Many Americans have described January 6th as the second worst day in US history after 9/11, and while the death and injury weren’t as high, the emotional stress was as immense. January 6, 2021 will be a day in US history that no one will forget. American citizens broke into the Capitol, a building essential to American democracy. It was a coup like no other. Now with President Biden in office and an investigation in motion, it is time to review the events following the domestic terrorist attack on the US Capitol.
The investigation started the minute the first people broke into the Capitol. Every law enforcement agency in the area, including the FBI, started their own investigation into how the insurrection happened. With investigations going, the Justice Department (who is responsible for prosecution in the District of Columbia) started looking for and prosecuting those who broke into the Capitol. According to USA Today, over 600 people in 40 states with ties to the insurrection were arrested. As of November 14th, many are being convicted and sentenced to jail time.
On June 24th, after a bit of procedural delay, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced that the House would create a committee to look into the attacks on January 6th. The bipartisan committee began testimony of Capitol police officers and recently subpoenaed multiple Trump associates. They also subpoenaed Trump associate Steve Bannon. After Bannon refused to show up to court, Congress proceeded in charging him with contempt of Congress. The motion was successful, and on November 14th, Steve Bannon was charged with two counts of contempt of Congress, marking the first time it has ever happened in US history.
With arrests pilling up and more people testifying, we are learning so much more about the trust the rioters had in Trump. The former President is still denying connection to the insurrection and in a recent interview with Johnathan Carl, Trump talked about the crowd size of the insurrection which to many was him still denying the attacks and his connection to them. We are also learning more about Mike Pence and the moments during which he was hiding in a US Capitol loading dock.
For most Americans, January 6th will be a day to remember. We will talk about this day for decades to come, but the real question is how are we going to teach it. Like 9/11 there are bad guys and victims. However the bad guys are unwilling to admit that they did anything wrong.
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