Democracy under threat: When an angry mob stormed the US Capitol

The upheaval caused by the coronavirus pandemic had a serious impact on the 2020 US general election. In order to make it easier for as many people as possible to cast their vote, several states removed barriers to filing postal votes.

The Republican Party were concerned that this would advantage Democrats more than their own supporters, perhaps in part due to the fact that President Trump had consistently played down the threat posed by Covid-19. But despite filing dozens of lawsuits and petitions to overturn the amendments, almost all of them were withdrawn or dismissed.

Meanwhile, Trump himself asserted that Democrats would tamper with the votes by discarding absentee ballots or otherwise rigging the election. He had used the same trick in 2016, only to triumph over Hilary Clinton that year.

In the wake of the election itself, Trump continued to propagate these unsubstantiated claims and conspiracy theories, declaring that he, in fact, was the true winner of the election.

Once Joe Biden’s victory over Trump (by a margin of 306 electoral votes to 232) was revealed on 16^th December, both Trump and his adherents turned their attention to 6^th January, when Congress would officially confirm the result.

So how did the rising unrest turn into all-out revolt? Here’s a comprehensive timeline of events on 6^th January 2021.

• 8:17am – Trump takes to Twitter (now known as X) to complain of voter fraud and election rigging ahead of a planned rally in Washington DC later that day.
• 11am – Leading members of several right-wing organisations, including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, head towards the Capitol Building, with one individual telling journalists, 'We’re taking our country back.'
• 12pm – Trump’s speech begins. Just a quarter of an hour into it, he begins inciting people to march to the Capitol. Though he does use the words 'peacefully and patriotically', he finishes off by telling the crowd to 'fight like hell'.
• 12:53pm – The mob at the Capitol outnumbers the police and continues to grow.
• 1:10pm – An officer calls for backup, reporting multiple injuries to his colleagues.
• 1:45pm – Another officer onsite declares the incident a riot as protestors surge past the police cordon.
• 2:13pm – Protestors break through the windows of the Capitol Building and open the doors to let others inside. Delegates inside the building, including Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are evacuated from the Senate floor.
• 2:24pm – Trump condemns Pence for not forestalling the confirmation of Biden as the election victor on Twitter, claiming he 'didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done'. Meanwhile, protestors swarm through the Capitol Building.
• 2:41pm – Protestor Ashli Babbit is shot as she tries to break through locked doors outside the House Chamber. She later died from these injuries.
• 3:13pm – Trump calls for peace on Twitter.
• 4:17pm – Trump publishes a video thanking and praising the protestors for their actions, but asking them to go home.
• 5:40pm – The building is finally cleared of protestors. Trump tweets again lamenting the perceived corruption of his opponents and celebrating the achievements of his supporters.
• 8pm – Pence calls the Senate back into session.
• 9pm – Pelosi calls the House back into session.
• 3:24am (7th January 2021) – Congress votes to confirm Biden’s victory as US President.

In addition to the death of Ashli Babbit, another protestor was killed by the stampeding mob and a third died from a heart attack. Meanwhile, around 140 police officers were assaulted during the riot, with one suffering a series of strokes resulting in death, while two others committed suicide in the immediate aftermath.

For his part in instigating and encouraging the rebellion, Trump was impeached and indicted, though later acquitted by the Senate. It is just one of a litany of controversies and court cases that continue to embroil the media mogul and politician – in a country which is no stranger to presidential scandals.

The US Department of Justice launched the largest police investigation in the country’s history in a bid to find and punish the guilty parties. To date, it has issued over 5,000 subpoenas, reviewed over 20,000 hours of footage and charged more than 1,400 defendants, with an estimated 820 of those having pleaded guilty.

Some of the biggest convictions include that of the founder of the Oath Keepers Stewart Rhodes, who was handed an 18-year prison sentence for his role in the riots. Meanwhile, the leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio was given an even longer sentence of 22 years. The investigation remains ongoing.

As shocking as it was, 6^th January 2021 wasn’t actually the first time that the US Capitol Building came under attack. Read more about a British invasion from over two centuries earlier.