Decryption | How Trump rewrites January 6

(New York) Like the other guests at Mar-a-Lago that evening, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s big boss, got up from the table and placed his right hand over his heart. In the four corners of Donald Trump’s private club resounded a recording of the American national anthem performed by a choir of January 6 prisoners.

Described by the Wall Street Journalthis scene took place at the end of November. It coincided with a period in which the titans of Silicon Valley and beyond converged on Palm Beach to “kiss the ring” of the president-elect or “bow the knee” to him, to use the metaphors favored by the media. Some of them, including Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Tim Cook (Apple) and Sundar Pichai (Google), have also pledged to contribute $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund, through their respective companies or their personal fortune.

“It’s extraordinary,” comments Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history at New York University and specialist in authoritarianism. “Everyone is lining up to prepare for autocracy before it even starts!” »

But Mark Zuckerberg’s gesture took on particular symbolism. His company’s two largest platforms – Facebook and Instagram – suspended Donald Trump’s accounts in the wake of the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by his supporters. Their leaders judged that the president had incited the violence.

And now this same Zuckerberg was demonstrating his patriotism in this same Trump’s lair, where loudspeakers were blaring the Star-Spangled Banner sung by individuals sentenced to prison for their role in one of the worst attacks on American democracy.

In his defense, he may not have known who was singing.

“A day of infamy”

“It is true that Zuckerberg may not have known who was singing. But we can always reveal that he was standing there while the January 6 prisoner choir sang, and that gives him a bad image,” says Professor Ben-Ghiat.

In contrast, Donald Trump projects an image of a strong man, having succeeded in seducing or subduing his party, the business world and a decisive part of the electorate. No one could have imagined such a turnaround on the evening of January 6, 2021, four years ago.

“President Franklin Roosevelt made December 7, 1941 a day of infamy. Unfortunately, we can now add January 6, 2021 to this very short list of dates in American history that will forever remain in infamy,” declared Chuck Schumer, leader of the Democrats in the Senate, after the evacuation of the Capitol, where The certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election by Congress was to take place.

“This is how election results are contested in a banana republic,” added former Republican President George W. Bush, denouncing an “insurrection,” a word also used by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Five weeks later, Senator McConnell would contribute to the Senate’s acquittal of Donald Trump, impeached by the House of Representatives for “incitement of insurrection” as part of the second impeachment proceedings against him.

“There is no doubt, none, that President Trump is factually and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day,” he said, adding that the insurgents had stormed the Capitol “because the most powerful man on the planet had fed them lies” by refusing his defeat.

Nevertheless: according to him, it was up to the courts and not the Senate to judge the ex-president. Like other influential figures in his party, he believed that Donald Trump’s political career was over.

From criminals to “patriots”

However, four years after the assault on the Capitol, Donald Trump is preparing to make a triumphant return to Washington, where he will continue his extraordinary rewriting of the history of January 6, this “day of love”, in his words. .

So much so that Ruth Ben-Ghiat would not be surprised to see the one to whom she attributes autocratic ambitions making January 6 “a public holiday or another kind of commemoration”.

Donald Trump often uses the word “patriots” to refer to the approximately 1,600 people who have been charged or convicted for their role in the assault on the Capitol. He promises to grant presidential pardons to an unspecified number of them, which would not fail to arouse controversy. According to a poll conducted last month by Monmouth University, 61% of voters are opposed to the idea of ​​pardoning the January 6 insurgents, compared to 34% who are in favor.

Read “American Letter: From the Corner of the Forgiven”

“I don’t know if he’ll follow through on his promise,” said Barbara McQuade, former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. “I think it would be a terrible blow to the rule of law. Because many of the defendants were found guilty of very serious crimes, ranging from trespassing to assaulting police officers, to causing property damage to the Capitol, to conspiring to seditiously conspire to prevent Congress from certifying the presidential election.

“If he pardoned these individuals, it would be terrible, because I see it as a form of political violence and mob justice. But in this country, we resolve our differences in court or at the ballot box, not through brute force. »

A report that absolves Trump

Donald Trump is not the only one participating in the rewriting of the history of January 6. In the wake of conspiracy theories spread since 2021 by right-wing media, including Fox News, on the involvement of Antifa or the FBI in the assault on the Capitol, a committee of the House of Representatives added its two cents in mid-December.

In a 128-page report, this committee attributes responsibility for January 6 not to Trump, but to Democrats, the Capitol Police and the intelligence community. And he recommends that former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney be criminally investigated.

“Liz Cheney is in big trouble,” Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social after the release of the report, which accused Cheney of witness tampering as part of the special commission of inquiry into January 6 created by Democrats in July 2021.

According to him, all the members of this commission deserve prison.

Empty words? That remains to be seen. But one thing is already certain: Donald Trump himself will not have to face justice over the next four years for his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, including the assault on the Capitol. was the highlight.

However, Barbara McQuade, now a law professor at the University of Michigan, refuses to attribute Donald Trump’s imminent return to the presidency to flaws in American justice.

“It’s up to voters to keep someone from getting into the White House,” she said. After a pause, she adds: “I am appalled by what happened on January 6. I am dismayed that voters wanted to override this, because government institutions are very important to me. But there were enough voters who either agreed with Donald Trump’s views on January 6 or didn’t care. »