Attack on Congress – Watch out for coups

Some people think so was a regular coup attempt, initiated and directed by the president himself. Others believe it was a peaceful demonstration that went awry thanks to a few rotten apples. One year after the shocking attack on the US Congress, even the representatives who fled the bloodthirsty mob do not agree on what really happened that day.

A congressional inquiry committee is trying to get to the bottom of this. After six months of work, many of the findings confirm that Donald Trump played a key role in trying to prevent the approval of Joe Biden as the new president of the United States. This has been documented through the questioning of witnesses, notes from close employees and text messages. The question is whether Trump can be held responsible for lighting the fire that ignited voters, and whether his inadequate response to the attack is such a gross negligence that it is punishable.

The protesters came to Washington at the invitation of Trump, despite warnings from his closest, it emerges from the investigation. He had repeatedly tweeted that something big was going to happen that day; it will be completely wild, he tempted. On the same day that his own vice president, Mike Pence, was to formally approve the election result, Trump gathered a few thousand followers a stone’s throw away and repeated the lie that the election had been stolen. If you do not fight like hell, you will no longer have a country, Trump said. He then urged the audience to march toward Congress. He was to go with them.

A few hours later, Congress was vandalized; seven people died and hundreds were injured and maimed, among them police officers who were there to protect the elected representatives. The Vice President had to flee from armed Trump voters shouting: Hang Mike Pence! Both Democrats and Republicans feared for their lives.

In the White House sat a pleased Donald Trump and watched the live destruction without lifting a finger. His daughter Ivanka begged him to take to Twitter and go out on TV. Even Don jr. thought this was out of control and would ruin his father’s legacy if he did not intervene. Desperate text messages from Trump’s party colleagues inside Congress and supporters such as Fox presenter Sean Hannity begged the president to do the same: End the madness.

It would be another hour and a half before Trump called off the attack and asked the followers to go home with a tribute along the way: “You are very special people. We love you. “

One year after is even the short version of what happened that day, almost inconceivable; as scenes from a sci-fi movie about a wild fascist in the White House. But then good forces would have won in the end and restored peace and order. That has not happened, neither in politics nor among voters. Just days after the attack, Republican leader Kevin McCarthy traveled down to Mar-a-lago and hugged Trump in front of the cameras. Since then, Republicans have continued to fear and cultivate the man who could be held accountable for trying to prevent a legitimate election. Party members who do not profess the Trump cult are frozen out.

Republicans refuse to acknowledge the January 6 investigation, calling it a party-political witch-hunt aimed at preventing Trump from running again. The investigators claim that their main goal is to prevent something similar from happening again, and then they aim not only at the actual attack on Congress, but the lies about election fraud and everything that led up to the dark day. Central are Trump’s alleged plans to deploy the National Guard, confiscate voting machines and use other exemption laws to set aside the election result. What protection does American democracy have against an authoritarian leader who does not follow the rules? How close was Trump to success? are the questions.

Throughout Trumps presidency, both politicians and academics believed that the American institutions, after all, opposed his many abuses. While Trump fired everyone who opposed him, there were still barriers in place that stopped him. The January 6 attack shook that trust. What if the next Trump is a smarter and more cunning seducer, one who does not sit still on the TV couch when the attack takes place?

The committee has already published material that makes it impossible to apologize for Trump’s involvement in the attack on anyone other than the believers. There are still many of them, and in the autumn there are by-elections that the Republicans will probably win. Voters still refuse to watch out for coups.

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