During the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump referred to the rioters as “great patriots” and “political prisoners,” dismissing the fact that they had been charged and convicted in federal courts. His campaign adopted the song “Justice for All,” recorded by the rioters in prison, set to the tune of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
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Police officers stand guard as supporters of President Trump gather in front of the Capitol Building. File Image- Reuters
Donald Trump was set to cap a historic political comeback on Monday as Congress certifies his election victory, in a remarkable turn from four years ago, when a mob he had summoned to Washington ransacked the US Capitol.
The president-elect spent much of his campaign facing prosecution over the 2021 insurrection, when his supporters – fueled by his false claims of voter fraud – rioted to halt the certification of his defeat to Joe Biden.
But Trump, 78, was voted back into office in November and all indications are that Monday’s ceremony will go much more smoothly, even with a major winter storm blanketing the capital and much of the country in snow.
Trump has described it as the “day of love”
What’s unclear is if Jan. 6, 2021, was the anomaly, the year Americans violently attacked their government, or if this year’s expected calm becomes the outlier. The U.S. is struggling to cope with its political and cultural differences at a time when democracy worldwide is threatened. Trump calls Jan. 6, 2021, a “day of love.”
“CONGRESS CERTIFIES OUR GREAT ELECTION VICTORY TODAY — A BIG MOMENT IN HISTORY,” Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social.
Monday marks the final blow to efforts to have the Republican leader face justice over the riot, the culmination of a multi-pronged alleged criminal conspiracy that prosecutors said Trump led – before they dropped all charges upon his election.
What happened on Jan 6, 2020
On January 6, the first anniversary of the violent mob attack on the U.S. Capitol for which around 1,580 individuals had been charged with federal crimes related to the riot. The rioters were filmed assaulting the Capitol while wielding a variety of weapons, including firearms, stun guns, flagpoles, fire extinguishers, bike racks, batons, a metal whip, office furniture, pepper spray, bear spray, a tomahawk axe, a hatchet, a hockey stick, knuckle gloves, a baseball bat, a large Trump billboard, Trump flags, a pitchfork, pieces of lumber, crutches and even an explosive device.
Trump has vowed to pardon an unspecified number of the rioters – around 900 of whom have admitted federal charges from trespassing and vandalism to assaulting police – describing them as “hostages.”
In a Washington Post op-ed, Biden slammed Trump’s allies for downplaying the violence of 2021 and urged Americans to be “proud that our democracy withstood this assault.”
“We cannot accept a repeat of what occurred four years ago,” he said. “An unrelenting effort has been underway to rewrite – even erase – the history of that day.”
Trump has vowed to pardon many of the Jan. 6 defendants within his first hour in office, effectively undoing the legal consequences of their actions and disregarding the legal system’s response to an unprecedented assault on American democracy.
However, a Washington Post-Univer