Trump’s Insurrection

Solemn remembrance of the assault on the Capitol and establishing judicial truth are necessary responses to manipulation.

On Jan. 6, 2021, at 1 p.m. local time, the U.S. Congress opened a procedural session to read aloud the presidential election tally and legally certify Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump. An hour later, the congressmen had to suspend the plenary session in order to take refuge in a bunker because thousands of armed, violent Trump supporters were walking through the corridors of the Capitol, after assaulting the police and breaking doors and windows. They had arrived there encouraged by Trump himself. The assault on the legislative building lasted four hours, until military forces arrived at the building. Five people were killed; 140 policemen were wounded. Biden’s victory was certified after 3 a.m.

In two and a half centuries, the United States has elected all kinds of characters to be president, some of them of low personal or political quality. None, however, resisted leaving power when the ballot box or the law so decided — until Trump came along. It is hard to overstate the gravity of the precedent set by a rejection of the outcome of the election. The ultimate expression of that challenge to democracy that afternoon is a watershed in U.S. history whose consequences are as yet unknown.

Biden decided to commemorate the date with a solemn speech from the Capitol, in which he vindicated “truth” against “lies” as the basis of democracy. It was the necessary institutional response to prevent Trump and the majority of the Republican Party from trying to reduce the facts to an anecdote taken out of context. The vast majority of Republicans, direct victims of the attack, were absent from the commemoration for fear of offending Trump, who has left the party of Abraham Lincoln unrecognizable.

The assault on the Capitol was an attempted self-coup d’état. This expression should not be treated lightly. It was a violent rebellion with the unequivocal objective of forcibly subverting the constitutional order and hijacking the institutions to establish a government against the preference of the majority freely expressed at the ballot box. The failure does not make it any less serious. It is of the utmost importance that Biden spoke of “armed insurrection” and made the facts clear. This is not about how Jan. 6 is to be remembered this year — it is about how it will be remembered a century from now. Biden was speaking for history, and he got the tone and precision of his speech just right.

Beyond the theoretical level, there are specific executors and instigators. The former will be easier to find than the latter. The Department of Justice is searching one by one for all those who were involved in the assault: 725 have already been charged and 71 convicted. The power of the U.S. judicial bureaucracy should not be underestimated. It is too early to be frustrated by the lack of a clear indictment against Trump and his entourage. It is clear today that there was a plan to reverse the election; that is what the investigation should focus on. A special committee of the House of Representatives will establish a public account of the facts.

If forgetfulness or a divided account of what happened is allowed, as Trump intends, the rift that is dangerously opening in the country will never be closed. Whether the assault on the Capitol will be remembered as an end of the Trump presidency, or as the beginning of something even more serious, depends on it.