January 6 United States Capitol attack

2021 storming of the United States Capitol
Part of the 2020–21 United States election protests and attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election
Top to bottom, left to right: crowds gathered outside of the Capitol; Donald Trump speaking to supporters at the "Save America" rally; tear gas being deployed against protesters outside the Capitol Building
Date	January 6, 2021 (2021-01-06)
Location	United States Capitol, Washington, D.C. 38°53′23.3″N 77°00′32.6″W
Caused by	Opposition to the results of the 2020 United States presidential election Trump's false claims of 2020 election fraud Trump's incitement of his supporters to fight and physically disrupt the Electoral College vote count
Goals	Disrupt, delay, and change the Electoral College vote count in Trump's favor Capture and destroy the certificates of ascertainment of the Electoral College votes Pressure Congress and the Vice President to overturn the election of former vice president Joe Biden Ransack, vandalize, and overrun the United States Capitol building Summary execution of Vice President Mike Pence
Methods	Rioting, vandalism, looting, assault, shootings, arson, and attempted bombings
Resulted in	Attempts to overturn election results in favor of Trump failed Damage to United States Capitol property, including vandalism and looting of offices and chambers Delay of counting electoral votes by several hours Resignations of Trump administration officials Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos Chief of the Council of Economic Advisers Tyler Goodspeed Chief of Staff to the First Lady Stephanie Grisham White House Social Secretary Anna Cristina Niceta Lloyd Special Envoy for Northern Ireland Mick Mulvaney Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger Resignations of Capitol security officials Chief of the Capitol Police Steven Sund Sergeant at Arms of the Senate Michael C. Stenger Sergeant at Arms of the House of Representatives Paul D. Irving Installation of new security fencing around the Capitol and heightened security measures Suspensions of Donald Trump's social media accounts Efforts to remove Donald Trump from office
Casualties and arrests
Death(s)	5 dead 4 rioters 1 police officer
Injuries	Unknown number of rioters injured, at least 5 rioters hospitalized 56 officers injured
Arrested	80+ rioters arrested

The 2021 storming of the United States Capitol was a riot and violent attack against the United States government on Wednesday, January 6, 2021. Incited by US President Donald Trump in an attempt to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, a mob of thousands of his supporters marched down Pennsylvania Avenue before many stormed the United States Capitol in an effort to disrupt the electoral college vote count during a joint session of Congress to formalize President-elect Joe Biden's election victory. After breaching police perimeters, they occupied, vandalized, and ransacked parts of the building for several hours. The storming led to the evacuation and lockdown of the Capitol building and five deaths.

Called to action by Trump, thousands of his supporters gathered in Washington, D.C., on January 5 and 6 to demand that Vice President Mike Pence and Congress reject Biden's lawful victory. The protestors gathered in support of Trump's false claims that the 2020 election had been "stolen" from him. Some protestors became violent, assaulting a police officer who later died, erecting a gallows on the Capitol grounds, assaulting the press, and attempting to locate and take hostage and harm lawmakers such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Pence, the latter for refusing to invalidate the electoral outcome and thereby Biden's victory.

Protesters assembled on the Ellipse for the "Save America March" on the morning of January 6; Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani, and several members of Congress addressed the crowd. Trump told his supporters to "fight like hell" to "take back our country", and encouraged them to march over to the Capitol. Giuliani called for "trial by combat" and Trump Jr. threatened the president's opponents by saying "we're coming for you", having called for "total war" in the weeks leading up to the riots. As the rioters entered the Capitol by breaking through windows and doors, Capitol security evacuated the Senate and House of Representatives chambers. Several buildings in the Capitol complex were evacuated, and all of them were locked down. Rioters broke past interior security to occupy the evacuated Senate chamber while federal law enforcement officers drew handguns to prevent entry to the evacuated House floor. The evacuated office of Pelosi was looted and vandalized. Improvised explosive devices were found on the Capitol grounds during the riots; explosives were also found at offices for both the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee, and in a nearby vehicle.

Five people died from the events and dozens more were seriously injured. Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick died after allegedly being beaten on the head with a fire extinguisher. Federal authorities launched a murder investigation to examine Sicknick's killing. One woman attempting to enter the House chamber through a barricaded door was shot by police and later died. Three other protesters suffered fatal medical emergencies during the event.

Trump reacted slowly to the storming, first resisting sending the District of Columbia National Guard to quell the mob, and eventually posting a video on his Twitter account praising the rioters as "great patriots" but telling them to "go home in peace" while repeating his false claims of election fraud. The crowd was dispersed from the U.S. Capitol later that evening. The counting of the electoral votes resumed that night and was completed in the early morning hours the next day, with Pence declaring Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris the victors and affirming that they will assume office on January 20. Pressured by his administration, the threat of removal, and numerous resignations, Trump held a televised speech where he committed to an orderly transition of power in a statement. Three days later on January 9, The New York Times reported that Trump told White House aides that he regretted this statement and that he would not resign from office.

The events prompted widespread condemnation by political leaders and organizations in the United States and internationally. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the storming of the Capitol a "failed insurrection". Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for Trump to be removed from office, either through the 25th Amendment or by impeachment. Facebook responded by locking Trump's accounts and removing posts related to the incident, and Twitter responded initially by locking his account for 12 hours, and then permanently suspending it.

The riots and storming of the Capitol were described as treason, insurrection, sedition, domestic terrorism, and an attempt by Trump to carry out a coup d'état or self-coup.

Background

President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in 2020

Democratic candidate Joe Biden won the 2020 United States presidential election, defeating the incumbent Republican president Donald Trump, on November 3, 2020. Before, during, and after the counting of votes, Trump and other Republicans attempted to overturn the election, alleging widespread voter fraud. The claims focused mainly on five swing states—Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona—that flipped to Biden after having been won by Trump in 2016.

Actions undertaken by Trump to try to overturn the results included filing at least 60 lawsuits that sought to nullify election certifications and void votes cast for Biden in each of the five states (all but one being defeated, including two brought to the Supreme Court, due to lack of evidence or standing); mounting pressure campaigns toward Republican state lawmakers to nullify results, replace slates of Biden electors with those declared to Trump, and/or manufacture evidence of fraud (which would likely violate certain election tampering statutes enacted by the states); and demanding lawmakers investigate election irregularities or conduct signature matches of mail-in ballots (regardless of efforts already undertaken during vote counting). Trump also personally inquired about, but did not act upon, invoking martial law to "re-run" the election in the swing states that Biden won (which would violate federal law prohibiting election oversight by the U.S. military, and likely be considered an unconstitutional suspension of civil liberties) and hiring a special counsel to find incidences of fraud (even though federal and state officials have concluded that such cases were very isolated or non-existent).

Congress was scheduled to meet on January 6, 2021, to count the results of the Electoral College vote and certify the winner of the election. Trump had spent previous days suggesting that Vice President Mike Pence should reject Biden's victory, an act that is not within Pence's constitutional powers as vice president and president of the Senate, and he repeated this call in his speech on the morning of January 6. The same afternoon, Pence released a letter to Congress in which he said he would not challenge Biden's victory.

Planning of the storming and prior concerns of violence

Trump announced plans for a rally before the January 6 vote count to continue his challenge to the validity of several states' election results. On December 18, Trump announced, "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!" At a rally held on January 4 in Dalton, Georgia, where Trump appeared to support Senators Perdue and Loeffler, the wi-fi password was "SeeYouJan6!".

Ali Alexander, a right-wing political activist who took part in organizing the rally and expressed support for the storming as "completely peaceful" was reported as stating in December that Representatives Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, and Mo Brooks were involved in the planning of "something big." According to Alexander, "It was to build momentum and pressure and then on the day change hearts and minds of Congress peoples who weren't yet decided or who saw everyone outside and said, 'I can't be on the other side of that mob." His remarks received considerably more scrutiny after the events of January 6, causing Biggs to respond with a statement denying any relationship between himself and Alexander.

The rioters had openly planned to disrupt the counting of Electoral College ballots for several weeks prior to the event, and had called for violence against Congress, Pence, and law enforcement. Plans were coordinated on "alt-tech" platforms — distinct from larger social media platforms such as Reddit or Twitter, which have implemented bans to censor violent language and images. Websites like TheDonald.win, founded after its predecessor was banned from Reddit, the social networking service Parler, the chat app Telegram, Gab, and others, were used to discuss previous Trump rallies and to make plans for storming the Capitol. Many of the posters planned for violence prior to the event, with some individuals discussing how to avoid police on the streets, which tools to bring to help pry open doors, and how to smuggle weapons into Washington D.C. Following clashes with Washington D.C police during protests on December 12, 2020, the Proud Boys and far-right groups turned against supporting law enforcement. At least one group, Stop the Steal, posted on December 23, 2020, its plans to occupy the Capitol with promises to "escalate" if met with opposition from law enforcement.

In the days leading up to the storming, several organizations that monitored online extremism had been issuing warnings about the event. On December 21, 2020, a U.K. political consultant who studies Trump-related extremism tweeted a forecast of what the planned event of January 6 would become, including deaths. The Anti-Defamation League published a January 4 blog post warning about violent rhetoric being espoused by Trump supporters leading up to the Electoral College count, including calls to violently disrupt the counting process. The post said that it was not aware of any credible threats of violence, but noted that "if the past is any indication, the combination of an extremist presence at the rallies and the heated nature of the rhetoric suggests that violence is a possibility." Also on January 4, British security firm G4S conducted a risk analysis, which found that there would be violent groups in Washington, D.C., between January 6 and Inauguration Day based on online posts advocating for violence. Advance Democracy, Inc., a nonpartisan governance watchdog, found 1,480 posts from QAnon-related accounts referencing the events of January 6 in the six days leading up to it, including calls for violence.

Funding and donations

CNBC reported on January 9 that the "Save America March" and rally that preceded the riots at the Capitol were largely organized by Women for America First, which received funding from the Linda McMahon-headed America First Policies organization. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said his media company paid $500,000 to book the Ellipse for the pro-Trump rally immediately preceding the riots and claimed that the Trump White House asked him to lead the march to the Capitol.

The founder of Turning Point USA bragged on Twitter that they sent over 80 buses of seditionists to the U.S. Capitol. Ginni Thomas, lobbiest and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, serves on their advisory council and social media posts have inaccurately implied that she personally funded the buses.

Other individuals attempted to raise funds in December via GoFundMe to help pay for transportation to the rally, with limited success. An investigation by BuzzFeed News identified more than a dozen fundraisers to pay for travel to the planned rally. GoFundMe has since deactivated several of the campaigns after the riot, but some campaigns had already raised part or all of their fundraising goals prior to deactivation.

Police preparations

Washington, D.C., mayor Muriel Bowser requested on December 31, 2020, that District of Columbia National Guard troops be deployed to support local police during the anticipated demonstrations. In her request, she wrote that the guards would not be armed and that they would be primarily responsible for "crowd management" and traffic direction, allowing police to focus on security concerns. Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller approved the request on January 4, 2021. The approval activated 340 troops, with no more than 114 to be deployed at any given time. Three days before the riots, the Pentagon twice offered to send in the National Guard, but were told by the United States Capitol Police that it would not be necessary. Robert Contee, the acting Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, said after the event that his department had possessed no intelligence indicating the Capitol would be breached. United States Capitol Police chief Steven Sund said his department had developed a plan to respond to "First Amendment activities" but had not planned for the "criminal riotous behavior" they encountered. U.S. Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy said law enforcement agencies' estimates of the potential size of the crowd, calculated in advance of the event, varied between 2,000 and 80,000.

Events in Washington, D.C.

For a detailed timeline of the events in Washington D.C. and its aftermath, see Timeline of the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol.

Prior to the march

Thousands of attendees gathered in Freedom Plaza on January 5, 2021, in advance of protests planned for the week. At least ten people were arrested, several on weapons charges, on the night of January 5 and into the morning of January 6.

"Save America March"

Protesters at Washington Union Station in the morning on January 6

Protesters surrounded the Washington Monument to rally on the morning of January 6. Trump, his lawyer and adviser Rudy Giuliani, and others gave speeches on the Ellipse. Giuliani addressed the crowd, repeating conspiracy theories that voting machines used in the election were "crooked" and calling for "trial by combat". Representative Mo Brooks (R-AL) told the crowd, "Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass." Representative Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) said, "This crowd has some fight."

Trump gave a speech from behind a glass barrier, declaring he would "never concede" the election, criticizing the media and calling for Pence to overturn the election results, something outside Pence's constitutional power.

Trump incited his supporters to march on the Capitol, where Congress meets:

We're going to walk down. Anyone you want, but I think right here, we're going to walk down to the Capitol— And we're going to 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. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated. Lawfully slated. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.

Stop the Steal signs, with one sign demanding executions, seen in front of the Capitol

Referring to the counting of Biden's electoral votes, Trump said, "we can't let that happen". Trump told his supporters to "fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore." He said the protestors would be "going to the Capitol and we're going to try and give [Republicans] the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country". Trump's speech, replete with misrepresentations and lies, inflamed the crowd.

Trump's sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, also spoke, naming and verbally attacking Republican congressmen and senators who were not supporting the effort to challenge the Electoral College vote, and promising to campaign against them in future primary elections. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) greeted protesters with a raised fist as he passed by on his way to the joint session of Congress in the early afternoon.

Rioting in the Capitol building

Pennsylvania Avenue march

Protesters gathering outside the United States Capitol, January 6, 2021, 3:27

Instigated by Trump to help him overturn the election result, a crowd led by Alex Jones and others marched down Pennsylvania Avenue after the rally and advanced on the Capitol, where a separate crowd had gathered. It is difficult to get a reliable estimate of the total size of the crowd because aerial photos are not permitted in Washington, D.C., due to security concerns.

Around 1:00 p.m. EST, hundreds of Trump supporters clashed with officers and pushed through barriers along the perimeter of the Capitol. The crowd swept past barriers and officers, with some members of the mob spraying officers with chemical agents or hitting them with lead pipes. Although many rioters simply walked to the walls of the Capitol, some resorted to ropes and makeshift ladders. Representative Zoe Lofgren, aware that rioters had reached the Capitol steps, was unable to reach Steven Sund by phone; House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul D. Irving told Lofgren the doors to the Capitol were locked and "nobody can get in".

Meanwhile Sund, at 1:09 p.m., called Irving and Stenger and asked them for an emergency declaration required to call in the National Guard; they both told Sund they would "run it up the chain". Irving called back with formal approval an hour later.

Capitol breach

Just after 2:00 p.m., windows were broken through, and the mob breached the building and entered the National Statuary Hall. As rioters began to storm the Capitol and other nearby buildings, some buildings in the complex were evacuated. Outside the building, the mob put up a gallows, punctured the tires of a police vehicle, and left a note saying "PELOSI IS SATAN" on the windshield. Politico reported some rioters briefly showing their police badges or military identification to law enforcement as they approached the Capitol, expecting therefore to be let inside; a Capitol Police officer told BuzzFeed News that one rioter told him "[w]e're doing this for you" as he flashed a badge.

Concerned about the approaching mob, Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) called Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who was not on Capitol grounds but at the police department's headquarters. When asked what the Capitol Police were doing to stop the rioters, Sund told Waters, "We're doing the best we can" just before the line went dead.

A gallows equipped with a hangman's noose constructed near the Capitol

Several rioters carried plastic handcuffs, possibly with the intention of using them to take hostages. Some of the rioters carried Confederate battle flags or Nazi emblems. Some rioters wore riot gear, including helmets and military-style vests. For the first time in U.S. history, a Confederate battle flag was flown inside the U.S. Capitol building.

Senate adjourned and evacuated

At the time, the joint session of Congress—which had already voted to accept the nine electoral votes from Alabama and three from Alaska without objection—was split so that each chamber could separately consider an objection to accepting Arizona's electoral votes that had been raised by Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and endorsed by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX). Both chambers were roughly halfway through their two-hour debate on the motion.

C-SPAN broadcast of the Senate going into recess after protesters infiltrate the Capitol

While debate over the Arizona electoral college votes continued, an armed police officer entered the Senate chamber, positioned facing the back entrance of the chamber. Pence handed the floor from Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) to Senator James Lankford (R-OK). Moments later, Pence was escorted out by members of the Secret Service. The rioters began to climb the steps towards the Senate chamber. A lone police officer worked to slow the mob down as he radioed that they had reached the second floor. Just steps from the still-unsealed Senate chamber doors, the rioters instead followed the Capitol Police officer who led them away from the Senate. Banging could be heard from outside as people attempted to breach the doors. As Lankford was speaking, the Senate was gaveled into recess, and the doors were locked at 2:15 p.m. A minute later, the rioters reached the gallery outside the chamber. A police officer carrying a semi-automatic weapon appeared on the floor and stood between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) exasperatedly threw up his hands and directly criticized several fellow Republicans who were challenging President-elect Biden’s electoral votes, yelling to them, “This is what you’ve gotten, guys." With violence breaking out, Capitol security advised the members of Congress to take cover. Several members of Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough's staff carried the boxes of Electoral College votes and documentation out of the chamber to hidden safe rooms within the building, thus safeguarding the documents from capture by the invading mob.

Due to security threat inside: immediately, move inside your office, take emergency equipment, lock the doors, take shelter.

— Capitol Police alert

Trump tweeted that Pence "didn't have the courage to do what should have been done" at 2:24 p.m. Afterwards, Trump followers on far-right social media called for Pence to be hunted down, and the mob began chanting, "Where is Pence?" "Find Mike Pence!" Outside, the mob chanted, "Hang Mike Pence!," which some crowds continued to chant as they stormed the Capitol; at least three rioters were overheard by a reporter stating they wanted to find Pence and execute him as a "traitor" by hanging him from a tree outside the building. All buildings in the complex were subsequently locked down, with no entry or exit from the buildings allowed. Capitol staff were asked to move into offices and lock their doors and windows; those outside were advised to "seek cover".

As the mob roamed the Capitol, lawmakers, aides, and staff took shelter in offices and closets. Aides to Mitch McConnell, barricaded in a room just off a hallway, heard a rioter outside the door "praying loudly", asking for "the evil of Congress [to] be brought to an end". The rioters entered and ransacked the office of the Senate Parliamentarian.

People inside the Capitol being evacuated. Staff and reporters inside the building were taken by secure elevators to the basement, and then to an underground bunker constructed following the 2001 attempted attack on the Capitol. Evacuees were redirected while en route after the bunker was also infiltrated by the mob.

The Senate chamber was evacuated at 2:30 p.m. After evacuation, the mob briefly took control of the chamber, with some armed and armored men carrying flex-cuffs and some posing with raised fists on the Senate dais that Pence had left minutes earlier. Pence's wife Karen Pence, daughter Charlotte Pence Bond, and brother Greg Pence (a member of the House; R-IN) were in the Capitol at the time it was attacked.

Michael C. Stenger, Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, accompanied a group of senators including Lindsey Graham and Joe Manchin to a secure location in a Senate office building. Once safe, the lawmakers were "furious" with Stenger; Graham asked him, "How does this happen? How does this happen?" and added that they "[are] not going to be run out by a mob." After the evacuation, reporter Nicholas Fandos spent four hours in a secure location within the Capitol that police asked him not to share.

House adjourned and evacuated

Meanwhile, in the House chamber around 2:15 p.m., while Gosar was speaking, Speaker Pelosi was escorted out of the chamber. The House was gaveled into recess, but would resume a few minutes later. Amid the security concerns, Representative Dean Phillips (D-MN) yelled, "This is because of you!" at his Republican colleagues. The House resumed debate around 2:25 p.m. Around 2:30, when Gosar finished speaking, the House went into recess again. The rioters had entered the House wing and were attempting to enter the Speaker's Lobby just outside the House chamber. Lawmakers were still inside and being evacuated. Members of Congress inside the House chamber were told to put on gas masks, as law enforcement had begun using tear gas within the building. Reporter Emily Cochrane pulled out one of the aluminum bags that were stored under the chairs for emergencies and removed the emergency hood, "a sort of hybrid gas mask with a tarp, which made a loud whirring noise and had a flashing red light." Staff members removed boxes of sealed electoral vote certificates to prevent them from being damaged by rioters.

File:Video shot by Congressman Dan Kildee D-Flint - via Michael Moore on Facebook Watch.webm

Video shot inside the House of Representatives chamber with armed security blocking the doors

ABC News reported that shots were fired within the Capitol building. An armed standoff took place at the front door of the chamber of the House of Representatives: as the mob attempted to break in, federal law enforcement officers drew their guns inside and pointed them towards the chamber doors, which were barricaded with furniture. In a stairway, one officer fired a shot at a man coming toward him. Photographer Erin Schaff said that, from the Capitol Rotunda, she ran upstairs, where rioters grabbed her press badge and "threw me to the floor." She screamed for help as "they ripped one of my cameras away from me, broke a lens on the other and ran away," and ran to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)'s balcony to hide her camera. After police deployed tear gas, she had to run into a hallway. There police found her, and, as her press pass had been stolen, they drew their guns and pointed them at her before colleagues intervened, telling the police she was a journalist.

Multiple rioters documented themselves occupying the Capitol and the offices of various representatives, storming the offices of Speaker Pelosi.

Participating groups

Supporters of the boogaloo movement, the Three Percenters, the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, QAnon, the Groyper Army, and National-anarchism, as well as Neo-Confederates and Black Hebrew Israelites, among others, were reportedly present or wore emblematic gear or symbols during the riots. Neo-Nazi apparel was also worn by some participants during the riots, including a shirt emblazoned with references to the Auschwitz–Birkenau concentration camp and its motto, Arbeit macht frei (German for "work makes you free"). Following the event, members of the Nationalist Social Club, a neo-Nazi street gang, detailed their participation in the storming and claimed the acts were the "beginning of the start of White Revolution in the United States". The Associated Press reviewed public and online records of more than 120 participants after the storming and found that many of them shared conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election on social media and had also believed other beliefs shared by the QAnon conspiracy theory. Additionally, several had threatened Democratic and Republican politicians before the storming.

The event was described as Extremely Online, with "pro-Trump internet personalities" and fans livesteaming and taking selfies.

At least thirteen Republican current and former state legislators were present at the event, including Nevada State Assemblywoman Annie Black, Virginia State Senator Amanda Chase, Alaska State Representative David Eastman, West Virginia Delegate Derrick Evans, Missouri State Representative Justin Hill, Arizona State Representative Mark Finchem, Michigan State Representative Matt Maddock, Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano, and Tennessee Representative Terri Lynn Weaver, as well as outgoing Georgia State Representative Vernon Jones, outgoing Arizona State Representative Anthony Kern, and former Pennsylvania State Representative Rick Saccone. Weaver claimed to have been "in the thick of it", while Evans filmed himself entering the Capitol alongside rioters. All denied participating in acts of violence. Evans was later charged by federal authorities with entering a restricted area; he resigned from the House of Delegates on January 9.

A Defense official said some military members on active and reserve duty may have been involved in the riot. Police officers and a police chief from departments in multiple states are under investigation for their alleged involvement in the riot.

Improvised explosive and incendiary devices

Improvised explosive devices were found in several locations in Washington, D.C. A device suspected to be a pipe bomb was discovered adjacent to a building containing Republican National Committee (RNC) offices. A search of the nearby area found another suspected pipe bomb under a bush at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters. The devices were believed to have been planted prior to the riots. Both the RNC building and the DNC headquarters are a few blocks from the Capitol. The RNC and DNC devices were safely detonated by bomb squads, and police later said they were "hazardous" and could have caused "great harm". The FBI distributed a photo of the person who they believe planted the devices and issued a reward of up to $50,000 for information. Another suspected pipe bomb was found on the grounds of the Capitol complex.

Sund told the Washington Post on January 10 that he suspected the pipe bombs were intentionally placed to draw police away from the Capitol.

A vehicle containing a semi-automatic rifle and a cooler full of eleven Molotov cocktails was also found nearby. The driver was subsequently arrested. He also had three handguns.

Law enforcement response

Armed guards walking through the halls of Congress after they were ransacked

Sund joined a conference call with D.C. government and Pentagon officials at 2:26 p.m. where he "[made] an urgent, urgent immediate request for National Guard assistance", telling them he needed "boots on the ground". However, Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt said he could not recommend that Army Secretary Ryan D. McCarthy approve the request, telling Sund and others "I don't like the visual of the National Guard standing a police line with the Capitol in the background".

About 2:31 p.m. on January 6, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered a 6:00 p.m. curfew to go into effect that night. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam also issued a curfew for nearby Alexandria and Arlington County in Northern Virginia.

Pentagon officials reportedly restricted D.C. guard troops from being deployed except as a measure of last resort, and from receiving ammunition and riot gear; troops were also instructed to engage with protesters only in situations warranting self-defense and could not share equipment with local police or use surveillance equipment without prior approval from Acting Defense Secretary Christopher C. Miller. Army Secretary Ryan D. McCarthy and Acting Defense Secretary Miller decided to deploy the entire 1,100-strong force of D.C. National Guard to quell violence. About 3:04 p.m., Miller spoke with Pence, Pelosi, McConnell and Schumer, and directed the National Guard and other "additional support" to respond to the riot. The order to send in the National Guard, which Trump initially resisted, was approved by Vice President Pence. This bypassing of the chain of command has not been explained. Around 3:30 p.m., Northam said that he was working with Mayor Bowser and Congress leaders to respond and that he was sending members of the Virginia National Guard and 200 Virginia State Troopers to support D.C. law enforcement, at the mayor's request. At 3:45 p.m., Stenger told Sund he would ask Mitch McConnell for help expediting the National Guard authorization.

It took more than three hours for police to retake control of the Capitol, using riot gear, shields, and batons. Capitol Police were assisted by the local D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. Smoke grenades were deployed on the Senate side of the Capitol by Capitol Police working to clear rioters from the building. Black officers employed with Capitol Police reported being subjected to racial epithets (including repeated uses of "nigger") by some of the rioters. Capitol Police chief Steven Sund said his officers' slow response to the rioting was due to their being preoccupied by the improvised explosive devices found near the Capitol. FBI and Department of Homeland Security agents wearing riot gear entered the Dirksen Senate Office Building around 4:30 p.m.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced at 4:57 p.m. that elements of the New Jersey State Police were being deployed to the District of Columbia at the request of D.C. officials, and that the New Jersey National Guard was prepared for deployment if necessary. Shortly before 5:00 p.m., congressional leaders were reportedly being evacuated from the Capitol complex to Fort McNair, a nearby Army base. Around 5:20 p.m., Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced that he would send the Maryland State Police and Maryland National Guard, after speaking to the Secretary of the Army. Hogan's requests of the Defense Department to authorize National Guard troops to be deployed at the Capitol initially were denied in multiple instances. At around 5:40 p.m., the Sergeant at Arms announced that the Capitol had been secured.

Riot police and protesters outside the Capitol in the evening

As police continued to try to push rioters away from the Capitol, protests continued, some moving out of the Capitol Hill area. Some verbal and physical attacks on reporters were reported, with attackers denigrating media outlets as providing "fake news".

By 6:08 p.m., police had arrested at least thirteen people and seized five firearms during the day's events. Although Mayor Bowser had ordered a 6:00 p.m. curfew, it went largely ignored, and hundreds of pro-Trump demonstrators remained in the Capitol Hill area.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pledged to deploy a thousand members of the New York National Guard to D.C., in addition to the resources promised by other states. On the night of January 6, Mayor Bowser issued an order extending the public emergency in Washington, D.C., for 15 days, writing in the order that she expected some people would "continue their violent protests through the inauguration". The following day, Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy announced that a fence would be built around the Capitol, and remain in place for at least 30 days; construction of the fence began that same day. McCarthy also said New Jersey National Guard troops would be mobilized, as would as troops from the Delaware, New York, and Pennsylvania National Guards.

Completion of electoral vote count

Main article: 2021 United States Electoral College count

Congressional staffers removed the Electoral College certificates from the Capitol as it was evacuated.

Congress reconvened after the Capitol was cleared of trespassers, with the Senate resuming its session at around 8:00 p.m. EST on January 6 to finish debating the objection to the Arizona electors. At 9:58 p.m., the Senate rejected the objection 93–6, with only six Republicans voting in favor: Ted Cruz (TX), Josh Hawley (MO), Cindy Hyde-Smith (MS), John Neely Kennedy (LA), Roger Marshall (KS), and Tommy Tuberville (AL). At 11:08 p.m., the House of Representatives also rejected the motion by a margin of 303–121. All of the "yeas" came from Republicans while the "nays" were from 83 Republicans and 220 Democrats.

Another objection was raised by Hawley and Representative Scott Perry (R-PA) to the Pennsylvania slate of electors, triggering another two-hour split in the joint session to debate the objection. At 12:30 a.m. on January 7, the Senate rejected this objection as well by a 92–7 vote, with the same people voting the same way as before with the exceptions of Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Rick Scott (R-FL) voting in favor and John Kennedy voting against. At 3:08 a.m., the House of Representatives similarly rejected the motion to sustain the objection by a margin of 282–138. Again, all of the votes in favor were Republican, while this time, only 64 Republicans voted against and 218 Democrats voted against.

At 3:41 a.m., Congress confirmed the outcome of the Electoral College vote, Biden's 306 votes to Trump's 232, with Pence declaring that Biden and Harris would take office on January 20.

Casualties

Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick was "injured while physically engaging with protesters".

Five people died during or shortly after the event: four protesters and one police officer. Fifteen police officers were hospitalized, and more than 50 injured. Members of the mob hit Capitol Police officers in the head with lead pipes and other weapons, including flag poles.

Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick, 42, a 15-year veteran of the force, was "injured while physically engaging with protesters". The specific cause of Sicknick's death was not initially released, though law enforcement officials told The New York Times that he had been struck in the head with a fire extinguisher. Reuters reported that Sicknick suffered a stroke after sustaining head injuries, and collapsed after returning to his division office. He was later placed on life support, but died on the following day. Sicknick's death will be investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department's Homicide Branch, the USCP, and federal authorities. Pelosi, the House speaker, had the flags at the Capitol lowered to half-staff in Sicknick's honor. Trump initially declined to lower flags at the White House or other federal buildings under his control, before relenting on Sunday. Trump did not offer condolences to Sicknick's family, but Pence did.

Sicknick's death was announced prematurely, leading to some confusion. After Sicknick's death was officialy announced, Senator Ted Cruz received backlash for previous speeches that were perceived as calls for violence, with "#TedCruzKilledACop" being the top Twitter trend in the United States.

During the riot, Ashli Elizabeth Babbitt, a 35-year-old rioter from San Diego, was shot and killed by Capitol Police as she attempted to climb through a shattered window in a barricaded door leading into the Speaker's Lobby, which has direct access to the House floor. The incident was recorded on several cameras. A law enforcement official told The Washington Post that the police currently believe she had been unarmed, but the officer who fired the fatal shot did not know that at the time, and officers were aware that many of the intruders were carrying concealed weapons. The officer who shot her was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department launched an investigation into the death. Babbitt was a follower of the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory, and had tweeted the previous day "the storm is here", a reference to a QAnon prediction that Trump will expose and defeat a global cabal of perceived Satan-worshipping pedophiles.

Three other rioters also died. They were Rosanne Boyland, 34, of Kennesaw, Georgia; Kevin Greeson, 55, from Athens, Alabama; and Benjamin Philips, 50, of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Boyland's cause of death was disputed; one account said she was crushed to death, while another said she collapsed while standing at the side in the Capitol rotunda. Boyland's sister also said she "had no intention of committing violence when she traveled to Washington" and simply wanted to show her support. Greeson died of a heart attack. His family said he was "not there to participate in violence or rioting, nor did he condone such actions"; however, his social media posts belied this assertion. Posts included calls for people to "take this fucking country back ... [l]oad your guns and take to the streets". Philips died of a stroke. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that there was "no indication Philips himself participated in the raid on the Capitol." Phillips had started the social media site Trumparoo, intended for Trump supporters. A family member of Boyland spoke with WGCL-TV, opining that "the president's words incited a riot that killed four of his biggest fans last night".

There were calls for Trump to be prosecuted for inciting the violence that led to the five deaths, although it is not clear that the medical emergencies were due to violence. An article on Law & Crime discussed whether felony murder charges in relation to Babbitt's death could be brought against protesters, those who invaded the Capitol, or instigators of the rally. It concluded that such charges were very unlikely.

Threats against the lives of government officials

The rioters had made plans that included abducting and killing senior politicians, including Vice President Pence and Speaker Pelosi. Several rioters said they were seeking to hang Pence as a "traitor." Rioters were heard chanting "hang Pence."

Damage, theft, and impact

A damaged window in one of the rooms in the Capitol

Rioters stormed the offices of Nancy Pelosi, flipping tables and ripping photos from walls; the office of the Senate Parliamentarian was ransacked; art was looted; and urine and feces were tracked into several hallways. Windows were smashed throughout the building, leaving the floor littered with glass and debris. Some items of furniture were damaged, turned over, or stolen. One door had "MURDER THE MEDIA" scrawled onto it. Rioters damaged Associated Press recording and broadcasting equipment outside the Capitol after chasing away reporters. Rioters also destroyed a display honoring the life of congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis. A photo of Rep. Andy Kim, D-NJ, went viral, showing him cleaning the Rotunda after midnight following the attack.

The rioters caused extensive physical damage, with Capitol Police officers reporting that the building had been "trashed". The Office of the Architect of the Capitol (AOC), which maintains the Capitol and preserves its art and architecture, released an initial damage assessment on January 9. The AOC reported interior damage from the riot (specifically broken glass, broken doors, and graffiti), and also reported that some statues, paintings, and historic benches "displayed the residue of various pepper sprays, tear gas and fire extinguishers deployed by both rioters and law enforcement personnel." Items including a portrait of John Quincy Adams, a portrait of James Madison, and a marble statue of Thomas Jefferson were covered in "corrosive gas agent residue" and were sent to the Smithsonian for assessment and restoration. A 19th-century marble bust of President Zachary Taylor was defaced with what seemed to be blood, but the most important works in the Capitol collection, such as the John Trumbull paintings, escaped unharmed. On the Capitol's exterior, two 19th-century bronze light fixtures designed by Frederick Law Olmsted were damaged. Because the Capitol is not insured against loss, taxpayers will pay for the damage inflicted by the siege.

A laptop owned by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) was stolen, and the Justice Department noted in a briefing that "national security equities" may have been stolen. A laptop taken from Speaker Pelosi's office was "[a] laptop from a conference room ... that was only used for presentations", according to Pelosi's deputy chief of staff. Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) said "we have to do a full review of what was taken, or copied, or even left behind in terms of bugs and listening devices." Military news website SOFREP reported that "several" Secret-level laptops were stolen, some of which had been abandoned while still logged in to SIPRNet, causing authorities to temporarily shut down SIPRNet for a security update on January 7 and leading the United States Army Special Operations Command to re-authorize all SIPRNet-connected computers on January 8. Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) said in a statement that "[i]mages on social media and in the press of vigilantes accessing congressional computers are worrying" and that she had asked the Chief Administrative Officer of the House (CAO) "to conduct a full assessment of threats based on what transpired". The CAO said it was "providing support and guidance to House offices as needed".

Signs, flags, stickers, Nancy Pelosi's damaged nameplate, and other items left behind from the riot will be preserved as historical artifacts in the collections of the House and Senate and those of national museums.

ABC News reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) had recovered several improvised explosive devices that were intended to cause serious harm, and were looking at those in the mob that were trained perhaps in the military and more intent on causing serious harm, including harming Vice President Pence. ABC analyst and retired CIA officer Mick Mulroy said that the FBI would likely be conducting a full counterintelligence sweep on all those who participated in the assault to determine possible foreign intelligence ties, as these individuals may have taken sensitive information from the congressional offices they ransacked. The presence of several military veterans who took part in the assault has created growing concern among former military members.

Reactions

President Donald Trump

Actions during the riot

Donald Trump's statement during the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The video was originally posted on Twitter and shared on other social media before being removed from all platforms for violating various policies.

Trump, who had spent previous weeks promoting the "Saving America" rally, was "initially pleased" when his supporters breached the Capitol and refused to intercede, but also "expressed disgust on aesthetic grounds" over the "low class" appearance of the supporters involved in the rioting. Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) said that senior White House officials told him that Trump was "delighted" to hear that rioters were entering the Capitol. Staffers reported that Trump had been "impossible to talk to throughout the day," and that his inability to deal with his election loss and displeasure that his supporters were unsuccessful in overturning the result by force had, according to one staffer, made Trump "out of his mind." Concerned that Trump may have committed treason through his actions, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone reportedly advised administration officials to avoid contact with Trump and ignore any illegal orders that could further incite the storming to limit their prosecutorial liability under the Sedition Act of 1918.

Shortly after 2:00 p.m. EST, as the riot was ongoing and after senators had been evacuated from the Senate floor, Trump placed calls to Republican senators (first Mike Lee of Utah, then Tommy Tuberville of Alabama), asking them to make more objections to the counting of the electoral votes to try to overturn the election. At 2:47 p.m., as his supporters violently clashed with police at the Capitol, Trump tweeted, "Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!"

By 3:10 p.m., pressure was building on Trump to condemn supporters engaged in the riots; Trump's former communications director, Alyssa Farah, called upon him to "Condemn this now" and wrote "you are the only one they will listen to." By 3:25 p.m., Trump tweeted "I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue," but did not call upon the crowd to disperse. By 3:40 p.m., a number of congressional Republicans called upon Trump to more specifically condemn violence and to call on his supporters to end the occupation of the Capitol: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said that he had spoken to Trump to ask him to "calm individuals down"; Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) issued a tweet telling Trump that "it is crucial you help restore order by sending resources to assist the police and ask those doing this to stand down"; and Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI), in a video message, told Trump to "call it off". In contrast to Trump, who only called upon his supporters to "remain peaceful", Pence called for the occupation of the Capitol to end immediately.

By 3:50 p.m., White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that the National Guard and "other federal protective services" had been deployed. At 4:06 p.m. on national television, President-elect Biden called for President Trump to end the riot. At 4:22 p.m., Trump issued a video message on social media that was later taken down by Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. In it, he praised his supporters and repeated his claims of electoral fraud, saying: "This was a fraudulent election, but we can't play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You're very special. You've seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace."

At 6:25 p.m., Trump tweeted: "These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long" and then issued a call: "Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!"

At 7:00 p.m., Rudy Giuliani placed a second call to Lee's number and left a voicemail intended for Tuberville urging him to make more objections to the electoral votes as part of a bid "to try to just slow it down". Giuliani said: "I know they're reconvening at 8 tonight, but it ... the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow – ideally until the end of tomorrow."

Subsequent actions

Shortly after Congress certified Biden's victory, Trump's Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and Director of Social Media, Dan Scavino, issued a statement from Trump saying, "Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it's only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!"

In a video statement released on January 7, Trump condemned the violence at the Capitol, saying that "a new administration will be inaugurated", which was widely seen as a concession, and that his "focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power" to the Biden administration. Vanity Fair reported that Trump was at least partially convinced to do so by Sen. Lindsey Graham, who told Trump that a sufficient number of Senate Republicans would support removing him from office unless he conceded. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany had attempted to distance the administration from the rioters' behavior in a televised statement earlier in the day. On January 9, The New York Times reported that Trump had told White House aides that he regretted committing to an orderly transition of power and would not resign from office.

Trump's acknowledgment of his electoral defeat was met with opposition and hesitation from some of his supporters. Pro-Trump and far-right political commentators Nick Fuentes and Cassandra Fairbanks said Trump had "throw[n] his supporters under the bus" while QAnon conspiracy theorists performed a numerological reading of the time stamps in Trump's video statement and deemed there was a secret encoded message; Politico highlighted previously pro-Trump users of Parler calling Trump a "dildo".

Vice President Mike Pence

Trump Pence sign on city street corner smashed after storming of the Capitol

Pence tweeted at 3:35 p.m. on January 6, "This attack on our Capitol will not be tolerated and those involved will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law". He later spoke to the Senate when they reconvened on the night of January 6, saying, "Today was a dark day in the United States Capitol ... To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win. Violence never wins. Freedom wins. And this is still the People's House."

According to sources close to the vice president, Trump never reached out to Pence or inquired about his safety during the riot, even as protesters inside the Capitol were seeking him out and chanting “Where is Pence?” Aides believed that Pence was being set up as a scapegoat for Trump’s failure to overturn the results of the election. Pence was described as very angry with Trump, and as of January 9 the two had not spoken since the incident.

President-elect Joe Biden

External videos
Comments by President-elect Joe Biden, January 6, 2021, C-SPAN

On January 6 at 4:06 p.m., President-elect Joe Biden addressed the nation from Wilmington, Delaware, calling the events an insurrection and borderline sedition, and said that "our democracy is under unprecedented assault". He called upon Trump to go on national television and demand an end to the protests. The following day Biden said the attack constituted domestic terrorism.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris

Minutes after Biden's initial condemnation of the riots, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris reiterated the President-elect's comments, writing that the protests were an "assault on the Capitol and our nation's public servants".

Congress

Schumer's speech following the riot, during the reconvening of Congress later that evening

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell broke rank with the President and called the storming of the Capitol a "failed insurrection" and said "we are back at our posts, we will discharge our duty under the Constitution and for our nation. And we're going to do it tonight." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called upon Trump to "demand that all protesters leave the U.S. Capitol and Capitol Grounds immediately". Schumer, in his speech following the resuming of Senate business, labelled those participating in the storming of the Capitol as "domestic terrorists" whose actions will be a "stain on our country not so easily washed away". Pelosi later said, following her announcement that the electoral vote count would proceed during the evening of January 6, "let us pray that this instigation to violence will provide an epiphany for our country to heal".

First-year U.S. Representative Cori Bush (D-MO) tweeted her intent to introduce a resolution calling for the expulsion of "Republican members of Congress who have incited this domestic terror attack through their attempts to overturn the election".

Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) condemned the violence and described the events as a "coup attempt". Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), the Chair of the House Republican Conference (the third-ranking member of the House Republican leadership), said "No question the President formed the mob, the President incited the mob, the President addressed the mob. He lit the flame." Newly-sworn-in Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC), who had worked for the President's 2016 campaign, said that "everything that he's worked for ... all of that—his entire legacy—was wiped out" by the violence. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI) remarked of the riots that he had "not seen anything like this since I deployed to Iraq". Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who had planned to oppose the certification of the electoral vote, announced that she would no longer object to the Electoral College results after witnessing the "disgraceful and un-American" events of January 6. She was joined by senators Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), Steve Daines (R-MT), James Lankford (R-OK), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Mike Braun (R-IN), all of whom reversed course on the issue of contesting the electoral vote after witnessing the violence of the mob.

Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) said, "What happened at the U.S. Capitol today was an insurrection, incited by the President of the United States" and part of "an unprecedented attack on our democracy". Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) said, "This violence was the inevitable and ugly outcome of the president's addiction to constantly stoking division." Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) took to the Senate floor to say, "We saw bloodshed because a demagogue chose to spread falsehoods and sow distrust of his own fellow Americans." Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) said, "The President bears responsibility for today's events by promoting the unfounded conspiracy theories that have led to this point." Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) condemned the protest and said, "Violence is always unacceptable. Even when passions run high. Anyone engaged in violence—especially against law enforcement—should be fully prosecuted."

Cruz himself, as well as Senator Josh Hawley, were subsequently urged to resign by Senators Chris Coons (D-DE), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR). Criticism was also leveled against both senators for sending out fundraising messages while the events in Washington were unfolding. First-year U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO)—who, in another tweet, appeared to compare the events to the invasion of the British during the American Revolutionary War—also faced calls for expulsion from Congress and criminal prosecution after Twitter posts from her Twitter sent as House Representative and congressional staff were sheltering from the rioters surfaced, in which she disclosed that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had been escorted to the House chambers, a likely security risk as some rioters had intended to execute congresspersons and Vice President Pence.

Former presidents

All four living former presidents—Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter—denounced the storming of the Capitol, with Obama and Clinton condemning Trump for inciting the violence. Bush, who has infrequently commented on national matters since leaving office in 2009, released a statement saying "this is how election results are disputed in a banana republic – not our democratic republic," adding that he was "appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election and by the lack of respect shown today for our institutions, our traditions, and our law enforcement." Obama wrote that "History will rightly remember today's violence at the Capitol, incited by a sitting president ... as a moment of great dishonor and shame for our nation". He called the violence "unsurprising", arguing that the Republican Party had promoted a "fantasy narrative" regarding the 2020 election results that culminated in the violent outburst.

Other domestic reactions

Against rioters

William Barr, Trump's former attorney general, denounced the violence, calling it "outrageous and despicable," adding that the president's actions were a "betrayal of his office and supporters" and that "orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress is inexcusable." Trump's former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney urged the President to call a stop to the storming of the Capitol, and later resigned from his post as the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland. Jim Mattis, a former Marine general and Trump's first secretary of defense, and Tom Bossert, Trump's first homeland security adviser, condemned Trump for enabling the storming and destroying trust in the election.

Terry Gainer, a former chief of the U.S. Capitol Police and former Senate sergeant-at arms, described the protests as unprecedented in law enforcement, declaring that "this is a much more hateful crowd incited by the president himself. It's definitely something new in our business."

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley condemned the pro-Trump riot as "wrong and un-American" and, in a closed-door speech to Republican National Committee members the following day, criticized Trump's actions since Election Day. MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, called for the arrest of President Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Rudy Giuliani.

Former acting CIA director Michael Morell (2010–2013) said, "We should be calling what happened [on January 6] domestic terrorism." Similarly, national security expert Bruce Hoffman also determined that the attacks on the US Capitol constituted "domestic terrorism," as well.

Chuck Schumer said, "What happened at the US Capitol yesterday was an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president. This president should not hold office one day longer." Schumer called on Mike Pence to invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that enables power to be transferred from the president to the vice-president if the president is deemed incapable of handling duties.

Former New Jersey governor and Trump supporter Chris Christie was "absolutely sickened" by the riots. The Austrian-born former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger compared the riot to Nazi Germany's Kristallnacht ("night of broken glass") of 1938, saying, “The broken glass was in the windows of the United States Capitol, but the mob did not just shatter the windows of the Capitol, they shattered the ideas we took for granted. They didn’t just break down the doors of the building that housed American democracy, they trampled the very principles on which our country was founded.”

A number of U.S. foreign service and civil service officers used the State Department's "dissent channel" to request use of the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, saying that "Failing to publicly hold the president to account would further damage our democracy and our ability to effectively accomplish our foreign policy goals abroad."

Support for rioters

The New York Times reported that Trump supporters in Congress, the media, and in conservative politics "downplayed the violence as acts of desperation by people who felt lied to by the news media and ignored by their elected representatives". Others asserted the violence was actually caused by people associated with antifa. ABC News reported that conservative media outlets were clear that "the violence was indefensible", and that several conservative media outlets said that "liberal politicians and mainstream media outlets are more outraged when Trump supporters are violent than they were about civil rights demonstrations last summer", with Newsmax calling out the "hypocritical double standard on Trump vs. BLM protests".

Ivanka Trump, the president's eldest daughter, was criticized for addressing the rioters as "American patriots" in a now-deleted tweet publicly urging the cessation of violence.

Conservative media hosts—including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Greg Kelly, and Mark Levin—also sought to deflect responsibility from Trump supporters. Sinclair Broadcast Group provided a video segment to its owned and operated television stations in over 100 markets in which correspondent James Rosen reported "far-left infiltrators" had been involved, though he did not provide a source for the assertion. Right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh compared the rioters to the Founding Fathers of the United States. Lou Dobbs criticized Capitol police for drawing guns "on American citizens, most of whom are patriots." Television host Pete Hegseth defended the rioters, saying "they just love freedom" and that "people feel like the entire system is rigged against them".

Members of the far-right group Proud Boys posted messages boasting and taking credit for causing "absolute terror". The sergeant-at-arms of the Republican Party of Texas was removed from his post after expressing support for the rioters on Facebook.

False flag conspiracy theories

Some Trump loyalists claimed that the incident was a false flag operation staged by antifa to implicate Trump supporters. In an apparent effort to shift blame for any violence on antifa, leaders of the Proud Boys had requested in posts on conservative-leaning microblogging service Parler that members of the extremist group attend the rally incognito wearing "all black" clothing synonymous with anti-fascist activists. Facial recognition company XR Vision denied a report by Rowan Scarborough published in The Washington Times that its products had identified participants in the incursion as antifa activists, which was promoted by Fox News host Laura Ingraham and Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and went viral among Trump supporters. The Washington Times removed the story from its website hours later and published a retraction. Similar false accusations of antifa false flag operations had circulated among Trump supporters since 2017. The FBI said there was no evidence of antifa involvement in the mob incursion.

Some far-right people forcefully condemned those who said it is a false flag, hailing the storming as a great achievement for them and told them to own it.

Opinion polling

A YouGov poll of 1,397 registered voters found that overall, 71% opposed the storming of the Capitol (while 21% supported it), and 62% believed that the storming should be considered a threat to democracy. Among Republicans, 45% of Republicans supported the storming, with 43% opposed. In contrast, 96% of Democrats and 67% of independents were opposed. Fifty-two percent of Republicans blamed Joe Biden for the incident.

An Ipsos poll of 1,005 adults conducted between January 7–8, 2021, found that 70% of Americans disapproved of Trump's actions leading up to the assault on the Capitol, and 57% of Americans wanted Trump to be immediately removed for his role in the riots. 70% of respondents—including two-thirds of Republicans and Trump voters surveyed—described the participants as either "criminals" or "fools," 9% saw them as "concerned citizens" and 5% saw them as "patriots." Among 339 Trump voters surveyed, 70% opposed the storming by the rioting supporters, while 12% of all respondents supported their actions.

A PBS NewsHour/Marist poll of 875 adults conducted on January 7, 2021, found that 18% of Republicans supported the riots. Generally, 88% of all respondents opposed or strongly opposed the rioters' actions, and 90% believed the perpetrators of the riot should face prosecution (with 17% of Republicans disagreeing); 63% of respondents felt Trump held "a great deal or good amount of blame" for the attack, while 69% of surveyed Republicans believed Trump bore "little or no fault." Support for Trump's removal from office was split, with 48% supporting it and 49% (including 51% of independent voters) opposed.

Media coverage and criticism

Coverage of the storming of the Capital—which preempted regular daytime and prime time programming scheduled for January 6 on ABC, NBC and CBS—gave CNN its most-watched day in its 40-year history, with its daytime coverage netting an average of 8.97 million viewers (vs. 5.74 million for Fox News, 5.59 million for MSNBC, 4.85 million for ABC and 3.7 million for CBS) and its prime time coverage topping out at 8.20 million viewers (vs. 7.38 million for MSNBC, 5.77 million for NBC, 4.88 million for ABC, 4.58 million for Fox News and 2.57 million for CBS).

On January 7, David Bauder of the Associated Press wrote, "Media outlets that appeal to conservatives offered condemnations, explanations and deflections following the U.S. Capitol riot by President Donald Trump's supporters...but little introspection". Erik Wemple, a writer for The Washington Post, criticized Fox News conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson for what Wemple perceived as a "racist, riotous double standard" in his coverage of the storming compared to his coverage of the killing of George Floyd.

Karen Attiah, another writer for The Washington Post, argued that Western media would have reacted differently to the storming if it happened outside the United States. Grady McGregor and Naomi Xu Elegant, writers for Fortune, criticized Chinese state media reports for using the storming to promote an anti-Hong Kong protest, antidemocratic, and anti-United States narrative.

Oliver Darcy, a writer for CNN Business, suggested that multichannel television providers should be held to equal accountability as social media companies for promoting disinformation through their carriage of conservative news/opinion channels like Fox News, Newsmax TV and One America News Network (OAN). On the January 8 edition of his eponymous Fox News program, Tucker Carlson falsely claimed that CNN "announced [through the opinion piece] that it is working to force the Fox News Channel off the air and run [the network] out of business," and that CNN staff had contacted five providers cited by Darcy as examples—CenturyLink Residential, Verizon Fios, Comcast, Charter Communications, Dish Network and CNN parent AT&T (which owns U-verse, AT&T TV and DirecTV)—about having Fox News removed from their lineups.

International reaction

Main article: International reactions to the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol

Over 70 other countries and international organizations expressed their concerns over the protests and condemned the violence, with some specifically condemning Trump's own role in inciting the attack. Multiple world leaders have made a call for peace, describing the riots as "an attack on democracy". The leaders of Brazil, Mexico, Poland, Hungary and Russia declined to condemn the situation, and described it as an internal U.S. affair.

Many media outlets worldwide described the storming as "anarchy", including British newspaper i and Canadian newspaper Ottawa Sun.

Aftermath

Criticism of the Capitol Police

Pro-Trump protesters around the Capitol on the evening of January 6

Law enforcement's failure to prevent the mob from breaching the Capitol attracted scrutiny to the Capitol Police and other police agencies involved. The Capitol Police, which has jurisdiction over an area of around two square miles, is one of the largest and best-funded police forces in the United States, with around 2,000 officers, an annual budget of more than $460 million, access to a substantial arsenal, and extensive experience of responding to protests and high-profile events; it has more than tripled in size since 1996. Prior to the storming of the Capitol, the barriers erected were low and most officers were in regular uniforms rather than riot gear, aimed at managing a protest rather than deterring an attack. Policing experts criticized the Capitol Police's preparation and initial response, stating that the agency had underestimated the potential threat from Trump supporters; unwisely allowed rioters to gather on the Capitol steps; and failed to immediately arrest the rioters, or otherwise respond to the disorder, after the forced entry.

The Washington Post reported that the Capitol Police were caught off guard by an overwhelming crowd whose size more than doubled the FBI's prediction and that the police lacked enough personnel to immediately detain all the intruders; the Post further noted that "some officers were captured on video appearing to stand back as rioters streamed inside." Some of the shortfall in staffing was attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, with officers who were quarantined after being infected with or exposed to the COVID-19 virus. Police units were not asked by management to bring protective equipment (such as gas masks) that were issued to them, which left officers ill prepared to fend off the rioters—among them, a "heavily trained group of militia terrorists" armed with bear spray and stun grenades and equipped with two-way radios and earpieces—and some having to resort to engaging in hand-to-hand combat to defend themselves.

Footage emerged on social media of police allowing rioters through barricades into the Capitol, and one officer was filmed taking a "selfie" with a rioter inside the building. Representative Jim Cooper (D-TN) was concerned that Capitol Police could have been complicit in the breach, saying "At worst, [Capitol Police] let this protest proceed unlike any other". Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who chairs a committee responsible for Capitol security, said Capitol Police chief Steven Sund lied to her before the event about the preparations he had made and the readiness of the National Guard. Multiple European security officials, including two intelligence officials from NATO member countries, in interviews with Business Insider suggested the breach may have been abetted by "tacit support" of the attackers among members of Capitol Police and other federal agencies assisting with Capitol complex security. Politico reported some rioters briefly showing their police badges or military identification to law enforcement as they approached the Capitol, expecting therefore to be let inside; a Capitol Police officer told BuzzFeed News that one rioter told him "[w]e're doing this for you" as he flashed a badge. Ed Davis, the former commissioner of the Boston Police Department, suggested Capitol Police leaders may have felt "that well, these are a bunch of conservatives, they’re not going to do anything like [the ensuing riot]", leading to "a lack of urgency or a sense that this could never happen with this crowd".

Representative Tim Ryan (D-OH), the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch (which has budgetary authority over the Capitol Police), announced that he would begin an inquiry into security lapses that allowed the violent mob to overrun the Capitol and breach into the legislative chambers. Ryan indicated that he expected some officers in the Capitol Police to be fired, and cited a "lack of professional planning and dealing" and "strategic mistakes" ahead of "the insurrection and the attempted coup".

On MSNBC's Morning Joe programming the morning of January 7th, host Joe Scarborough reacted to the Capitol Police response by exclaiming that they "opened the fucking doors for them!" MSNBC is not regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, so the network was not fined or punished for Scarborough's use of profanity; however, it is uncommon for any prominent station to not censor any of the "seven dirty words".

On January 8, the Senate Rules and Administration Committee and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee launched a joint investigation into the Capitol Police's security failures. The law enforcement failures that allowed the storming of the Capitol led the U.S. Secret Service to initiate a review of its security plans for the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20, 2021.

Accusations of differential treatment

Police officers before the storming

News outlets fact-checked and described harsher tactics and differential treatment of racial injustice protests in D.C. during the prior summer by law enforcement compared to those used against the protesters who stormed the Capitol. The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia "arrested more than five times as many people at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests last summer" than during the 2021 Capitol protests. Protestors who were arrested tended to be charged with less serious crimes than those arrested in racial injustice protests.

The tone, vocabulary, and tactics used by Trump and the White House were highlighted by news outlets. Trump referred to racial injustice protestors as "'thugs,' 'agitators' and 'looters'" and threatened violence but expressed his "love" for the Capitol protestors. In 2020, Trump had encouraged states' governors to more aggressively target protesters and used violent rhetoric such as "when the looting starts, the shooting starts". News outlets noted how the White House had used forceful tactics to clear protestors for Trump's photo op at St. John's Episcopal Church but did not employ similar tactics during the Capitol protest. Similarly, Capitol Police responded aggressively to disabled protesters associated with ADAPT in 2017. During 2020, Trump ordered tough federal law enforcement responses to racial injustice protestors in Washington DC.

Multiple media outlets covered posts from users on social media which made claims that due to white privilege and male privilege, the police treated the protesters with more leniency than they would people of color or disabled individuals, with many citing a moment when a police officer took a selfie with a protester.

Many news outlets, including CNN, USA Today, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and CBS News, criticized the police response to the storming of the Capitol in contrast to the police response to the Black Lives Matter protests in the previous year. In June 2020, during Black Lives Matter demonstrations, 5,000 National Guard members guarded the White House; however, in an attempt to avoid inflaming tensions since those protests, Mayor Muriel Bowser opted not to call National Guard members from other states for the January 6 demonstrations, causing the law enforcement presence to be "relatively small" and "not prepared for rioters".

Politicians and officials commented on the differential treatment as well. Joe Biden said, "No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, there wouldn't have been – they would have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol". Representative Tim Ryan, former First Lady Michelle Obama, and D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine all noted the differential treatment. Citing disparities in the use of force when compared to recent Black Lives Matter protests, first-year Representative Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) proposed legislation to investigate whether members of the Capitol Police have ties to white supremacist groups.

Resignations

Ken Cuccinelli, acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, touring the Capitol after the attack to survey damage

The day after the attack, Pelosi called upon Capitol Police chief Steven Sund to resign, citing a failure of leadership, and said she had been unable to reach Sund since the attack. Sund announced his resignation that day, submitting a letter to the Capitol Police Board saying the resignation was effective January 16. However, on January 8, Sund resigned with immediate effect.

Also on the day after the attack, the resignation of Paul D. Irving, Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Representatives, was announced. Chuck Schumer said he would fire Michael C. Stenger, Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, upon becoming majority leader later in January. Shortly thereafter, outgoing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell asked for and received Stenger's resignation, effective immediately.

Criminal investigation and prosecutions

On January 7, Michael R. Sherwin, the interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, said rioters could be charged with seditious conspiracy or insurrection. He said any Capitol Police officer found to have assisted the rioters would be charged, and he further suggested that Trump could be investigated for comments he made to his supporters before they stormed the Capitol and that others who "assisted or facilitated or played some ancillary role" in the events could also be investigated. The day after the storming of the Capitol, the FBI and D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department requested the public for assistance to identify any of the rioters.

Also on January 7, Representative Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that any rioter who entered the Capitol building should be added to the federal No-Fly List.

Notable charges

On January 8, federal prosecutors announced charges against 13 people in connection with the Capitol riot. They included a 70-year-old resident of Falkville, Alabama, who allegedly parked a pickup truck two blocks from the Capitol containing 11 homemade incendiary devices (described as "Mason jars filled with homemade napalm" in court filings), an M4 assault rifle, and a handgun.

Another arrested rioter from Georgia allegedly brought a compact Tavor X95 assault rifle, two handguns, a "vial of injectable testosterone", and about 100 rounds of "armor-piercing" ammunition. He allegedly texted acquaintances that he was "gonna run that cunt Pelosi over while she chews on her gums" or "[put] a bullet in her noggin on [l]ive TV", adding that he "predict[s] that within 12 days, many in our country will die" and later texting a photo of himself in blackface. He had previously protested outside of Georgia governor Brian Kemp's home.

A 60-year-old man from Gravette, Arkansas, who was photographed at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's desk during the storming of the Capitol was arrested on January 8 on federal charges of entering and remaining on restricted grounds, violent entry, and theft of public property.

Trump administration resignations

Matthew Pottinger, the Deputy National Security Advisor; Stephanie Grisham, the chief of staff for First Lady Melania Trump; Sarah Matthews, the White House Deputy Press Secretary; and Anna Cristina "Rickie" Niceta Lloyd, the White House Social Secretary, resigned in protest on the day of the storming of the Capitol. CNN reported that evening that several Trump aides were considering resigning, including Robert O'Brien and Chris Liddell.

The next day, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao became the first cabinet member to announce her resignation, effective January 11. She was followed by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who also cited the Capitol Hill incident. Mick Mulvaney, Trump's former chief of staff and the administration's special envoy to Northern Ireland; and Eric Dreiband, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, announced their resignations as well. Upon his exit, Mulvaney said, "I can't do it. I can't stay ... Those who choose to stay, and I have talked with some of them, are choosing to stay because they're worried the President might put someone worse in." He also said Trump "wasn't the same as he was eight months ago." Five senior officials at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) resigned in protest.

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) criticized DeVos and Chao for resigning rather than voting to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.

Proposals to remove Trump via constitutional processes

Main article: 2021 efforts to remove Donald Trump from office

Representative Adam Kinzinger (Illinois's 16th district) became the first Republican lawmaker to call for Trump to be removed via 25th Amendment.

Politicians

The Democratic leaders in Congress—Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi—called upon Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, indicating that they would pursue impeachment of Trump for a second time if he did not. Pelosi said Trump "incited an armed insurrection against America" and instigated "the gleeful desecration of the U.S. Capitol [and] violence targeting Congress". The never-before-invoked provision of the 25th Amendment allows the vice president, with a majority of Cabinet secretaries, to declare Trump "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office" by written declaration. On January 8, Pelosi also spoke to Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about precautions to prevent Trump, who she described as "unhinged" and "unstable", from initiating military hostilities or accessing the Gold Codes to launch nuclear weapons.

As of January 8, 199 representatives and 38 Senators have called for the invocation of the 25th Amendment or Trump's impeachment and removal from office in inciting the riot. All were Democrats (including two independent Senators who caucus with the Democrats, Angus King (ME) and Bernie Sanders (VT)), except for a sole Republican, U.S. Representative Adam Kinzinger (IL). Among Senate Republicans, only three have expressed support for removing Trump from office. Lisa Murkowski (AK) called for Trump to resign. Ben Sasse (NE) said he would consider articles of impeachment from the House and that "the president has disregarded his oath of office." Pat Toomey (PA) said he thought "the President committed impeachable offenses," and later called on Trump to resign. President-elect Biden did not take a position on a prospective fast-track impeachment of Trump, saying the matter is for Congress to decide.

Among Democratic governors, calls for Trump to step down or be removed from office were made by J. B. Pritzker (IL), Andrew Cuomo (NY), Roy Cooper (NC), and Jay Inslee (WA). Three Republican governors who have been critical of Trump—Phil Scott (VT), Charlie Baker (MA), and Larry Hogan (MD)—also called upon Trump to resign or be removed from office. Conversely, two other Republican governors expressed opposition to Trump's removal: Henry McMaster (SC), who is closely allied with Trump, and Mike DeWine (OH), who opposed invocation of the 25th Amendment, saying that he believed it "would cause more division than healing" and because there were less than two weeks remaining in Trump's term.

Calls for Trump to be prosecuted for inciting the crowd to storm the Capitol also were made in the aftermath of the event. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said, "We saw an unprecedented attack on our American democracy incited by the United States president. He must be held accountable. His constant and divisive rhetoric led to the abhorrent actions we saw today."

Media and other organizations

Yoni Appelbaum of The Atlantic called for the impeachment of Trump a second time. Several conservative commentators, including Rod Dreher, Daniel Larison, and John Podhoretz, expressed their support for the impeachment and removal of Trump. The conservative editorial board of The Wall Street Journal wrote that Trump's behavior in the incident "crosses a constitutional line that Mr. Trump hasn't previously crossed. It is impeachable" and that the "best outcome would be for him to resign." Calling the armed storming of the Capitol an "act of sedition", The Washington Post's editorial board wrote that Trump's "continued tenure in office poses a grave threat to U.S. democracy" as well as to public order and national security, and called for Pence to immediately begin the 25th Amendment process to declare Trump "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office" so that Pence could serve until Biden's inauguration on January 20.

The National Association of Manufacturers also requested Pence to "seriously consider" invoking the 25th Amendment. On the evening of January 6, some Cabinet members held preliminary discussions about the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment to declare Trump "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office" and thus transfer his powers and duties to Pence as acting president.

On the evening of January 10, the Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA) rescinded the holding of the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in Bedminster, New Jersey, which had been awarded in 2014, a year before Trump announced his candidacy. In a video statement, PGA president Jim Richerson said "it has become clear that conducting the PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster would be detrimental to the PGA of America brand". Trump had spent years trying to land a golf championship.

Potential spread of COVID-19

Further information: COVID-19 pandemic in Washington, D.C.

Public health experts have said that the storming of the Capitol was a potential COVID-19 superspreader event. Few members of the crowd wore face coverings, with many coming from out of town, and few of the rioters were immediately detained and identified. First-year U.S. Representative Jacob LaTurner (R-KS) tested positive for COVID-19 after the lockdown was lifted on the evening of January 6, and, as a result, was absent from the House floor when the Electoral College certification resumed. As many as 200 congressional staffers reportedly sheltered in various rooms inside the Capitol, further increasing the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

Brian P. Monahan, the attending physician of Congress, reported that members of Congress who "were in protective isolation in room located in a large committee hearing space" during the mob's attack, some for several hours, may have been exposed to others with SARS-CoV-2; Monahan advised members to take protective measures, monitor for symptoms, and take a precautionary PT-PCR test. A video of members of Congress sheltering in place shows a group of maskless Republicans, including Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Michael Cloud (R-TX), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), and Scott Perry (R-PA), refusing masks offered by Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE); Blunt Rochester later wrote that she was "disappointed in my colleagues who refused to wear a mask" but "encouraged by those who did."

Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and lead member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said in an interview with WJLA-TV that the rioters "probably put themselves at an increased risk because they essentially did not adhere to the fundamentals of public health" to prevent the spread of COVID-19, such as "universal wearing of masks, keeping physical distance, [and] avoiding crowds in congregate settings." The day after the storming of the Capitol, Eric Toner, a senior scholar from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said the storming of the Capitol was "extraordinarily dangerous" from a public-health perspective. American neo-Nazi and white supremacist activist Tim "Baked Alaska" Gionet participated in the day's events, including storming the Capitol, despite a recent COVID-19 diagnosis.

Social media crackdowns on conspiracies and incendiary content

See also: Twitter suspensions

The role of social media in the storming of the Capitol created pressure for platforms to strengthen enforcement of moderation policies prohibiting extremist content to prevent further violence. This risked furthering and renewed accusations that such policies promote an implicit ideological bias by limiting the expression of conservative political and social viewpoints through controversial or false statements. The First Amendment, however, only restricts government-sanctioned limits on speech, and its protections do not apply to private entities and to obscene or defamatory speech.

Sanctions against individual accounts

Shortly after Trump's January 6 video message was uploaded, the video was removed by Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for violating site policies on "civil integrity" and election misinformation. Facebook executive Guy Rosen said the video was removed because "it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence." That evening, Twitter locked Trump's account for twelve hours and threatened a permanent suspension for "repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy." Twitter also required him to remove three of his tweets. Snapchat indefinitely suspended Trump's account on the platform the same day, while Shopify terminated shops that sold Trump campaign paraphernalia and merchandise from his personal TrumpStore brand. The following day, Facebook and its platforms, including Instagram, announced they had banned Trump indefinitely, at least until the end of his presidential term. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote, "The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor." On January 7, Twitch announced it had disabled Trump's channel on the platform. TikTok—which Trump has unsuccessfully tried to ban in the U.S. on alleged national security concerns—announced it would restrict videos of the Capitol attack and Trump’s January 6 address, other than those providing factual information, criticism or journalistic value under "counter speech" exceptions to its community guidelines, and redirect hashtags like #stormthecapitol and #patriotparty that were used by rioters and rally attendees to glorify the attack to reduce their discoverability. Pinterest began limiting hashtags related to pro-Trump topics such as #StopTheSteal since around the November election.

On January 8, Twitter permanently suspended Trump "due to the risk of further incitement of violence" from his tweets, citing the interpretable context of two posts from that day in which he claimed the approximately 75 million "great American Patriots" who voted for him in the 2020 election "will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!" and confirmed he would not attend Biden's January 20 inauguration. The company noted it was aware that "plans for future armed protests [had] already begun proliferating on and off-Twitter, including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17, 2021" and that there were "multiple indicators that [Trump's recent tweets] are being received and understood as encouragement to do so." In addition to blocking his main account @realdonaldtrump, the ban applied to the official presidential account, @POTUS (which, because of its government-run status, was kept active as Twitter planned to transfer it to the incoming Biden administration), and his campaign's account, @TeamTrump, subjecting any subsequent posts to deletion; as well as to sock puppet accounts created specifically for him to evade the ban, which would be permanently suspended "at first detection."

Circumventing the ban, Trump blasted Twitter's decision in threads posted on the latter two accounts that evening, accusing the platform without evidence of "coordinat[ing] with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing [his main] account;" suggesting a "big announcement" of a new social platform intended for him and his supporters; and uploading an image of Twitter's bird logo emblazoned with the Soviet flag to decry perceived censorship of his speech. Twitter removed the thread post from @POTUS and suspended @TeamTrump entirely for repeated violations of its block evasion policy through both accounts; it subsequently suspended the account of Trump campaign digital director Gary Coby, who, in an apparent attempt to let Trump to use it as a sock puppet, tried to forward his account information—attached with his unchanged eponym handle—to Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino via tweet after Coby changed his avatar to a photo of Trump formerly used on the president's disabled main account and his account name to "Donald J. Trump."

Twitter also banned accounts deemed to be "solely dedicated to sharing QAnon content," including those belonging to former national security adviser Michael Flynn and his son Michael Flynn Jr., attorneys Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood (both of whom brought failed lawsuits challenging the election results), and 8chan co-administrator Ron Watkins. Using the aforementioned talking points about speech on social media long levied by conservatives, several allies and notable supporters of Trump—including son Donald Trump Jr.; congresspersons Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA); Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley; and actors James Woods and Kirstie Alley—accused Twitter of free speech violations and perceived liberal bias for removing Trump and other prominent conservatives from the platform; Russian pro-democracy leader Alexei Navalny called the ban an “unacceptable act of censorship.” and noted that autocratic and kleptocratic political leaders such as Navalny adversary Vladimir Putin, Nicholas Maduro and Dmitry Medvedev remain on the platform despite being accused of committing extrajudicial killings, torture and corruption.

Also on January 8, Discord banned a pro-Trump server called "The Donald", which had ties to the banned subreddit r/The Donald. Discord cited the connection between the server and The Donald's online forum, which was used in planning the riot. Parler removed several posts from Wood espousing conspiracy theories and violent rhetoric, including a call for Vice President Pence and others to be subjected to firing squads, for violating community rules on speech encouraging violence. YouTube terminated two accounts belonging to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, including one hosting his "War Room" podcast, for repeated community guidelines violations pertaining to misinformation about widespread fraud or errors that affected the 2020 election's outcome.

Sanctions against platforms

Citing complaints that some of its users (including members of the Proud Boys) coordinated the storming of the Capitol through the microblogging service, on January 8, Apple sent notice to the owners of Parler—which markets itself as a "pro-free-speech" platform with a userbase predominantly consisting of Trump supporters, conservatives, far-right extremists and conspiracy theorists—that its iOS and iPadOS apps would be removed from the App Store within 24 hours unless Parler implemented a more robust content moderation policy; following Trump's ban from Twitter, Parler downloads on the App Store increased 281% over the day prior (210,000 vs. 55,000 on January 7), jumping it from #18 to #1 on the marketplace's app download charts.

The same day, Parler's Android app was removed from the Google Play Store; Google noted was aware of "continued posting in the Parler app that seeks to incite ongoing violence in the US". Apple followed suit on January 9, stating Parler's moderation procedures toward violence-inciting speech were insufficient. After employee group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice called on the company to terminate web hosting of the platform, on January 9, Amazon Web Services announced that it would remove Parler from its cloud servers effective the evening of January 10; this will result in Parler's complete shutdown, unless the platform can find another hosting service before it is removed from Amazon's servers. Amazon said it had sent reports of 98 instances, along with screenshots provided of several examples, of posts that "clearly encourage and incite violence" to Parler in the weeks preceding the decision.

Security measures

Following the storming of the Capitol and increased incidents of harassment, members of Congress will receive additional security as they travel through airports. Additionally, as precautions following the storming, the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Baltimore-Washington International Airport, and Dulles International Airport will receive security from the Capitol Police during Inauguration Day.

Following the storming, security was heightened at the Capitol. A "non-scalable" security fence was placed around the Capitol and 6,200 members of the National Guard were deployed to the national capital region. The National Guard units assigned to the Capital will have access to lethal force through January 20.

Events outside Washington, D.C.

State capitols

Multiple U.S. state capitols closed for safety reasons after the storming of the U.S. Capitol. Several states also experienced protests and riots.

Eleven people were arrested in Sacramento, California, for illegal possession of pepper spray. No injuries were reported, but there was at least one reported assault. Several roads were closed in downtown Sacramento and some bus lines were stopped, with over 200 police assigned to the demonstration. Some members of the crowd wore t-shirts supporting the far-right Proud Boys. Militia members in Georgia also attempted to storm the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, leading to the evacuation of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and other officials. By about 3:15 p.m on January 6, 2021, it was reported that the majority of the demonstration had disbanded outside of the Georgia Capitol. Protests took place inside the Kansas State Capitol. A Capitol police officer said protesters were allowed in the rotunda, as they had a permit to protest there.

Trump supporters and police at the Texas State Capitol on January 6

A peaceful "Storm the Capitol" rally in St. Paul, Minnesota, was met by about 30 Minnesota State Patrol troopers and did not breach the state capitol. Demonstrators then marched to the governor's residence. The protesters cheered upon learning that rioters in Washington had entered the U.S. Capitol. Protesters in Lincoln, Nebraska, gathered outside the state capitol during the opening of the new session of the Nebraska Legislature. Protesters and counter-protesters demonstrated at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. One brief violent incident was reported. The Oklahoma State Capitol in Oklahoma City was the site of another protest. One arrest was made on charges of attempted arson as well as assault and battery for attempting to light other people's flags on fire. The protest numbered in the hundreds and was otherwise peaceful. There were also arrests in Salem after hundreds gathered outside the Oregon State Capitol. A crowd also formed in Carson City, Nevada. In Indianapolis approximately 100 people, including many members of the Proud Boys, gathered at the Indiana Statehouse; the Indiana crowd was peaceful.

Two Tennessee lawmakers held a prayer rally at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. The crowd numbered roughly 150. Protesters in Olympia, Washington, some of whom were armed, made their way onto the front lawn of the Washington Governor's Mansion at the Washington State Capitol Campus.

Other U.S. cities

Several hundred protesters gathered outside the Ahern Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The protest extended onto Las Vegas Boulevard as protesters marched to the Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse. There were also protests in the Los Angeles area, including at the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters downtown; as well as in Beverly Hills and in Newport Beach. An incident was reported of a protester spraying a counter-protester with a chemical irritant. During the Los Angeles protests, a mob of 30 to 40 Trump supporters physically assaulted a black woman who was walking down the street while shouting racial slurs and chanting "All Lives Matter" while shoving, striking, spraying with pepper spray, and ripping off her hair extensions.

International

Internationally, Trump's allegations of a "stolen" election found a small audience among conspiracy theorists and fringe groups. In Canada, a few dozen people rallied in support of Trump in Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary. At the Vancouver rally, CBC photojournalist Ben Nelms was assaulted by one of the demonstrators. In Japan, a few hundred people rallied in support of Trump in Tokyo, with several people carrying the U.S. flag and the Rising Sun Flag, a controversial symbol in East Asia due to its association with Japanese imperialism. The gathering in Tokyo was backed by Happy Science, a new religious movement that has been described as a cult, and took place several hours before the rally in Washington, D.C.

See also

• Democratic backsliding
• 2020–21 United States election protests
• List of incidents of political violence in Washington, D.C.
• Republican reactions to Donald Trump's claims of 2020 election fraud

External links

• US Capitol stormed, collected news and commentary. BBC News Online.
• Save America rally speeches (video)
• FBI Seeking Information Related to Violent Activity at the U.S Capitol Building – FBI