeral "III"
• QAnon symbols, typically represented as "Q"
• Oath Keepers
• Confederate flags
• America First or "AF", the name of Nick Fuentes' podcast
• Pepe the Frog
• Kekistan flag
• A hangman's noose, referencing the "Day of the Rope"
• Norse mythology, exemplified by the Mjöllnir and valknut of the Q Shaman. The Q Shaman's fur and horns were also meant to refer to (erroneous) popular conception of Germanic warriors.
  • Aaron Mostofsky, son of a judge on the Brooklyn Supreme Court, also wore furs and bore wooden staff, meant to refer to Germanic warriors. The irony must have been lost on Mostofsky, who is ethnically Jewish. Mostofsky was also seen calmly sitting inside the Capitol while a man with a Confederate flag, who could easily have been a Klansman, strode past him.
• The "thin blue line" flag: Police officer Michael Fanone was beaten with this flag and nearly died as it flew overhead.
• Flags from a variety of countries and two ex-countries (Canada, Cuba, Georgia, India, Israel, South Korea, South Vietnam, Tibet) and states
• Trump campaign flag
• US Marine Corps flag
• Culpeper Minutemen flag (a variant of the Gadsden flag)
• Ichthys, the Christian fish symbol
• South Carolina Navy ensign, used during the Revolutionary and Civil wars
• Trump portrayed as Rambo
• "Unleash the Kraken" from Trump lawyer Sidney Powell's fevered gibberish
• "Gays for Trump"
• The state flag of the Pahlavi Dynasty (carried by Iranian-Americans)
• VDARE
• "Jesus Saves" banner (Because a being that supports tolerance, peace, and understanding would totally support terrorism)
• American Revolutionary War uniform replica
• Antisemitic material referencing the Holocaust, including a "Camp Auschwitz" tee-shirt
• References to classical antiquity:
  • A man dressed as "Captain Moroni, a military commander who supposedly lived in the first century BCE" who existed only in Mormon mythology. Presumably, the deluded dude is a DezNat.
  • Online preparations for the January 6 event made reference to Julius Caesar's successful coup in January 49 BCE.
  • One of the rioters held a sign with "Trump's face Photoshopped over an image of the character Maximus from the 2000 historical drama film Gladiator with the words: 'THE DIE IS CAST! CROSS THE RUBICON, PRESIDENT TRUMP!!!'"
  • A man dressed as a Spartan warrior based on the film 300, implying that the riot would be just like "King Leonidas of Sparta and a force of 300 men fight the Persians at Thermopylae in 480 B.C."
  • The phrase "μολὼν λαβέ" (molon labe) was also seen on a black flag. The phrase was supposedly given by "King Leonidas I of Sparta when the Achaemenid Persian shah Xerxes I ordered him and his army to hand over their weapons before the Battle of Thermopylai in 480 BCE. The phrase literally means 'Having come, take' and refers to the weapons that Xerxes reportedly asked Leonidas to hand over." The phrase was not recorded contemporaneously but rather 500 years after the fact, so is almost certainly hagiographical.

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  Betsy Ross' flag (right) at the Capitol (January 6)

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  The hat of the man on the left has a Three Percenter symbol at the January 6 rally

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  Oath Keepers logo

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  The man in the center has a Three Percenter patch, a Proud Boys chicken-on-a-weathervane patch, and a "taxation is theft" patch

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  ""WWG1WWGA" (QAnon symbol) on the hat at the bottom at the riot

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  Infowars graffiti on the gallows.

• 

  A co-opted "Don't Tread on Me" flag (Gadsden flag) at the Capitol. It is often appropriated by gun nuts and limited government advocates

• 

  Man (far right) with a Christian flag and a misappropriated Benjamin Franklin quote alluding to "The US is a republic, not a democracy" trope.

• 

  Man carrying a WWJD coopted/WWG1WGA (QAnon) sign and a flag with an Ichthys symbol crossed with a US flag design, presumably Christian nationalism

• 

  The flag of South Vietnam (left, 3 red stripes), frequency associated with anti-communism, especially of the extreme hardline variety found amongst some Vietnamese refugees.

• 

  Thin Blue Line flag (center), held by a Trump supporter, en route to the insurrection

• 

  A Christian kook with a Jewish shofar horn to beckon the end times

See also

• 2018 United States mail bombing attempts
• Authoritarianism of Donald Trump
• Bolshevik Revolution, a more successful overthrow of democracy (Russia in 1917)
• Boogaloo boys
• Militia movement
• Proud Boys
• QAnon
• Q Shaman
• Unite the Right
• Trump-Ukraine scandal
• Tulsa Race Massacre

External links

• Fox News host calls Trump supporters at Capitol riots 'freaks' in furious rant
• Trump's speech that 'incited' Capitol violence: Full transcript
• Capitol Hill Siege, a central database of court records related to the events of January 6, 2021
• Seditionist.Info, a central database of "arrested, wanted or known seditionists" involved in the riot
• Incitement Timeline: Year of Trump's Actions Leading to the Attack on the Capitol by Ryan Goodman et al. (January 11, 2021) Just Security
• Investigations regarding violence at the Capitol, United States Department of Justice
• It's Time for Justice, Not Healing. (January 20, 2021) Foreign Policy
• Insurrection Index - naming names and crimes
• Capitol Breach Cases United States Attorney's Office, District of Columbia, Department of Justice – more than 800 people charged as of July 2022