Photo: New York Times
Day of Rage: How Trump Supporters Took the U.S. Capitol
Most of us will never forget where we were when we first learned of the Jan. 6 insurrection. It was a second 9/11, more insidious than the first, despite the lower loss of life, because the enemy came from within and was inspired by our nation’s president.
The convincing and comprehensive documentary Day of Rage: How Trump Supporters Took the U.S. Capitol is the result of a six-month investigation by the New York Times. Day of Rage is a masterpiece of editing. Most of the raw material came from thousands of individual recordings made by the rioters themselves. Proud to participate in an assault on the constitutional order and convinced that victory was theirs, and even that God was on their side, they happily recorded their crimes to show off to family and friends.
Some of those participants, true believers in the Big Lie and fed on a heavy diet of fake news, came to Washington only to demonstrate their support for Donald Trump and were swept up in the tidal wave of the angry mob. But even the most innocent among them must have been aware of a million social media posts in the preceding days boasting of what was to come. The Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and other groups came to the Trump rally on the National Mall with helmets, body armor, baseball bats, walkie-talkies and mace. Fortunately, they left their guns at home.
The march on the U.S. Capitol was expected and the attack—far from being a spontaneous uprising—was organized and planned with maps in hand and a command structure in place. At least one serving Marine Corps officer was involved, and the ranks of the paramilitaries included ex-servicemen and off-duty cops from elsewhere in America.
Anyone who believes the GOP Congressman from Georgia who later described Jan. 6 as “a normal tourist visit” should look at the footage assembled here. With loud voices and foul language, brandishing Confederate flags, Trump banners and raised middle fingers, the violent mob surged past the unprepared Capitol Police in simultaneous points of attack, eventually breaching the Capitol in eight places. They tracked their filth into the Senate chamber and left a death threat on the podium where Mike Pence presided. Senators fled down a back stairway and House members barricaded themselves in their offices.
Several Capitol Police officers stood aside and watched. Most fought valiantly, many without full riot gear, against overwhelming numbers. Hours ticked by without instructions from the Capitol Police Chief. Heroically, Officer Eugene Goodman led the mob astray from their goal of killing Members of Congress, down the wrong stairway and into the line of a riot squad.
Help finally arrived from the Washington Metropolitan Police, who called for reinforcements and rushed to help their fellow officers. The Pentagon dilly-dallied four hours before ordering the National Guard to break the insurrection. By then, 150 officers were injured and two rioters were dead—one of them trampled by her heedless comrades, chanting “I Can’t Breathe” to mock BLM protestors.
Trump’s role? “You’ll never take back our country with weakness,” he told the crowd at the National Mall, repeating the lie that the election was stolen. The rioters believed they had been “deputized” by Trump to block the counting of the Electoral College in the Senate. As the fight for the Capitol proceeded, Trump tweeted: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage … to protect our country” because he refused to disobey the constitution. “Hang Pence!” the thugs shouted as they shattered the Capitol’s windows and battered down the doors.
In the aftermath, the Republican leadership refused to allow an independent commission to examine Jan. 6 and continues to frustrate the investigation by a House committee. Sen. Ron John’s bald-faced observation on Jan. 6: “By and large it was peaceful.” The lies continue.
View the video here: nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000007606996/capitol-riot-trump-supporters.html
