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Two Years since January 6
Jan. 6th, 2023 10:37 pmToday is January 6. It is also 2 years since January 6, 2021, a day on which a mob of thousands of supporters of then-president Donald Trump sacked the US Capitol building trying to force Congress to overturn the will of the people in the November 2020 election.
What's happened in these 2 years? Well, the wheels of justice turn slowly. But they do turn.
The US Department of Justice has charged more than 900 people with crimes. Nearly 500 pleaded guilty, typically in hope of a lighter sentence. Indeed, most pleaded guilty to misdemeanors and received little or no jail time. Dozens of others went to trial. Some have been convicted of felonies with sentences of several years.
Some of the masterminds, the people who fomented the insurrection, though, remain at large. Chief among them is former president Donald Trump. He spent months even before Jan. 6 telling lies about a "rigged" election. On Jan. 6 he whipped the crowd into a frenzy with a speech on the Ellipse in front of the White House, telling the crowd, "If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore." He concluded his remarks with, "So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue" — directing them to storm the Capitol, in the minds of many who attended.
Trump is not the only politician who supported the insurrection. 147 Republican members of Congress voted on Jan. 6 to overturn the results of the election, lending more credence to Trump's "Big Lie". In the days, weeks, and months since then they have continued not only to support the Big Lie but to defend the actions of those who ransacked the Capitol as "legitimate political discourse" and portray them as victims of a "weaponized" federal bureaucracy.
Most of those 147 Republicans are still in Congress. Just tonight they selected Kevin McCarthy Speaker of the House after extracting from him promises to give plum committee assignments to some of the most extreme election deniers... and a commitment to hold hearings on that "weaponized" federal bureaucracy. Watch out for the wheels of justice that turn slowly to be forced now into reverse.
What's happened in these 2 years? Well, the wheels of justice turn slowly. But they do turn.
The US Department of Justice has charged more than 900 people with crimes. Nearly 500 pleaded guilty, typically in hope of a lighter sentence. Indeed, most pleaded guilty to misdemeanors and received little or no jail time. Dozens of others went to trial. Some have been convicted of felonies with sentences of several years.
Some of the masterminds, the people who fomented the insurrection, though, remain at large. Chief among them is former president Donald Trump. He spent months even before Jan. 6 telling lies about a "rigged" election. On Jan. 6 he whipped the crowd into a frenzy with a speech on the Ellipse in front of the White House, telling the crowd, "If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore." He concluded his remarks with, "So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue" — directing them to storm the Capitol, in the minds of many who attended.
Trump is not the only politician who supported the insurrection. 147 Republican members of Congress voted on Jan. 6 to overturn the results of the election, lending more credence to Trump's "Big Lie". In the days, weeks, and months since then they have continued not only to support the Big Lie but to defend the actions of those who ransacked the Capitol as "legitimate political discourse" and portray them as victims of a "weaponized" federal bureaucracy.
Most of those 147 Republicans are still in Congress. Just tonight they selected Kevin McCarthy Speaker of the House after extracting from him promises to give plum committee assignments to some of the most extreme election deniers... and a commitment to hold hearings on that "weaponized" federal bureaucracy. Watch out for the wheels of justice that turn slowly to be forced now into reverse.
