To paraphrase American President Franklin Roosevelt regarding the events of December 7th, 1941, January 6th 2021 is a day that will live in American infamy.
Wednesday afternoon, the American Congress met in a joint session to confirm the results of the November 2020 election. President Donald Trump, addressing supporters in an hour-long speech on Pennsylvania Avenue, repeated claims that the 2020 election had been stolen from him due to voter fraud (these charges have yet to enjoy the slightest of evidence, despite repeated attempts to give the claims some credibility in American courts). Trump told his followers that they needed to go to the capitol building where elected Representatives and Senators were then going through the procedure of recording the Electoral College votes that would make Joseph Biden the official president-elect of the United States. Incited by his outlandish claims, Trump’s supporters quickly overwhelmed a Capitol Police force oddly underprepared, stormed the Capitol, and took over the House of Representatives for a number of tense hours Wednesday morning. One Trump supporter was shot trying to scale a wall. One police officer was beaten repeatedly by protestors using fire extinguishers; he later died. A number of others would die from medical events provoked by these actions.
Elected Officials were quickly evacuated to relative safety, barred in backrooms and offices, watching what appeared to be a coup attempt on the televised news. The supporters, meanwhile, looked somewhat aimless as they vandalized Capitol building property. They flew the Confederate flag in front of prominent statues of abolitionists. They posed for photographs with Capitol police officers either friendly to the Trump cause or too scared to confront the . Later, several IEDs—Improvised Explosive Devices, or, to put it more simply, homemade bombs—were found around both the Republican and Democratic National Committee Headquarters.
The Department of Defense initially denied back up for the Capitol Police Force in the form of the Maryland National Guard. Exactly why that was is still being discussed, debated, and will likely eventually be investigated. Trump was repeatedly urged to condemn the violence. He refused to do so until about 4:17 pm in the afternoon when he told the insurrectionists that he ‘loved’ them, that they were ‘special,’ but it was time to go home. At almost the same time Trump was delivering his message, the Virginia National Guard and the Maryland National Guard were given Pentagon authorization to provide support. They began to clear the building. The Mayor of Washington D.C. imposed a curfew at 6 pm.
At 8 pm and 9 pm respectively, Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi resumed the sessions that would eventually declare Joseph Biden the president-elect of the United States at 3:42 am on January 7th.
The fallout from these events and actions is still in progress. Any number of commentators have noted that the power dynamics in Washington shifted profoundly Thursday morning, and will likely continue to evolve rapidly and unpredictably over the coming weeks. Many are bracing for more violence on January 17th and January 20th, as there appear to be plans in place for further violence coming from Trump supporters.
The events of January 6th have already inspired any number of interesting language debates. Some observers, for instance, have objected to the use of the word ‘coup,’ to describe what happened, preferring to describe the events as a ‘.’ The word coup, so goes the argument, should be reserved for events when the military conspired with a political leader to overturn an election. Others have quickly pointed out the Department of Defense’s refusal to provide military support during such a clear crisis certainly raises questions, especially since President Trump spent much of November replacing officials at the Pentagon with loyalists. You’ll note these linguistic issues are still live in most of the articles I’ve selected for reading.
This story, in other words, still feels very much in progress: as an American expatriate, I hope—against all reasonable belief—not to have to return to this topic.
by Nathan R. Elliott
Articles Selected:
i. “What Should We Call the Sixth of January?” The New Yorker. Jan 8, 2021. Advanced. 7 mins.
ii. “Trump Told Crowd ‘You Will Never Take Back Our Country with Weakness.’” The New York Times. Jan 6,
2021. Intermediate. 6 mins.
iii. “4 Dead, Congress Evacuated, National Guard activated after pro-Trump rioters storm Capitol.” NBC
News. Jan 6, 2021. Intermediate. Contains graphic, disturbing embedded videos. 15 mins.
iv. “FBI posts photo of person who placed suspected pipe bombs outside DNC, RNC.” ABC News. Jan 8, 2021. Intermediate/Beginner. 3 mins.
v. “Maryland Governor Says Pentagon ‘Repeatedly Denied’ Approval to Send National Guard to Capitol.”
Forbes. Jan 8, 2021. Intermediate/Beginner. 3 mins.
vi. “How one of America’s Ugliest Days unraveled inside and outside the Capitol.” The Washington Post.
Beginner. 3-4 mins. vii. “The Violence at the Capitol was a Coup. Call it that.”The Guardian. Jan 6, 2021. Intermediate. 6 mins.