To the editor:
This Jan. 6, is the fifth anniversary of the most severe assault on the U.S. Capitol building since the burning of Washington by British forces during the War of 1812. The Jan. 6 Capitol attack would never have happened, and would have only existed as a traitorous anarchist’s dream, if not for the intentional, unrelenting and unrepentant actions of Donald Trump.
During a Sept. 29, 2020, Presidential debate, Trump ordered members of the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” This direction by the President was well-received by the Proud Boys, and white nationalist men began to join in record numbers. Their membership tripled by Jan. 6.
On Nov. 4, the day after the election, Trump said, “...we want all voting (vote counting) to stop. ... We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.”
On Dec. 19, Trump announced the Jan. 6 rally on Twitter, stating: “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on Jan. 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
The morning of Jan. 6, 2021, Trump tweeted: “If Vice President @Mike_Pence comes through for us, we will win the Presidency.”
At noon on Jan. 6, Trump began his speech which included the statements, “I’ll be there with you ... we’re going to walk down to the Capitol ... Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing.” “In no state is there any question or effort made to verify the identity, citizenship, residency or eligibility of the votes cast.” (We all know from our own voting experience that this is a sun-comes-up-in-the-west falsehood.) “They (Congress members voting to certify the Biden election) want to play so straight.” “When you catch somebody in a fraud, you’re allowed to go by very different rules.” “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” “The Democrats are hopeless.” “And we’re going to the Capitol.”
At 12:53, rioters began to overwhelm police who were protecting the Capitol. During the attack, 174 police officers were injured and one rioter was shot to death. A police officer died of natural causes a day after being assaulted by rioters. Four officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months.
Trump watched the attack on TV for 2 hours and 38 minutes, receiving pleas from members of Congress to tell the rioters to quit and go home. Finally, at 4:17, he tweeted, “We have to have peace. So go home.”
In a 2023 town hall, Trump said of the rioters, “They were there proud, they were there with love in their heart. ... And it was a beautiful day.”
On Jan. 20, 2025, President Trump pardoned and commuted the sentences of the rioters. Proud Boys gathered in Washington D.C. and chanted, “Whose streets? Our streets!” Convicted rioters who assaulted police officers commented, “Thank you, Mr. President!”
On Jan. 31, roughly 30 U.S. prosecutors who worked on the Jan. 6 cases were fired.
On Feb. 1, Trump’s acting Deputy Attorney General fired eight senior FBI officials and demanded a list of all FBI personnel who worked on the Jan. 6 convictions.
On Mar. 15, Trump made an unprecedented speech to the Justice Department and called for jailing 2020 presidential election officials. He did so even though his own attorney general at the time, 60 court cases and reviews, audits, and recounts in the battleground states all affirmed that Trump lost the election.
John Sturn
Ellinwood
