From the BBC:
“January 6: The day that still
divides America, three years on”
Americans watched in horror on 6
January, 2021 as rioters smashed through barricades and ransacked the US
Capitol with the goal of stopping the certification of Joe Biden's election. As
Trump supporters stalked the halls of Congress and lawmakers fled to safe rooms
in fear, the country seemed united in its disgust. Yet three years on, the
fundamental events of that day, established through eyewitness testimony,
thousands of hours of footage, hundreds of indictments and one of the most
extensive investigations in federal and congressional history, are no longer
agreed upon. And voters will continue to hear two different interpretations of
the attack as the 2024 election gets under way. The way Donald Trump and Joe
Biden talk about 6 January reflects the deep partisan divide that has developed
around the riot since it happened.
For Mr Trump and many in his base, the days
since have been a tale of nursed grievances and government conspiracy. The
former president continues to make the same false allegation that instigated
the attack: That the 2020 election was stolen from him. He has also worked to
downplay the Capitol riot's significance and recast the hundreds of supporters
convicted of participating in the attack as political prisoners. He has vowed
to pardon many if he returns to the White House.
President Biden, meanwhile,
emphasised his opponent's involvement in the violent assault on Congress in his
first major campaign speech on Friday in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, a historic
site in the American War of Independence. He invoked many of the most
terrifying images from the day, such as the rioter who carried a Confederate
flag through Congress and the gallows that Mr Trump's supporters erected
outside the building. His intention, according to his campaign, is to use the
anniversary to stress to voters that his predecessor would put US democracy at
risk if he wins the election in November. "Trump's mob wasn't a peaceful
protest, it was a violent assault," Mr Biden said on Friday. "They
were insurrectionists, not patriots. They were not there to uphold the
Constitution, they were there to destroy the Constitution." Mr Biden is
banking on there being enough Americans who accept these facts as true. His
re-election hopes hang, in part, on voters also seeing the Capitol riot as a
dark chapter of American history and Mr Trump's conduct as disqualifying. That
view likely aligns with the Democrats and independents Mr Biden will need to
win to keep the White House address for another four years.
A majority of Americans - 55% -
believe that 6 January was "an attack on democracy that should never be
forgotten", according to a Washington Post/University of Maryland poll
released this week. That includes Democrats and independents. Disinformation
sown by Mr Trump and his supporters appears to have resonated with some
Americans, however. A quarter of Americans believe a false conspiracy theory
that the FBI instigated the attack, the poll suggested. At the same time, a
large majority of Republicans have said it is "time to move on" from
6 January. And only 18% of Republicans believed the attack was violent, which
is an eight-point slip from a 2021 survey.
"It's very tribal, they're
very angry about how [Trump has] been treated," David Kochel, a Republican
political strategist in Iowa, said of his party's voters. "People
definitely come to his defence, on everything from legal challenges and all
those attacks that they perceive from the mainstream media." It's a new
fault line in American politics, political analysts and pundits said. While the
topic has galvanised many in Mr Trump's party, memories of the Capitol riot and
attempts at election interference have come back to cut the Republican
candidate and kept his allies from major wins at the ballot box. Focusing on Mr
Trump as a threat to democracy helped Democrats deliver a surprisingly
successful midterm election in 2022. "Politicians tend to use what worked
for them in the past, and Biden is thinking: 'Once we make Trump the centre of
attention again, voters will come back and vote for me, even though I'm quite
unpopular,'" Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University
of New Hampshire, said. It is also an angle that has the potential to resonate
more emotionally with his voters than boasts about the economy, which have so
far fallen flat, one Democrat said. "To the extent that Biden can clarify
that this election is about preserving democracy... it's both beneficial for
democracy, and a winning message electorally as well," said Steve
Phillips, a Democratic political commentator and host of the "Democracy in
Color" podcast.
Mr Trump, meanwhile, continues to
present his own version of events to his voters in social media posts and stump
speeches. He has dismissed federal felony charges accusing him of interfering
in the 2020 election as a "witch hunt". He has reframed the rioters
as "patriots" and "peaceful people". In a memorable moment,
he has even called 6 January a "beautiful day" during a CNN town hall
in May. It appears the former president has almost created a bond between
himself and his supporters amid four criminal indictments, saying at one August
rally in New Hampshire, "They want to take away my freedom because I will
never let them take away your freedom." "Legally speaking and
politically speaking, Trump needed to find a way to tell the story of January 6
in a way that would keep his hold on the base of the Republican Party," Mr
Scala said, "and he has largely succeeded."
^ January 6, 2021 was an attempted
Coup against the United States of America and we (Republicans and Democrats)
should never forget what happened nor should we reward those that participated in
the attempted overthrow of our Democracy. ^
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