(Washington) Several dozen supporters of Donald Trump gathered Tuesday in Washington to mark five years of the assault on the Capitol, saying they wanted to commemorate the memory of their “martyrs”, while calling on the government to attack the Democratic opposition.
Published at
Among them, under the gray and cold sky of the American capital, Tami Jackson came from Texas to, she says, “remember those who died that day and celebrate the return of the guys” like her husband Brian, present at her side, convicted of violence against a police officer on January 6, 2021 before being pardoned by Donald Trump a year ago.
She is wearing a t-shirt in homage to Ashli Babbitt. Brian and other Trump supporters are calling the Capitol attacker shot and killed by a police officer as she tried to climb through a window into the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a “martyr.”
The memory of this day which shook American democracy has taken root at the center of Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, who on his first day back in power pardoned some 1,250 people convicted in this case, making them victims of justice designated as political, in the hands of the Democrats.
PHOTO EVELYN HOCKSTEIN, REUTERS
Members of the Proud Boys at Tuesday’s rally in Washington
Tuesday’s demonstrators, representatives of the most radical fringe of the American right, are in turn calling for prosecutions against these elected Democrats, with one of the signs on Tuesday calling to “arrest (Nancy) Pelosi”, a figure hated by Trumpists.
Sunglasses on his eyes and a sweater from the far-right Proud Boys militia on his shoulders, Al Holt calls for the elected officials at the head of the parliamentary commission of inquiry into January 6 “to be tried and hanged for treason. »
The rally was notably held at the call of Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the Proud Boys sentenced in 2023 to 22 years in prison for sedition, the heaviest sentence handed down for the assault on the Capitol, before also being pardoned by Donald Trump.
Met by AFP on Tuesday, he said he was “even more proud” of being a member of the Proud boys today, “because we had these graces. » “We are here, our management team is back, at work”, and some members of the group could be candidates for elections, explains Enrique Tarrio.
The demonstrators gathered in front of the White House, where Donald Trump gave a fiery speech on January 6, 2021, then headed towards the Capitol, taking the route that the attackers had taken five years earlier.
That day, thousands of them, heated by Donald Trump’s baseless accusations of supposed electoral fraud, stormed the Capitol in order to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. 174 police officers were injured.
