We know what it looked like, how it felt, but we do not have the full story.
However, some worrying details are beginning to emerge. When Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf resigned, CNN reported Monday that the FBI had received information indicating that “armed protests” were planned at all 50 state capitals and at the U.S. capital in Washington, DC. Capitol police officers are being investigated for their behavior during the riot; two were suspended.
So was the Capitol storm a spontaneous event, or was it part of something more orchestrated?
There is growing evidence to justify deep concern, and urgent investigations could face barricades of stone walls.
Yet it is imperative that we find out what exactly happened on January 6, and what can still play out. It requires a two-level investigation at two speeds.
First, the FBI and law enforcement agencies need to track down the instigators and keep going and determine what may remain on their agenda in the coming days. This is particularly urgent because the day after the assault, when President Donald Trump finally agreed to a peaceful transfer of power, in a video recorded in the White House and about which he allegedly expressed ‘regret’, he told his supporters said. “Our incredible journey is only just beginning. ‘
Separately, Congress must establish a dual committee to pull each thread and see what unravels.
The generally accepted version of what played out is that a mass of passionate Trump followers gathered on the day that Congress would confirm Biden’s election victory. After Trump and his proxies fueled their anger over the legitimate election results in a fiery frenzy, they apparently followed his orders and went to the Capitol. There, the Capitol police could not stop them. According to this story, the failure of law enforcement was the result of a mixture of lack of preparation, poor communication, race of the perpetrators and possibly sympathy for the rioters among some who had to stop them.
But is this an accurate account of what happened?
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the day’s events is the failure of the national army to respond quickly. The timeline is amazing.
During a rally held the night before the riot, participants heard former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn say Americans were willing to “bleed” for freedom. Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani campaigned on Wednesday for ‘trial by a fight’ to settle the election. Then came Trump’s instructions: “fight like hell.” Following Trump’s speech and his false promise to join them, they storm the Capitol.
According to a Wall Street Journal reconstruction, several officers were injured on Wednesday at 13:18. At 13:41 a warning from the “Broken Arrow” went out in the city and reported the rioters had overtaken the police. By 3 p.m., The Wall Street Journal reported that at least three key officials had urgently sought support from the National Guard, Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, and Police Chief Steven Sund, who have since resigned.
Details of their talks reveal growing anxiety and bewilderment as the Pentagon has failed to approve and deploy troops. Sund told The Washington Post that he pleaded, “I make an urgent, urgent immediate request for help from the National Guard,” he begged, “I need to get boots on the ground.”
At the same time, Hogan was trying to get the Pentagon to approve the deployment of Maryland’s guard, but like Sund, he says the urgent request was provided with unexplained delays.
Sund told The Washington Post he asked six separate times. Hogan, who approved the Maryland deployment, told CNN it takes two hours to get the necessary authorization.
With the deaths of people in the chaos of the Capitol, the troops were nowhere to be found. Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt, the director of military personnel, allegedly disputed Sund’s report and said in a statement Monday that the authority to activate the national guard about 40 minutes after the start of a conference call between officials around 14:20 took place. , when the first national guard personnel arrived on the scene only at 17:40. When the mob retreated, four people lay dead, and one Capitol police officer was so seriously injured that he died the next day.
What happened? Why did it take so long for help to arrive?
Many have accurately noted that protests against social justice at Black Lives Matter are much tighter, but one historian who has watched several protests on Capitol Hill says he has seen more security in
other pro-Trump demonstrations. Is the Capitol deliberately underprotected?
According to Mr. Jim Clyburn, some rioters, were inside
straight to his office, which is not marked. “It indicated to me that something was wrong,” he told CNN.
Investigators must answer questions as to why Trump and Giuliani called senators amid the assault and asked to try to delay the vote on confirming Biden’s victory. Giuliani said it was because he wanted the process to be delayed “so we can get these legislators to get more information to you.” But should something more have happened in the aftermath of the occupation of the Capitol?
If the rampage was nothing more than a spontaneous protest spinning out of control, why did some of the men occupying the Capitol wear bundles of buoys, the plastic restraints the police used to detain suspects?
If it was all an unplanned demonstration that came off the rails, why did authorities discover pipe bombs in the area?
And what about the truck, parked two blocks from the Capitol and with 11 homemade bombs built in such a way that the federal investigators said if exploded would have the effect of Napalm? Court documents say the explosive-filled mason jars and supplies now packed could make a ‘destructive device’. Authorities say other participants brought guns and hundreds of ammunition with ammunition.
There is no doubt that Trump tried to overthrow the legitimate, democratic outcome of the election. His followers believed they would stand him in good stead to succeed. But we need to know if their attack on the citadel of American democracy was the result of overflowing emotion, or if it was something sinister. Something even worse than what we saw in the images that will remain engraved in the country’s collective memory. Something that will not end with a Trump accusation.
