On Jan. 6, when followers of President Trump stormed the Capitol to try to block the election of President Biden, the insurrection seemed like a bizarre anomaly — a freak storm whipped up by pro-Trump extremists and right-wing militias.
But in the months since the attack, the movement that spawned the uprising — sometimes called “election denialism” — has turned out to be larger, more durable and every bit as worrisome as the violence of that chaotic day.
Jan. 6 was the largest assault on the Capitol since the British army destroyed the building in the War of 1812. One rioter, Ashli Babbitt, died in the attack, shot by a Capitol Police officer as she tried to break through a door into the House chamber while police were evacuating members of Congress. Three others in the crowd died, two from natural causes and one from amphetamine intoxication, the D.C. medical examiner determined.
Video of the assault shows rioters attacking officers with poles, bats, stun guns and bear spray. It also shows people in the crowd shouting threats against officials, including Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, both of whom were taken by police to secure hiding places during the assault.
A Capitol Police officer, Brian Sicknick, suffered a stroke and died a day after confronting rioters; officials have accused two men of assaulting him with chemical spray. Four other officers died by suicide in the months since the assault. More than 140 law enforcement officers were injured.
Federal prosecutors have charged more than 675 people with crimes connected to the attack, including more than 210 accused of assaulting or impeding police, according to the Justice Department. The first guilty pleas in the case came in August, even as the FBI continued to hunt for additional suspects.
The violence, which disrupted Congress’ constitutionally mandated count of electoral votes for hours, wasn’t as accidental as it looked — and it could well happen again, experts on terrorism say.
Before the riot, Trump spent weeks telling his followers that the election had been stolen — even though he and his lawyers had produced no evidence of significant fraud.
On Jan. 6, he told the marchers outside the White House that his vice president could block electoral votes that were pledged to Joe Biden. “If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election,” he said.
That wasn’t true; the vice president doesn’t have that power. But many of the demonstrators hoped that if they put enough pressure on Pence, he would cave in to Trump’s demand.
Trump’s last-minute attempt to block Biden’s election came after weeks of other efforts to overturn the results.
The president and his lawyers filed more than 60 lawsuits seeking to void Biden’s victories in swing states. They lost all but one, a relatively inconsequential suit, which alleged no fraud and affected only a few thousand votes in Pennsylvania.
Trump jawboned more than 30 state legislators and other officials, asking them to overturn their states’ results. All refused. He pleaded with Georgia’s chief election officer, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, to “find 11,780 votes” to erase Biden’s lead; he refused too. Trump also unsuccessfully pressured the Justice Department to intervene on his behalf.
Biden won the election decisively — whether measured by the popular vote (where his margin was a healthy 7 million) or by electoral votes (where he won by the same majority Trump did four years before). It was not a particularly close election.
Since January, even more evidence has shown that Trump’s claims of fraud are groundless. A shambolic GOP “audit” of votes in Arizona’s largest county found in September that Biden actually won more votes than had initially been counted.
