Still no closure on Capitol assault

A year after the ‘unprecedented’ attack on United States’ democracy, questions remain on the true nature of the Jan 6 riots, writes Paul Handley

One year after supporters of Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol and shut down Congress, Americans still await a reckoning on the unprecedented challenge to the country’s democracy.

Was it a simple protest-turned-riot? An insurrection? A coup attempt plotted by Mr Trump?

Videos from Jan 6 last year bear witness to the violence wrought in the former president’s name. Attackers are seen beating security officers with iron bars and clubs. A policeman is crushed in a doorway, howling in pain.

Rioters clad in assault gear chant “Hang Mike Pence”, while the vice president and Democratic and Republican lawmakers flee. A woman is fatally shot in a Capitol hallway.

Americans were stunned by the hours-long assault, and so was much of the world, accustomed to seeing the United States as a model of stable democracy.

One year later, the brazen attempt to prevent Democrat Joe Biden from taking office after his victory in the November 2020 presidential election needs an accounting.

“Not even during the Civil War did insurrectionists breach our Capitol, the citadel of our democracy,” Mr Biden said in July. “This was not dissent. It was disorder. It posed an existential crisis and a test of whether our democracy could survive.”

A year later, more than 700 people involved in the Jan 6 attack have been charged, for assaulting law enforcement officers and breaking into and

This was not dissent. It was disorder. It posed an existential crisis and a test of whether our democracy could survive. JOE BIDEN US PRESIDENT

desecrating the halls of Congress.

Investigations have shown a concerted effort by Mr Trump and his allies to prevent Pence from leading Congress in certifying Mr Biden as the lawfully elected president.

The looming question is: how are the attack and Mr Trump’s effort linked?

A special committee of the House of Representatives is investigating, but the deeper they get, the more sensitive it becomes.

If they find evidence suggesting that Trump knowingly incited the attack, or plotted to illegally keep power, should they risk more turmoil by seeking an unprecedented criminal prosecution of an ex-president?

For the first anniversary of the attack on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has ordered a “solemn observance” in Congress.

Mr Trump, who remains the most powerful figure in the Republican Party, plans his own Jan 6 commemoration in Palm Beach, Florida, which he says will focus on the “rigged” presidential election of 2020.

Although he has shown no evidence that the election was fraudulent, polls show that around two-thirds of Republican voters believe him.

And Republican lawmakers, aware that Mr Trump can make or break them politically, have almost uniformly fallen in line. Even Mr Pence won’t speak against him.

Instead, the party is seeking to regain power in this year’s congressional elections and in 2024, when Mr Trump could run again for president.

The arc of events leading to January 6, 2021 has become clearer. Months before the vote, Mr Trump declared it would be fraudulent and he would not accept losing.

On election night when Mr Biden’s victory was clear, he refused to concede.

For six weeks, Mr Trump and his backers sought to reverse vote counts in key states by lawsuits and pressure on leaders.

When that effort failed, they set their sights on Jan 6, when Mr Pence was to convene the two houses of Congress to certify Mr Biden’s victory.

It took police and federal troops more than six hours to regain control and remove the attackers.

Many thought the rapid-fire impeachment of Mr Trump over the following two weeks, and Biden’s inauguration on January 20, would consign the whole episode to history.

But Mr Trump didn’t go away. He secured his power over the Republican Party, rejected all criticism, and pledged a comeback.

Democrats, aghast, are demanding a public reckoning.

“Inaction — or just moving on — is simply not an option,” said Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson, who leads the House investigation.

The committee, which has already interviewed around 300 people, needs to complete its work before the November midterm elections, when Republicans could retake control of the House and snuff out the probe.