[Under construction. Published unfinished to get it in the timeline.]
As much as I fucking hate Trump, I'm not sure I saw this coming, but I should have.
Trump has been spinning lies about his huge victory for months, winding his supporters up with false tales of illegal ballots on a huge scale. It shouldn't be surprising that they exploded.
The definitive accounts of what happened haven't been written yet. In a nutshell, Trump called for his supporters to come to Washington DC on the day that Congress was due to certify Joe Biden as the next president. Many heeded that call. I haven't seen estimates but it was more than 20,000 but not have a million. They came wound up and ready to spring. Many already planned to storm the Capitol and force Congress to certify another term for Trump.
After a morning of speeches near the White House, Trump sent his supporters to the US Capitol to "fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."
Some of his supporters were already there, but when the huge contingent arrived, they broke through a series of makeshift barriers of moveable metal bike racks and chicken wire. They continued to push, fighting with the greatly outnumbered Capitol police. The mobs got to many sides of the Capitol, and proceeded to break in through doors and windows wherever police didn't put up extremely stiff resistance.
The weaponry for each side. For the police: some with almost no weapons or shielding, not even helmets. Some with riot gear, shields, gas masks, batons, tear gas, pepper spray, flashbangs and rubber bullets. For the rioters, some with almost no weapons or shielding, not even helmets. Some with riot gear, shields, gas masks, batons, pepper spray, bats, flag poles, sharpened flag poles, fire extinguishers, and anything at hand that could be thrown.
The capitol police were outnumbered by such an extent that breaches were bound to happen, and they did. The number of rioters who gained access isn't clear yet. I've seen estimates of 200, but I think it was many more than that. The mobs went looking particularly for Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence. Some planned only to make their case verbally, others planned to kill and enforce their will that Trump should be given a second term.
With the level of violence and lack of respect for the law, this has to be called an insurrection and/or an attempted coup.
Luckily it failed. Security was strong enough to escort the members of Congress to safe areas, presumably in the basement. No one in Congress, on the staff, or among the police were taken as hostage or prisoner. Had some rioter been able to take hostages, the outcome might have been different.
As it was, about three hours after the assault started, reinforcements arrived and started clearing out the Capitol, driving the rioters out, then away from the doors on all sides, then away from the Capitol and out of the city. One rioter (a woman veteran) was shot dead inside the Capitol. One police officer died from his injuries the next day. One woman rioter was crushed in the crowds. Two other rioters died from medical issues on the grounds.
That evening, even before all the rioters were driven out of the city, Congress resumed its session. From 8:00pm until 3:45am roughly, they debated per their rules of order and finished the largely ceremonial task of certifying the next president. So all the violence and mayhem was in vain.
Not completely in vain. It was opened the eyes of a lot of people. The level of importance is hard to gauge right now. Two days later, when Trump continued to claim the election was stolen, he was permanently thrown off of Twitter, which had been his prime mode of communication and his podium for bullying. He was also suspended from youtube. Though he hasn't lost all his means of communication, he was so curtailed that he couldn't fight anymore. He ended up leaving his term in near silence and isolation. And disgrace. Posts about impeachment to come.
Extras. One former GOP senator saw this coming and said the GOP must separate from Trump and form a new party. Video here, print here. Tom Cotton, a very conservative GOP senator, called out his colleagues for going too far and serving up lies.
Mitch McConnell played along for way too long. So he allowed the authoritarianism to flourish.
Texts urging Trump to stop the madness on Jan. 6. Brief and very telling.
Antifa did it. Retired General McInerney, who lied about the server farm in Frankfurt where votes were manipulated, lies again about Antifa spearheading violence at the Capitol. The guy hasn't met a lie he won't speak. More important evidence that it was Antifa! Some patriots dispute it was Antifa because it was them and it was glorious. Senator Ron Johnson thinks it was FBI agents/provocateurs.
Trump wanted a big send-off for himself from his fans. Since he doesn't have many fans in government anymore, that means the usual rally sort of thing. The military is apparently declining to give him the usual send-off. (He didn't get it. White House aides, staff, and family saw him off in small contingents at the White House and the military base. The base also supplied a podium and a band, but not ranks of troops to see him off.)
Moving testimony from a Capitol police officer who was crushed and assaulted during the riot. That wasn't all that happened to him that day.
How many national guards were sent into Washington to quell the coup attempt? 340 guards were already working around DC before the riot at the Capitol. 1100 were called up that day. 6200 were mobilized that evening to help with tasks in the next days up through the inauguration--in case there was another coup attempt. These are numbers from the National Guard website.
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