Wounds from Capitol riot yet to heal
Assault on US seat of government by pro-Trump mob leaves enduring damage
One year after supporters of Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol, the scenes of mayhem have become etched in the divisions that still play out in the United States, experts said.
“President (Joe) Biden has still not fully repaired the damage done on that day and in the run-up and immediate aftermath,” Peter Feaver, a professor of political science and public policy at Duke University, told China Daily.
On Jan 6, 2021, the day that Congress convened to certify Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, hundreds of supporters of the Republican president rushed into the building in a bid to disrupt the proceedings that were to formalize Trump’s exit from the White House.
Feaver said that the chaos served up by the pro-Trump rioters provided dramatic visual images, but the behind-the-scenes efforts by insiders to hold on to power posed more serious ethical dilemmas to military leaders and national security and law enforcement professionals.
While many in the Republican Party have attempted to play down the impact of that day, investigations in Congress and the Justice Department are still probing the tumultuous events.
David Schanzer, a professor at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and expert on counterterrorism strategy, said the events of Jan 6 were “the first time in American history that violence has been used to attempt to block the peaceful transition of power”.
He said that over the past 12 months, “even greater damage has been inflicted on our democracy by former president Donald Trump and his supporters by perpetuating the lie — unsupported by any evidence — that the 2020 election was fraudulent”.
“The storming of the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, was a historical travesty, but what has happened in America since then has been even worse,” Schanzer told China Daily.
Schanzer also said he is worried that the two-party system that has provided political stability at least since the end of the Civil War is now on the verge of collapse.
“Even during a global pandemic and while the climate catastrophe is unfolding, this assault on American democracy is the most pressing issue of our times,” he said.
In a commentary published on the website of the Strategic and International Study, Alan Reinsch, a senior adviser and the Scholl Chair of CSIS, called Jan 6 “a day of infamy”.
“I wrote that we are ‘tribal, violent, racist, and selfish’, and we proved that a year ago. It remains true today.”
The assault on the Capitol reinforced the conclusion that American exceptionalism and competence were unreliable, Reinsch said.
Feaver said: “One of the painful and lingering legacies of Jan 6 is the way it dispirited our allies and emboldened our adversaries.”
But one year later, Trump is the undisputed leader of the Republican
Party and a leading contender for the 2024 presidential nomination, The Associated Press commented.
He is preparing for another run for the White House in 2024, and polls suggest that, at the moment, he would easily walk away with the GOP nomination.
Banned from Twitter and denied his other social media megaphones,
Trump no longer controls the news cycle like he did in office. He canceled a news conference that was scheduled for Thursday following pressure from some Republican allies, who warned that such an event was ill-advised.
Agencies via Xinhua contributed to this story.