On January 6, 2021, a mob of Donald Trump supporters ransacked the U.S. Capitol. They sought to forestall Congress from certifying his loss within the presidential election, however a number of of them had even scarier concepts.
Some chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” Others assaulted Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s workplace, the place staffers had barricaded themselves in an workplace, trying to find her: “Nancy! Nancy Pelosi!” “Where you at, Nancy?” “Where’s Nancy?” The mob ransacked the workplace, however she was gone, taken to close by Fort McNair together with different leaders. The rioters had been upset. “We broke into the Capitol. We got inside. We did our part. We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the frickin’ brain. But we didn’t find her,” one lady stated in a selfie video. The crowd was ultimately dispersed, and Joe Biden grew to become president two weeks later.
Early immediately, somebody broke into Pelosi’s dwelling in San Francisco, reportedly yelling, “Where is Nancy, where is Nancy?” The speaker was not dwelling, however the intruder attacked her husband, Paul, sending him to a hospital with non-life-threatening accidents. The San Francisco police say the suspect, who’s in custody, took a hammer from Paul Pelosi and attacked him with it. Officials additionally say he expressed excessive right-wing views on social media. He has been charged with quite a few felonies, together with tried murder.
Preliminary particulars of incidents like this should not all the time correct, and police accounts are generally unreliable. But the ghastly echo of the bloodthirsty crowd on the Capitol means that the victory of democracy continues to be unsure. Not solely was the rebellion not defeated, however January 6 by no means ended.
The spectacle of an armed mob assaulting the Capitol, with the encouragement of the president, on January 6, appears to have impressed a brand new wave of threats and political violence. Such violence is just not new to American politics, having waxed and waned over time, however has recently been on an upsurge.
Not all of those assaults goal Democrats or Trump opponents. A person attempted to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in June, and one other attacked Representative Lee Zeldin, the GOP nominee for New York governor, in July. Some should not ideological, reminiscent of a Wisconsin decide’s assassination in June that appears to have stemmed from a private grievance. But an armed man repeatedly menaced Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal’s dwelling in Seattle. A person was killed in August after attacking an FBI workplace in Cincinnati, following an FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reviews frequent loss of life threats. These observe horrifying acts of political violence throughout the Trump administration.
Establishing motivation for vicious private assaults is difficult. Many of those attackers should not of sound thoughts, and could also be harnessing their very own private demons to political causes, although the identical was true of among the January 6 attackers. Politicians utilizing violent rhetoric or encouraging violence provide them an outlet.
The riot was probably the most acute expression of political anger on January 6, however it was additionally the end result of a months-long effort by Trump and his allies to subvert the 2020 election. This systemic risk stays very alive too. Not solely are some irredentists nonetheless demanding vainly that the 2020 election be “decertified” and Trump returned to workplace, however scores if not lots of of candidates who don’t settle for the outcomes of the election will win workplace subsequent month—a few of them in positions that may give them sway over future elections.
On the night of January 6, Pelosi and different leaders insisted that Congress return to the Capitol that evening and end the work of certifying the election. A yr later, Pelosi seemed again and declared, “Democracy won.” That was a comforting notion. Today, it appears clear that the battle that began on January 6 continues to be raging. The threats to the Constitution and to the lives of elected officers will likely be with us for a very long time to return.