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User:NewsAndEventsGuy/111 Donald Trump's response to the 2021 US Capitol Attack

Coordinates: 38°53′23″N 77°00′33″W / 38.88972°N 77.00917°W / 38.88972; -77.00917
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Originally copied from Domestic Reactions to the 2021 attack on the US Capitol

January 6 United States Capitol attack
Part of attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election and domestic terrorism in the United States
Crowd outside the Capitol during the attack (top); bear spray deployed against a line of policemen (bottom left); attackers breach a police line (bottom right)
DateJanuary 6, 2021; 3 years ago (2021-01-06)
c. 12:53 p.m. – 5:40 p.m.[1] (UTC-5)
Location
The Capitol Building, Washington, D.C., United States

38°53′23″N 77°00′33″W / 38.88972°N 77.00917°W / 38.88972; -77.00917
Caused by
Goals
Methods
Resulted inAttack unsuccessful
Parties

Pro-Trump, far-right militias and movements

(Full list)[26]
Lead figures
Casualties and criminal charges
Death(s)On January 6
  • 1 rioter killed by gunshot
  • 1 rioter died from drug overdose
  • 2 rallygoers died from natural causes[31]
Afterwards
  • 1 police officer died from natural causes
  • 4 police officers died from suicides[b]
Injuries
  • Unknown number of rioters
  • At least 174 police officers,[16] including at least 15 hospitalized[36]
ArrestedOver 1,500, including Trump himself
Buildings destroyedParts of the Capitol
Charged1,500 or more, including Trump[37][38][23][24] (see also: Criminal charges relating to the attack)

On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob[39][40][41] of supporters of then-president Donald Trump in an attempted self-coup d'état,[42] two months after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. They sought to keep him in power by preventing a joint session of Congress from counting the Electoral College votes to formalize the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. The attack was ultimately unsuccessful in preventing the certification of the election results. According to the bipartisan House select committee that investigated the incident, the attack was the culmination of a seven-part plan by Trump to overturn the election.[43][44] Within 36 hours, five people died: one was shot by Capitol Police, another died of a drug overdose, and three died of natural causes, including a police officer who died of natural causes a day after being assaulted by rioters.[c][34][45] Many people were injured, including 174 police officers. Four officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months.[35] Damage caused by attackers exceeded $2.7 million.[46]

Encouraged by Trump,[47][48] on January 5 and 6, thousands of his supporters gathered in Washington, D.C., to support his false claims that the 2020 election had been "stolen by emboldened radical-left Democrats",[49][50][51][52] and to demand that then-vice president Mike Pence and Congress reject Biden's victory.[53] Starting at noon on January 6 at a "Save America" rally on the Ellipse,[54] Trump gave a speech in which he repeated false claims of election irregularities[55] and said, "If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore".[56][57] As Congress began the electoral vote count, thousands of attendees, some armed, walked to the Capitol, and hundreds breached police perimeters.[58][59] Among the rioters were leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers militia groups.[60]

The FBI estimates that between 2,000 and 2,500 people entered the Capitol Building during the attack,[61][62][63] some of whom participated in vandalism and looting,[64][65] including in the offices of then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Congress members.[66] Rioters also assaulted Capitol Police officers[67] and journalists.[68] With building security breached, Capitol Police evacuated and locked down both chambers of Congress and several buildings in the Complex.[69] Rioters occupied the empty Senate chamber while federal law enforcement officers defended the evacuated House floor.[70][71] Pipe bombs were found at both the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters, and Molotov cocktails were discovered in a vehicle near the Capitol.[72][73] Trump resisted sending the National Guard to quell the mob.[74] Later that afternoon in a Twitter video,[75] he restated false claims about the election and told his supporters to "go home in peace".[76][77] The Capitol was cleared of rioters by mid-evening,[78] and the electoral vote count was resumed and completed by the early morning of January 7. Pence declared Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris victorious. Pressured by his cabinet, the threat of removal, and many resignations, Trump later conceded to an orderly transition of power in a televised statement.[79][80]

A week after the attack, the House of Representatives impeached Trump for incitement of insurrection, making him the only U.S. president to be impeached twice.[81] In February, after Trump had left office, the Senate voted 57–43 in favor of conviction, but fell short of the required two-thirds, resulting in his acquittal.[82] Senate Republicans blocked a bill to create a bipartisan independent commission to investigate the attack,[83][67] so the House instead approved a select investigation committee.[d][84][85] They held nine televised public hearings on the attack,[86] voted to subpoena Trump,[87] and recommended that the Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecute him. Following a special counsel investigation, Trump was in August 2023 indicted on four charges,[88][89] which were all dismissed in November 2024, following his reelection to the presidency.[90] As of May 2024, of the 1,424 people then charged with federal crimes relating to the event[91] 1,010 pled guilty,[91] and 1,060 have been sentenced, 64% of whom received a jail sentence.[91] Some participants in the attack were linked to far-right extremist groups or conspiratorial movements, including the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and Three Percenters,[92][93] some of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy.[94] Enrique Tarrio, then the chairman of the Proud Boys, received the longest sentence, a 22-year prison term.[95] Trump and elected Republican officials have since promoted a revisionist history of the event by downplaying the severity of the violence, spreading conspiracy theories, and portraying those charged with crimes as hostages and martyrs.[e]


President Trump

[edit]
Donald Trump's statement during the attack. The video was originally posted on Twitter and shared on other social media before being removed from all platforms for violating various policies.

During the riot

[edit]

Trump was in the West Wing of the White House at the time. A close adviser to Trump said the president wasn't taking many phone calls. When Trump watches television, the adviser explained, he will pause a recorded program to take a phone call, but "if it’s live TV, he watches it, and he was just watching it all unfold.”[107]

Trump, who had spent previous weeks promoting the "Save America" rally,[108] was "initially pleased" when his supporters breached the Capitol; he refused to intercede,[109] but also "expressed disgust on aesthetic grounds" about what he called the "low class" appearance of the supporters involved in the rioting.[110] Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) said that senior White House officials told him Trump was "delighted" to hear that rioters were entering the Capitol.[111] Staffers reported that Trump had been "impossible to talk to throughout the day", and inability to deal with his election loss had, according to one staffer, made Trump "out of his mind".[112] Concerned that Trump may have committed treason through his actions, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone reportedly advised administration officials to avoid contact with Trump and ignore any illegal orders that could further incite the attack to limit their prosecutorial liability under the Sedition Act of 1918.[113]

At 2:46, as the rioting continued and after senators had been evacuated from the Senate floor, Trump phoned Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) intending to speak to Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), asking him to make more objections to the counting of the electoral votes to try to overturn the election.[114][115] At 2:47, as his supporters violently clashed with police at the Capitol, Trump tweeted, "Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!"[116] The Washington Post later reported that Trump did not want to include the words "stay peaceful".[117]

By 3:10 p.m., the pressure was building on Trump to condemn supporters engaged in the riots; Trump's former communications director, Alyssa Farah, called upon him to "Condemn this now" and wrote, "you are the only one they will listen to."[118] By 3:25 p.m., Trump tweeted "I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue," but did not call upon the crowd to disperse.[118] By 3:40 p.m., a number of congressional Republicans called upon Trump to more specifically condemn violence and to call on his supporters to end the occupation of the Capitol: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R–CA) said that he had spoken to Trump to ask him to "calm individuals down"; Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) issued a tweet telling Trump that "it is crucial you help restore order by sending resources to assist the police and ask those doing this to stand down"; and Representative Mike Gallagher (R–WI), in a video message, told Trump to "call it off".[118] Additionally, throughout the day, Trump's daughter Ivanka, who held the position of senior adviser, asked him more than once to stop the violence.[119] Lindsey Graham later told The Washington Post that "it took [Trump] awhile to appreciate the gravity of the situation ... [he] saw these people [the rioters] as allies in his journey and sympathetic to the idea that the election was stolen".[117]

By 3:50 p.m., White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that the National Guard and "other federal protective services" had been deployed.[118] At 4:05 p.m., Pence—in contrast to Trump, who only called upon his supporters to "remain peaceful"—called for the occupation of the Capitol to end immediately.[118] At 4:06 p.m. on national television, President-elect Biden called for President Trump to end the riot. At 4:22 p.m., Trump issued a video message on social media that was later taken down by Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. In it, he praised his supporters and repeated his claims of electoral fraud, saying: "This was a fraudulent election, but we can't play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You're very special. You've seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace."[76][118]

At 6:25 p.m., Trump tweeted: "These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long" and then issued a call: "Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!"[118][77][120]

At 7:00 p.m., Rudy Giuliani placed a second call to Lee's number and left a voicemail intended for Tuberville urging him to make more objections to the electoral votes as part of a bid "to try to just slow it down". Giuliani said: "I know they're reconvening at 8 tonight, but it ... the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow – ideally until the end of tomorrow."[121]

After the riot

[edit]
Donald Trump made another statement many consider a concession after the riot on January 7, 2021.

Shortly after Congress certified Biden's victory, Trump's Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and Director of Social Media, Dan Scavino, issued a statement from Trump saying, "Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless, there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it's only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!"[122]

In a video statement released on January 7, Trump condemned the violence at the Capitol, saying that "a new administration will be inaugurated", which was widely seen as a concession, and that his "focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power" to the Biden administration.[123][124] Vanity Fair reported that Trump was at least partially convinced to do so by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who told Trump that a sufficient number of Senate Republicans would support removing him from office unless he conceded.[125] White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany had attempted to distance the administration from the rioters' behavior in a televised statement earlier in the day.[126] On January 9, The New York Times reported that Trump had told White House aides that he regretted committing to an orderly transition of power and would never resign from office.[127]

CNN fact checker Daniel Dale reported that through June 9, 2021, Trump had issued 132 written statements since leaving office, of which "a third have included lies about the election"—more than any other subject.[128]

Trump's acknowledgment of his electoral defeat was met with opposition and hesitation from some of his supporters. Pro-Trump and far-right political commentators Nick Fuentes and Cassandra Fairbanks said Trump had "throw[n] his supporters under the bus" while QAnon conspiracy theorists performed a numerological reading of the time stamps in Trump's video statement and deemed there was a secret encoded message; Politico highlighted previously pro-Trump users of the far-right social network Parler calling Trump a "dildo".[129]

Axios reported that Trump spoke with Kevin McCarthy on January 11, telling McCarthy "Antifa people" had stormed the Capitol; McCarthy told him "it's MAGA. I know. I was there". Trump also complained to McCarthy about election fraud, causing McCarthy to reply "[t]he election is over".[130]

On January 12, in his first public appearance since the Capitol riot, Trump condemned the violence but denied he was responsible for inciting the mob stating that his remarks at the "Save America" rally were "totally appropriate".[131][132]

On January 13, hours after his second impeachment, Trump reiterated his condemnation of the violence in a video statement. He did not claim responsibility for the riot. In the wake of the suspensions of his social media accounts, he denounced "the unprecedented assault on free speech we have seen in recent days", saying that "[w]hat is needed now is for us to listen to one another, not to silence one another."[133]

In a March interview, Trump said he remembered his speech on January 6 as "a very beautiful time with extremely loving and friendly people". He made the comment to ABC reporter Jonathan Karl, who was interviewing him for a forthcoming book; Trump's comment was publicly revealed in November.[134]

In a March 25 interview on Fox News, Trump defended the Capitol attackers, saying that they were patriots who posed "zero threat". He also criticized law enforcement for "persecuting" the rioters. He made no mention of the deaths or the attacks on police officers.[135] His former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on March 27 that the comment that there was "no risk" was "manifestly false" since "people were killed."[136]

In October 2021, Trump stated "The insurrection took place on November 3, Election Day. January 6 was the Protest!"[137]

Trump planned to give a press conference from Mar-a-Lago on the one-year anniversary of the attack, but he canceled it after learning that TV stations would likely not broadcast it live.[138]

In a speech in January 2022, Trump said that if he returned to the White House following the 2024 presidential election, he might pardon those convicted of participating in the attack.[139]

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