Anniversary of US Capitol riot brings fresh division

Five years ago, outside the White House, outgoing president Donald Trump told a crowd of his supporters to head to the Capitol to protest Congress’ certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory — “and I’ll be there with you.”

Soon the world watched as the US center of power descended into chaos and democracy hung in the balance.

On the fifth anniversary of Jan. 6, 2021, there is no official event to commemorate what happened that day, when the mob marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, clashed with police at the Capitol barricades and charged inside as lawmakers fled.

Political parties refuse to agree on a common history of events broadcast around the world. And the official plaque honoring the police officers who defended the Capitol was never put up.

Instead, Trump will meet privately with House Republicans at the Kennedy Center, which the president renamed to bear his name, for a policy forum. Democrats will hold a hearing with witnesses to the violence and then gather on the Capitol steps to commemorate what happened.

Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the militant Proud Boys, is organizing a noon march to honor Trump supporter Ashli ​​Babbitt and others who died during the Jan. 6 siege and its aftermath, retracing the rioters’ steps from the White House to the Capitol.

“I ask those who can attend to please do so,” Tarrio said on his X social media feed.

Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy for orchestrating the Jan. 6 attack and is among more than 1,500 defendants whose charges were dropped when Trump issued a blanket pardon upon his return to the White House. “This will be a patriotic and peaceful march. If you intend to cause trouble, we ask that you stay home,” Tarrio wrote.

The events of Jan. 6, at home and abroad, carry echoes of the split screen of five years ago, when the House and Senate met to certify the election results as Trump supporters flocked.

This landmark anniversary comes at a time when attention is focused elsewhere on a striking new era in American expansionism, especially in the wake of the US military’s stunning capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Trump’s plans to take over the country and bolster its massive oil industry.

“These people in the administration want to teach the world about democracy while undermining the rule of law in their own countries, a powerful reminder to all of us,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said on the eve of the anniversary. he said.

Democratic leadership is reconvening the now-disbanded Jan. 6 committee to hear from police, elected officials and Americans about their experiences that day.

Those expected to testify include former Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who along with former Rep. Liz Cheney are the two Republicans on the panel investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn Biden’s victory. Cheney, who lost his re-election bid to a Trump-backed opponent, is not expected to appear on stage.

Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk, who was tapped by House Speaker Mike Johnson to lead a new committee to investigate other theories about what happened on Jan. 6, dismissed Tuesday’s hearing as a “partisan exercise” designed to hurt Trump and his allies.

Many Republicans reject the narrative that Trump triggered the Jan. 6 attack and caused difficulties in the 2020 elections before Johnson became speaker of the House of Representatives. He was among some 130 Republican lawmakers who voted that day to reject the presidential results of some states.

Instead, they focused on security lapses at the Capitol, from the arrival of the National Guard to the failure of police canine units to discover pipe bombs found outside Republican and Democratic party headquarters that day. The FBI arrested a Virginia man suspected of planting the pipe bombs who told investigators last month that he believed someone needed to speak up on behalf of those who believe the 2020 election was stolen.

“The Capitol Complex is no safer today than it was on January 6,” Loudermilk said in a social media post. “My elected subcommittee remains committed to transparency and accountability, and to ensuring that the security failures that occurred on January 6 and the partisan investigation that followed never happen again.”

Five people died during the Capitol siege and its aftermath; these include Babbitt, who was shot to death by police as she tried to break in through a door window near the House chamber, and Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who later died after fighting the mob. Scores of law enforcement personnel subsequently died, some by suicide.

The Justice Department has indicted Trump on four counts in a conspiracy to defraud voters through his claims that the election was rigged ahead of the Jan. 6 attack.

Former Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers last month that the riot at the Capitol “wouldn’t have happened” without Trump. When Trump was re-elected, he dropped the lawsuit, adhering to department rules against suing a sitting president.

Trump, who was never able to go to the Capitol while taking shelter in the White House that day, was impeached by the House only on the charge of inciting the insurrection. The Senate acquitted him after top Republican senators believed the matter was better left to the courts.

Before the 2024 elections, the Supreme Court ruled that former presidents have broad immunity from investigation.