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January 6, One Year On
As anniversaries go, Jan. 6 is a pretty lousy one — especially for Republicans.
After losing the election to Joe Biden in a squeaker, then-President Trump wasted two months promoting increasingly unhinged conspiracy theories and fanned the flames of outrage among his most dedicated supporters. Some people on the fringe took this all too seriously. Following a particularly ugly Trump speech, the crowd tore down barriers surrounding the US Capitol, assaulted police officers, and forced their way in.
The paragraph above is nearly a word-for-word recap from the post I wrote that afternoon, “Impeach. Remove. Bar from Office.” As of this writing, that article has received nearly 1,200 comments. Early on, many comments were positive; by the end, it was nearly all negative. It caused a lot of controversy on Ricochet and references to it kept popping up in my posts throughout 2021.
As it turned out, the riot was President Trump’s swan song. He was banned from social media, condemned by several of his most stalwart supporters, and left Washington DC the morning Biden was sworn in. Worse still, Georgia elected two Democrat senators the day before the protest, thanks in part to Trump’s self-destructive meddling. Now the Democrats held the White House and both houses of Congress.
As the violence continued, I wondered what other horrible actions Trump had planned for his last two weeks in office. I thought it best to immediately remove him, preferably within a day or two. Instead, Nancy Pelosi intentionally slow-walked it for maximum partisan advantage, losing most Republicans in the process.
Thankfully, the reaction to Jan. 6 was enough to chasten Trump. He ended his rabble-rousing speeches and quietly went about his business until it was time to leave. Truly, a relief.
After Trump removed himself, Pelosi presided over a meaningless impeachment of an ex-president. Her party, along with legacy media, has milked the riot to spread blame over the entire Republican Party. The Jan. 6 Committee remains a meaningless kangaroo court providing fan service to #resist types who still think Trump colluded with Russia.
The Capitol Hill riot was bad; really bad. As was the congressional baseball shooting, which was quickly memory-holed. And the DC riot during the Republican National Convention. And 2020’s summer of anarchy that sparked a major increase in homicide ever since. There have been all sorts of terrible moments in the past few years, but only one stays in the headlines — the one that might harm the GOP.
The George Floyd riots caused $1 to $2 billion in damage while the Capitol riot caused $1.5 million. That’s 1,300 times more costly. Of those arrested in the summer 2020 riots, the vast majority of charges were dismissed. The Capitol rioters have been held in jail ever since, with prosecutors dropping only a single case. And Kamala Harris didn’t fundraise for their bail money as she did for Antifa.
The Democratic Party supports political violence; they just don’t like it when Republicans engage in it. Call me old-fashioned, but I think political violence is bad when either side does it.
Everyone understands today’s hyperbolic Jan. 6 coverage is a purely political play. Politico Playbook even admitted as much:
Democrats are hoping that Thursday will be more than just a day of remembrance. In the Senate, we hear from well-positioned sources, there’s a desire to take the opportunity to supercharge the party’s long-stalled voting rights legislation — possibly even using the anniversary to try to get Sens. KYRSTEN SINEMA (D-Ariz.) and JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) to go nuclear on the filibuster or embrace rules changes.
That Democrats believe this is a winning strategy beggars belief. Terry McAuliffe focused on the issue and it failed miserably. Some of those Virginian voters can see the Capitol from their homes and they still picked Youngkin. How many votes will it net in Nevada or Wisconsin 11 months from now? If anything, the electorate will be angry to see Dems focused on Jan. 6 instead of inflation, Covid policy, immigration, and every other Biden disaster.
The Capitol riot was a disgusting scene that was rightly condemned by people across the political spectrum. Today’s histrionic reaction by Democrats and the media is cynical politics that won’t distract voters from Biden’s disastrous record.
Published in Politics
Thank you!! Great article!! Where is the moment of silence for the thousands of businesses….many of them African American…..destroyed forever in the summer of 2020….wonder how safe they feel?
If the Capital Hill riot was so bad (as bad as an attempted mass killing of Republican Congressman), why do you then go on to explain that Democrats are wasting their time trying to take political advantage from it? This is kind of a bizarre equivocation.
January 6th: The day the people who closed your businesses, destroyed your children and rewarded murderous race riots with a federal holiday claim to have been briefly frightened.
Dear Mr. Gabriel,
I hear what you are saying. No one disagrees that it was bad – really bad. I thought Trump giving a rally that day was a terrible idea and wished he would have flown off into the sunset in the helicopter like they all do. He was banned on social media and other platforms long before that day. He, and most conservative voices were screened, censored and edited, and still are. Social media big wigs admitted it. He was accused of many things that were untrue and somehow….through it all, he still left this country far, far better than he found it. Isn’t that what a legacy is pinned on?
He supported what was good, and tried to fix what was bad. He was not supported by the Democrats at all, or the media. There are always plenty of idiots, extremists and very crafty ex-politicians who never fail to show up to stir the pot, and the pot was stirred and bubbled over on Jan. 6th. I hope whoever runs against anyone else in the 2022 and 2024 elections can support the good and fix what is bad – even a tenth of what Trump did for our Republic, military, and allies. It will be a massive mess by then, and it will take a massively big mop to clean it all up.
PS – Please go back and read the “Shadow Campaign that won the 2020 election” in Time Magazine, and read between the lines while you are at it.
https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/
So much outright propaganda and misinformation, along with bizarre mind-reading and motive assignment. This is not much more than a Rachel Madow conspiracy screed.
Or the Republican establishment. Or the courts. Or the executive (including the upper reaches of the military and the intelligence community). That he got anything done at all is testament to the righteousness of his cause.
Every conservative – and even most Republicans – should be standing shoulder to shoulder in resisting this War on Epiphany, and reclaiming January 6 for God.
Amen, there is nothing I disagree with here. It’s nice to read a fair overview of what happened on the right and the left along with an acknowledgement of the political haymaking the dems are obviously milking right now.
It was obvious when it happened, the capital riot (or peaceful tourist event as some apparently want us to believe) was a Yuuuuge gift wrapped up all nice and pretty to the democrats and their propaganda wing….the MSM. They will milk this and remind everyone of their story of what happened for years if not generations. To deny that is to deny reality. It doesn’t matter one bit if you think it is “fair” or true or a conspiracy or what have you. It is political reality that the actions on Jan 6th were a self inflicted publicity disaster that no amount of whitewashing will get rid of. That also doesn’t mean all is lost or that the right is a suicide cult. Dems are digging their own grave at the moment and their obvious overselling of INSURGENCY seems to be pretty obvious to most.
Hypoerbolic much?
She is a freaking idiot. lol
You must also factor in that the latter costs were estimated by a Government that spends $10,000 on a toilet seat cover. Our Government has the same grasp of economic realities as Lucille Bluth.
Nothing against your opinion, but I’ve noticed that a lot of Republicans who bemoan the disaster of January 6th, due so from the standpoint of a “public relations fiasco” rather than from the standpoint of actual damages and wrongdoing.
It’s Stockholm Syndrome Republicanism. These people admit the other side acts wholly outside of morality and fairness, lies and misleads, hyperbolizes and exaggerates any and every minor transgression while covering up and misreporting anything that reflects badly on them, and we must be careful to not give them the slightest opening.
Well, we’ve seen that they are fully capable of making things up out of whole cloth. Then these schmucks blame their own side – or the faction of their side they disapprove of and would like to see destroyed, for giving the other side ammunition . Again, as though they aren’t fully capable of making things up entirely, as they are in this case. This was a diverse crowd of mostly innocents, with some weirdos, along with left-wing agitators, deep state infiltrators and operatives, all labeled Trump supporting insurrectionists by the corporate media at the behest of actual insurrectionists.
Any sane person can see is a paranoid fantasy.
Of course she is. But she’s going to be your next President because you SSR’s are going to bow your heads down and blame other conservatives for anything the MSM claims to be true thinking it’s a good strategy to let them smear you, while you claim you’re not like those wacko-birds. Good luck.
I just don’t think these things belong in the same level. The only person shot in the riot was shot by the police.
I do think this is a better stance, Jon, with a year’s reflection than the same day outrage. Thank you.
Jon, I still disagree with you quite strongly.
The specific point of disagreement is your apparent belief that President Trump was responsible for the riot, and that this was a “horrible action” on his part. (I think that this interpretation is implicit in your statement that you “wondered what other horrible actions Trump had planned for his last two weeks in office.”)
You interpreted Trump’s actions as wrongful. I did not. This is a significant disagreement, and you do not appear to have changed your mind about this. Nor have I.
It can be difficult to evaluate a person’s motives or intentions. Jon, you choose to attribute a bad motive to President Trump. You do not have evidence of this. His statements are ambiguous, at best.
To me, your evaluation of the January 6 riot is akin to the Democratic claim years ago, blaming Sarah Palin for a crazy guy in Tucson who shot Rep. Gabby Giffords at a supermarket. I think that we should be very hesitant to conclude that political rhetoric “incited” criminal behavior.
Because you attributed a bad motive to President Trump on January 6 last, you then assumed that he was going to do other “horrible” things. I don’t think that he did anything horrible on January 6, and we seem to agree that he did not do anything horrible after January 6. But you attribute his decent behavior to, frankly, yourself, and others like you, who led the “reaction” that “was enough to chasten Trump.”
I see things differently. I think that you, and many others, overreacted in a quite hysterical and unfounded way. I don’t think that President Trump did anything wrong to incite the riot. I don’t think that he needed to be chastened into behaving thereafter, as I don’t think that he was behaving improperly previously, nor do I think that he was going to do so between Jan. 6 and inauguration day.
I do condemn the rioting that occurred on Jan. 6, and did so at the time. But it was just a riot, not a coup, not an insurrection, not sedition, not treason. It was a political demonstration that got out of control.
I think you nailed it! Good job, Counselor.
They can only milk a cow, not a bull. Republicans need a better response, one that addresses Democrat behavior that got us to that point.
They should have hired Ace Glass. Would have saved them $1.4M
Bingo.
Had Trump not pushed back, no election investigations would have happened and nobody now would be opposing the dangerous election reforms the Democrats are pushing now. Squishes inside of DC hate fights and controversy. It takes fear of an energized base to get Republicans in Congress to act. The elephant in the room, the reason for the high dudgeon, is Democrats believe Trump will run again and would win. No matter what they do, they can’t slay the beast. They haven’t faced a Republican like that before.
Nancy Pelosi failed America in at least three ways concerning the January 6th attack.
First, she should have involved Republicans like Liz Cheney in drafting the Articles of Impeachment.
Second, she should have had a vote on impeachment on the floor on January 7th.
Third, a majority of the House Managers should have been Republicans, starting with Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
Oh boy. Here we go………..
I do. I disagree.
InIt was bad. But not “bad – really bad”.There are 35 million registered Republicans in the US.
700 people are charged with…well not terrorism. Even if they were guilty, that would be 0.00002 of us. But they weren’t terrorists, they were a mob doing what mobs too often do. They should pay accordingly. But that isn’t what is happening. Instead they are being treated as the Worst People Ever, by a politicized justice system, by the media, by most any Democrat, and by an Arizona Pundit.
It’s obvious that we’re not with those guys. Hell, even the other protesters in DC weren’t with those guys – you can tell, because they didn’t enter the capitol building.
Over-repudiation of people on our side is self-destructive sanctimony.
Gary, this is so disappointing.
On Jan. 7, no one had any good idea about what had happened on the prior day. Some sort of investigation was in order, and the more investigation that was done, the more it became apparent that the hysteria was unfounded. It is puzzling to me that many people, including you, my friend, see things differently.
I doubt that the correlation is a perfect 100%, but it does appear that interpretations of Jan. 6, on the political Right, depend almost entirely on one’s pre-existing opinion about President Trump.
Because voters don’t care about it, as I noted.
I totally agree with that.
I suspect Rachel Maddow will cover it differently tonight.
You guys … we need the firm hand and strong resolve of Joe Biden to guide us through these perilous times.