If you asked me Wednesday morning to guess Thursday’s headline for the New York Times, I probably would’ve put my bet on Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock taking that spot. Wednesday was already a historical day. Democrats had taken control of both Congress and the White House for the first time since 2011. The day quickly took a turn for the worse as pro-Trump rioters broke into the Capitol at about 1 p.m., incited by President Trump’s speech about an hour earlier. As I picked up Thursday’s copy of The New York Times, I saw that what would’ve been the cover story, “Democrats Take Senate With Victories in Georgia” occupying the bottom half of the page, and the cover story titled “TRUMP INCITES MOB.” Here’s a breakdown of what happened in those 24 hours, and what led up to it. And here is a timeline by the Boston Globe that may help you follow.
While Democrats celebrated their Senate wins Wednesday morning, Trump was planning a rally that would take place that day at about 12 p.m. Hours earlier, he unleashed a tweet storm filled with false claims about electoral fraud and pressured Mike Pence to send votes “back to the states,” which was completely out of Pence’s power. As of now, Trump’s Twitter account has been suspended, but you can find his old tweets at thetrumparchive.com.
Trump’s rally was indeed a catalyst for the riot that would take place hours later, stating “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And we’re gonna cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. And we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, because you’ll never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strength and you have to be strong.” Regardless of what taking back the country meant to Donald Trump, it meant to his supporters to try and do anything and everything to enter the capitol building. At 2:15 p.m., they were successful in breaching the U.S. Capitol, the first time anyone had done so since the British in the War of 1812. Trump did little to discourage the insurrection attempt, tweeting “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!” nine minutes after the Capitol had been breached.
This riot may have come to a surprise to some, but it shouldn’t be. The people at this bizarre attempted coup weren’t normal Trump supporters (if there are any), they were people who went off the deep end a long time ago. A group of armed hooligans engrossed in bizarre conspiracy theories and a narcissistic president who gets a kick out of seeing how people act on his words is a dangerous combination, and a combination that after 4 years of brewing, leads up to crazy stuff like what happened on January 6th, 2021. If you’re wondering how narcissism played a role in the Capitol riot, check out this video by Dr. Todd Grande.
Finally, at 5:50 p.m., U.S. officials declared the U.S. Capitol Complex secure. At about 8 p.m. Congress resumed counting electors where they left off. At around 3:45 a.m. Joe Biden was confirmed to be the next President of the United States. He was confirmed in the same Congress where just hours earlier, a violent riot catalyzed by President Trump, claimed the lives of 5 people and injured hundreds more. As of Wednesday, January 13th, the House has voted to impeach President Trump, making him the first President in U.S. history to be impeached twice. Whether the Senate will vote on his removal is still up in the air.