Trump Supporter Riots in Washington DC
By Jonah Wang
By Jonah Wang
On January 6th, 2021, a pro-Trump protest caused some issues at the Capitol building. The protest/rally was planned at least a week in advance on multiple social media platforms as a way to try to intimidate the Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill and to disrupt the counting of the Electoral College votes that would solidify that Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. This is a rundown of all of the events that have happened so far:
Early in the morning, the members of the House and Senate prepared to debate and approve the Electoral College votes that had been cast in the 2020 election that would make it official that President-Elect Joe Biden will become the next President of the United States. At the same time, the loosely planned Trump rally began. It may seem like a crazy coincidence that the protest and the counting of Electoral Votes that Republicans have been eager to delay would occur on the same day. Shockingly, it is not. This protest was planned to do just what so many Republican Senators and Representatives have wanted to do in the past few months -- it was planned to disrupt the fair democratic process because they can’t accept the fact that Donald Trump fairly lost the election.
As the day progressed, more people started to show up to the protest and the proceedings to count the Electoral College votes were underway. There were arguments over election fraud in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. All of the Representatives and Senators were present in the Capitol. Because of the sensitive negotiations that were being dealt with in the Capitol, it became an ideal target for these domestic terrorists that were trying to disrupt the systems of our democracy.
While debates over alleged voter fraud in Arizona continued in the Senate and the Housef, an improvised explosive device (IED) in the form of a pipe bomb was found at the Cannon building. All of the personnel and employees were evacuated safely and the explosive did not end up detonating. A few moments later, things started to escalate further. Now, most of the protestors had arrived at the Capitol Building. They were flying hateful flags and symbols such as the Confederate flag, wearing horrifying anti-Semitic shirts saying things like “Camp Auschwitz” and 6MWE(6 million wasn’t enough, a reference to the victims of the Holocaust) and carrying signs containing hateful messages directed at President Elect Joe Biden.
At this point, things started to unfold. Rudy Giulianni, “Attorney” for the Trump Administration, said “Let’s have a trial by combat!” essentially telling supporters that they should attack Democratic Senators and House Representatives. This was gladly accepted amongst the protestors and the protest turned into a riot. It started with people entering the Capitol Building just in the areas open to the public. Then, people started ignoring metal detectors. Then, people started to push further into the Capitol Building.
You may be wondering where the police are in all of this chaos. Well, many police officers let violent and armed Trump supporters into the Capitol Building or just stood by as Trump supporters vandalized a monument of our democracy. Peaceful protests for basic human rights, such as BLM protests, were met with violence, tear gas, and rubber bullets by law enforcement, but this hateful mob wielding racist, sexist, homophobic, and otherwise hateful symbols and slogans, firearms, and crowbars were allowed to destroy federal property and buildings, steal things from the Capitol, and threaten to kill publicly elected officials are met with open arms and even selfies with the Capitol police. Sure, there were some officers who did their jobs, but it was too little too late.
The mob broke into the Capitol and proceeded to take pictures in the offices of government officials, steal things from the Capitol, write threatening statements on the possessions of many prominent Senators and House Representatives, vandalize the bathrooms with feces, and trying to break into a room that sheltered government employees that hadn’t yet been able to evacuate the building. The room previously mentioned was guarded by the Secret Service and Capitol police. This is because the mob outside was threatening to kill Democrat Senators and Representatives. They tried to break into the room to kill people inside and vandalize the room. There were very few Federal Authorities present to defend the room, so the door had to be barricaded using furniture from the room. Rioters broke through the windows and started harassing the Capitol Police and Secret Service. In the end, one woman ended up being shot. She died of her wounds in the hospital later that day.
At the end of the day 5 people died in the riots. Four of these people were rioters and one was a police officer. The entire Capitol Building was trashed and vandalized, but Congress went back in session only a couple of hours after the rioters dispersed and managed to fairly approve all of the electoral college votes.
Weeks later, there is a list of 400 individuals that are suspected to have taken part in the riots. Of those 400, 135 people have been arrested. Among them are Klete Keller, a former Olympic medalist for swimming, many members of the Proud Boys, an all-male white supremacy terrorist group, and Jake Angeli, the man who wore the fur hat with horns to the riots. Most of them were incriminated due to video evidence that either they or other rioters took. Now that Trump is out of office, QAnon and many other violent far-right groups have started to quiet down, hopefully the violence in our country does too.
Early in the morning, the members of the House and Senate prepared to debate and approve the Electoral College votes that had been cast in the 2020 election that would make it official that President-Elect Joe Biden will become the next President of the United States. At the same time, the loosely planned Trump rally began. It may seem like a crazy coincidence that the protest and the counting of Electoral Votes that Republicans have been eager to delay would occur on the same day. Shockingly, it is not. This protest was planned to do just what so many Republican Senators and Representatives have wanted to do in the past few months -- it was planned to disrupt the fair democratic process because they can’t accept the fact that Donald Trump fairly lost the election.
As the day progressed, more people started to show up to the protest and the proceedings to count the Electoral College votes were underway. There were arguments over election fraud in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. All of the Representatives and Senators were present in the Capitol. Because of the sensitive negotiations that were being dealt with in the Capitol, it became an ideal target for these domestic terrorists that were trying to disrupt the systems of our democracy.
While debates over alleged voter fraud in Arizona continued in the Senate and the Housef, an improvised explosive device (IED) in the form of a pipe bomb was found at the Cannon building. All of the personnel and employees were evacuated safely and the explosive did not end up detonating. A few moments later, things started to escalate further. Now, most of the protestors had arrived at the Capitol Building. They were flying hateful flags and symbols such as the Confederate flag, wearing horrifying anti-Semitic shirts saying things like “Camp Auschwitz” and 6MWE(6 million wasn’t enough, a reference to the victims of the Holocaust) and carrying signs containing hateful messages directed at President Elect Joe Biden.
At this point, things started to unfold. Rudy Giulianni, “Attorney” for the Trump Administration, said “Let’s have a trial by combat!” essentially telling supporters that they should attack Democratic Senators and House Representatives. This was gladly accepted amongst the protestors and the protest turned into a riot. It started with people entering the Capitol Building just in the areas open to the public. Then, people started ignoring metal detectors. Then, people started to push further into the Capitol Building.
You may be wondering where the police are in all of this chaos. Well, many police officers let violent and armed Trump supporters into the Capitol Building or just stood by as Trump supporters vandalized a monument of our democracy. Peaceful protests for basic human rights, such as BLM protests, were met with violence, tear gas, and rubber bullets by law enforcement, but this hateful mob wielding racist, sexist, homophobic, and otherwise hateful symbols and slogans, firearms, and crowbars were allowed to destroy federal property and buildings, steal things from the Capitol, and threaten to kill publicly elected officials are met with open arms and even selfies with the Capitol police. Sure, there were some officers who did their jobs, but it was too little too late.
The mob broke into the Capitol and proceeded to take pictures in the offices of government officials, steal things from the Capitol, write threatening statements on the possessions of many prominent Senators and House Representatives, vandalize the bathrooms with feces, and trying to break into a room that sheltered government employees that hadn’t yet been able to evacuate the building. The room previously mentioned was guarded by the Secret Service and Capitol police. This is because the mob outside was threatening to kill Democrat Senators and Representatives. They tried to break into the room to kill people inside and vandalize the room. There were very few Federal Authorities present to defend the room, so the door had to be barricaded using furniture from the room. Rioters broke through the windows and started harassing the Capitol Police and Secret Service. In the end, one woman ended up being shot. She died of her wounds in the hospital later that day.
At the end of the day 5 people died in the riots. Four of these people were rioters and one was a police officer. The entire Capitol Building was trashed and vandalized, but Congress went back in session only a couple of hours after the rioters dispersed and managed to fairly approve all of the electoral college votes.
Weeks later, there is a list of 400 individuals that are suspected to have taken part in the riots. Of those 400, 135 people have been arrested. Among them are Klete Keller, a former Olympic medalist for swimming, many members of the Proud Boys, an all-male white supremacy terrorist group, and Jake Angeli, the man who wore the fur hat with horns to the riots. Most of them were incriminated due to video evidence that either they or other rioters took. Now that Trump is out of office, QAnon and many other violent far-right groups have started to quiet down, hopefully the violence in our country does too.