Five years after the assault on the Capitol | Democrats and Republicans more divided than ever

(Washington) On January 6, 2021, hundreds of supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in Washington, shaking American democracy. Tuesday marks the fifth anniversary of the attack which, one year after the billionaire’s return to power, divides Republicans and Democrats more than ever.

Because far from the almost unanimous condemnations in the days following the assault, consensus has today disappeared within the political class.

If the Democrats continue to denounce an attack on democracy, the Republican apparatus is today devoted to the 79-year-old president, who has always refused to condemn the actions of his supporters, evoking a “day of love” and an “overflow of affection” towards him.

On January 20, 2025, on his first day back at the White House, Donald Trump pardoned all participants, erasing with a line of marker the largest investigation ever carried out by the American Department of Justice.

He briefly alluded to January 6 during a speech Tuesday to Republican parliamentarians, again minimizing his role in the violence of that day.

But the Democratic opposition warned that it would endeavor on Tuesday to keep fresh the memory of the events which shook the American capital in 2021.

“Five years ago today, a violent mob brutally attacked the United States Capitol,” Hakeem Jeffries, a senior Democrat in Congress, said in a statement.

“Their mission was to overturn the results of a free and fair election. We will never allow extremists to suppress their treachery,” he added.

Walk

The Democratic Party published a report Monday highlighting that at least 33 people who benefited from Donald Trump’s pardon after participating in the assault on the Capitol have since been charged with new crimes and offenses including, for some, sexual assault of a minor, rape, or even kidnapping.

Outside the Capitol, supporters of Donald Trump will also mark the fifth anniversary of the event on Tuesday, with a march retracing the journey taken in 2021.

Among the participants: Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the far-right Proud Boys militia who, until the pardon pronounced by Donald Trump, was serving a 22-year prison sentence for his role considered key in the events of January 6.

The march will pay tribute in particular, according to its organizers, to the dead people, including Ashli ​​Babbitt, a demonstrator who tried to slip into the hemicycle through a broken window before being shot and killed by a police officer.

Following her death, Ashli ​​Babbitt was erected by the Trumpist right as a patriotic martyr, and became a symbol of the deep political fault lines surrounding January 6.

If the Democrats want to make noise to mark the fifth anniversary, the main Republican leaders prefer instead to remain silent or criticize the exploitation of this day by the opposition.

“Like devils”

On January 6, 2021, tens of thousands of supporters of Donald Trump, then at the end of his first term, flocked to Washington at the call of the Republican who asserted, without foundation, that the presidential election lost a few weeks earlier to Joe Biden was tainted by massive fraud.

That day, Donald Trump gave a speech in front of the White House during which he called on his supporters to “fight like hell,” otherwise their country would disappear.

In the hours that followed, demonstrators massed in front of the Capitol, located less than three kilometers from the speech site, before forcing police barriers and entering the building.

Smashing windows, ransacking offices, and injuring a total of more than 140 police officers, they caused the flight of elected officials who were supposed to certify Joe Biden’s victory.

In the following years, Donald Trump’s exact role in the events of January 6 was investigated by a congressional commission, which recommended criminal charges against him in 2022. Indicted in 2023 by a federal court for his allegedly illicit attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, he ultimately escaped criminal prosecution with his victory in the 2024 presidential election.