Republicans silent and Democrats incensed on fifth anniversary of US Capitol attack | US Capitol attack

While Democrats tried to use the opportunity to blast Donald Trump and a small group of protesters gathered at the US Capitol in solidarity with those who carried out the attack.

After hoping in vain that the well-documented violence would cause voters to reject Trump outright, Democrats, who are in the minority in Congress, used the anniversary to denounce the president as a threat to democracy and accuse Republicans of acting as his accomplices.

“Donald Trump and the far-right in Congress have repeatedly tried to rewrite history and whitewash the horrific events of January 6, rather than holding those responsible for the attack accountable. We will not let this happen,” House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said at the unofficial hearing where his party gathered to examine the effects of the attack.

This anniversary was Trump’s first since returning to office almost a year ago, when he immediately pardoned nearly everyone convicted or accused of violence; It was the crowning achievement of a campaign Republicans launched in the immediate aftermath of the attack to blunt public anger.

Noting that some of the approximately 1,500 people pardoned by the president were convicted of other serious crimes before and after January 6, Jeffries said, “This is a Trump-inspired crime spree. Why don’t Republicans in Congress condemn this dangerous behavior and the ongoing threat to public safety?”

Although the attack sent lawmakers from both parties fleeing after rioters breached the Capitol during a joint session of Congress certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, few Republicans marked the anniversary. Those who did so downplayed the seriousness of the incident or tried to shift blame to Democrats.

Republican congressman Mike Collins wrote of

He falsely claimed that the president’s “supporters marched to the Capitol to exercise their First Amendment rights regarding irregularities in the 2020 election. During this time, some individuals entered the Capitol, took photographs, and explored the building before leaving.”

Trump has made no public comments on the anniversary, and his senior officials have tried to convey the message that his administration deserves no blame for the violence. “Never forget the lies Democrats and the media are trying to force on the American people,” White House communications director Steven Cheung wrote to X. Cheung later described the website as a “trap” that news organizations had fallen into.

The riot was attributed to nine deaths as well as dozens of injuries and was extensively documented by videos taken by journalists, police and the rioters themselves. A bipartisan congressional committee investigating the attack ruled that Trump should face criminal charges for his involvement, saying lawmakers “developed significant evidence that President Trump intended to disrupt the peaceful transition of power under our constitution.”

In testimony before a hearing convened by Democrats on Tuesday, former US Capitol police officer Winston Pingeon described being attacked by rioters: “President Trump sent us.”

“It is absolutely unacceptable that the criminals who severely beat me and my fellow officers that day were pardoned. We cannot accept that violent criminals are pardoned and sent back to our neighborhoods without consequences. This is not justice,” Pingeon said.

Rebel Pam Hemphill, who rejected the pardon, said she attended the hearing to “make amends.”

“Agreeing to be pardoned would be lying about what happened on January 6. I am guilty and I own this crime,” he said, adding that he “fell for the president’s lies, just like many of his supporters.”

This incident reignited the debate over the plaque that Congress required by law to be placed at the Capitol to honor the officers who responded to the attack, but the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has not yet placed it.

“They have a legal obligation to hang this, and I’m calling on Speaker Johnson to hang it today. It’s been gathering dust in a closet somewhere,” said Democratic congressman Jamie Raskin.

In his speech in the Senate, Republican senator Thom Tillis, who is not considering re-election after clashing with Trump, also criticized Democrats for creating “an attitude that law enforcement is bad here” with their support for the racial justice protests that broke out in 2020 following the death of George Floyd.

But he also criticized Trump’s pardon, saying: “We’re letting bad people go, and we’ve sent the message that if you come to this Capitol and put the right president in office, he’s going to let you get past some things…none of us are going to get away with it if we do this in our own state.”

In the afternoon, several dozen protesters, some wearing shirts and hats indicating they had received pardons, marched to the Capitol from the White House ellipse where Trump gave his speech five years ago. They were stopped near the site by a line of police officers, but a smaller group was later allowed to go to the west front to lay flowers in honor of rioter Ashli ​​Babbitt, who was fatally shot by a Capitol police officer while trying to breach a barricaded door during the insurrection.

Last year, the Trump administration agreed to pay nearly $5 million to her family and award military honors to Babbitt, an Air Force and Air National Guard veterinarian.

Democratic congressman Tom Suozzi briefly confronted protesters who were hurling insults at him and asked: “What do you think about attacking a police officer? What do you think about committing a crime?”

“Oh, we didn’t commit any crime,” one protester shouted.

Enrique Tarrio, the former national leader of the far-right Proud Boys group who was convicted on charges related to the attack on the Capitol and later pardoned by Trump, said in an interview that he expects such marches to occur every Jan. 6.

“I think now people can see both sides of the coin and make an informed decision based on that,” he said.